# TROPHEUS > new pics and vid post 144 + 155



## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

this thread is to share pictures and discuss tropheus


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

*any local tropheus keepers?*

Ive got a bunch of chipimbi tropheus. They got lots of personality. They are about 2 inches now. I know tropheus are herbivores but mine eat whatever goes in the tank. I do feed them spirulina based food in the morning. Cant wait for them to breed


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

i would like to be


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## jordonsmum (Mar 1, 2011)

I have a colony of red moliros. I love em but need to get them into a tank in a better location than my diningroom. I'd like to see more of them.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

nice fish for sure


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cool, i think im going to try them, ive been putting it off for ages due to all the articles that say they are hard but now that im getting the 125 gallon tank i think its time
now the hard part is deciding which ones to keep! i only want to keep one kind, and get a large number of them like 20-30, im having a hard time deciding between the red moliro, ndole red, purple rainbow aka moori lufubu, or chaitika aka blue rainbow, or possibly brichardi ujiji?
heres pics..
moliro








ndole red








lufubu purple rainbow








chaitika blue rainbow








brichardi ujiji








is that what your moliros look like jordonsmum or are they more black like this?









which do u guys think look best? lol


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have a group of 25 dubosi maswa a group of 12 sp.krisa kaiser 2 . and either a group of illangi or purplr rainbow not sure still contiplating


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

so you didnt order last night after all bubba?
which of these do u think looks best if u had to choose a colony of just 1 strain?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

ndole red is what i like will be a noce bright color


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

http://www.africa-acuario.com/Tropheus%20ilangi.jpg this is what i am contiplating i realy like the ilangi and the fact they are wild caught and he will be giving me the fry they have had also


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have blue and yellow in mine so need a deffrent color to stand out


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> cool, i think im going to try them, ive been putting it off for ages due to all the articles that say they are hard but now that im getting the 125 gallon tank i think its time
> now the hard part is deciding which ones to keep! i only want to keep one kind, and get a large number of them like 20-30, im having a hard time deciding between the red moliro, ndole red, purple rainbow aka moori lufubu, or chaitika aka blue rainbow, or possibly brichardi ujiji?
> heres pics..
> moliro
> ...


the reds are beauty's


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## jordonsmum (Mar 1, 2011)

both..lol I know it doesn't sound like it makes sense. They change their colour like lightening and constantly. I've seen them dark and all red. But if I had to pick it would be the first pic.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cool, i think im going to go with the ndole red apparently they can do the black head trick too  il see if he has 24-30 available









did you have to cull out some of the males in your colony or is it ok with a 50/50 ratio i read the red varieties arent so aggressive?


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Deciding to keep tropheus is the easiest part, deciding which varient...guess why many tropheus keepers have several tanks of trophs.

Ndole red looks nice, but I don't think you can go wrong with any choice. Good luck on your new journey.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hehe i decided on the ndole red now i just need to decide how many to order... and whether or not i should try to mix cyps with them ie will the cyps be calming or will they be beaten up
either 25 and 10 cyps, or 30 and no cyps...


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

What will you do with the cyps you have now?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i dont have cyps, Petah bought them from me


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

lol...I think you just answered your own question. It's all about the tropheus now, everything else is just eye candy.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hehe yeah, i guess il just get a bunch of trophs and if it turns out in the future i want to add some dither fish i can cross that bridge when i get to it and maybe cheap out and use something like giant danios :/


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## Brisch (May 13, 2010)

I like the fire cracker, first tropheus pic you showed. I keep simochromis diagramma and I HAD 3 moorii bulu point, but they seem to have disappeared


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## jordonsmum (Mar 1, 2011)

Everyone I spoke to told me not to get them because they're "difficult" to keep. I'm happy to report 3 years and 1 fatality. The fatality was challenging the dominant male and was a runt. Not a good choice.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

yes they are not as bad as people say . had mine now since jully and no problems at all there growing nice awsome coloring , i see the ocasional lip lock but thats aboutit


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

well, everyone that has a colony seems to absolutely love them so i think its definitely time to give em a try, my wife also loves the red's so thats what we'll get
i love fish that have not only nice color but cool behavior/character and these seem to fit the bill


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cant wait...


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

what I learnt about keeping tropheus... They can get bloat easily. Many things can stress them, for example, water changes...

They are almost always keep with petrochromis or simochromis. Other tankmates might not like the hyper-kids-on-black-coffee behavior.

Do a bit of research before you get this type of fish. I never had any farm raised one from Asia or other people's babies. I had Ilangi, purple rainbow, kasanga, and the usual ikola, fire cracker, as an oddball in the group. But I had kept a group of 20 Ilangi with 3 loss, and constant battle of bloat for 1 year (with spawning) and I let the group go.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i have been  spent at least 6 hours the last few days reading all the articles on cichlid-forums and other sites with articles by ad konings etc
im just going to take the advice of the cichlid-forum articles and preventatively treat them with metro when they arrive to prevent bloat
and not feed much the first week, i'll only feed NLS and spirulina flakes, no high protein meaty foods

alot of people seem to have the theory that the bloat is "always there" and stress or overfeeding makes it act up, supposedly its caused by a flagyl parasite and metro can prevent it and sometimes save fish but often if theyre bloated and alrdy have stringy white poo its too late, so its recommended to soak a bit of their food in it when they first arrive to get it into their systems and prevent it from flaring up

hopefully since im getting 35 i'll end up with a nice size colony even if a few perish and i have to cull some males or they get pwnd by the alpha male


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

WOOHOO ive been waiting for days running to the door whenever i hear the mail slot and finally the tax return is here  
goin to JL NOW to buy the new 125 gallon tank/stand and eheim 2080


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

awsome . but why not go bigger a 150 would be awsome for the tropheus ,


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i'll see how much more the 150 is


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

lots of good round rocks . sand . is what they like the green hair algae will row better on rounded rocks and that is what they will eat looks cool watching them graze


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i would order from reserve stock but i already told the gu i was getting his illangi and there pretty much full grown . pluss he is throwing in fry that they have had


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## jordonsmum (Mar 1, 2011)

NLS is my fav food for all of my other childlids. But surprisingly high for trophs. I use veggie flakes / veggie pellets/ spirulina pellets. But I steer away from NLS for these guys.



Mferko said:


> i have been  spent at least 6 hours the last few days reading all the articles on cichlid-forums and other sites with articles by ad konings etc
> im just going to take the advice of the cichlid-forum articles and preventatively treat them with metro when they arrive to prevent bloat
> and not feed much the first week, i'll only feed NLS and spirulina flakes, no high protein meaty foods
> 
> ...


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

jordonsmum said:


> NLS is my fav food for all of my other childlids. But surprisingly high for trophs. I use veggie flakes / veggie pellets/ spirulina pellets. But I steer away from NLS for these guys.


yea, spirulina flakes it is then, better to stay on the safe side, i heard the nls color enhancing was the one with the lowest protein and would be ok for trophs but il wait till ive heard of other people using it with success before i try it myself.
the only thing is i have calvus in there and they arent very aggressive at feeding time, they like to wait till the food is on the bottom and ive walked away, i guess theyl have to start or they wont get food.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

btw bubba the 125 tank was 320 and the 150 was over 500 so i got the 125  i think the footprint is what matters most for these anyways since that determines how many territories i can create for them, im gonna make lots of separate little rock piles of river rocks


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

in a 6 footer, you can actually get 2 groups of tropheus... Do a group of sp. moorii, and one group of sp. black.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

gonna have 3 groups in mine


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

maybe a few months down the road i'll get another group, this group of 35 is gonna be 420 + shipping as is  cant afford more
bubba you need to post lotsa pics of your setup


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i did but nobody looked at it so not gonna do it again


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

awh - nobody looks at mine either... but i still update it so i can go back and keep track of what happened when :/ i probably wont keep a journal with the new tank tho just a notepad beside the tank. i think cuz of vancouvers soft water everyone keeps amazon fish and dont give a rats @$$ about african cichlids but i still love em,

post me a link to your photobucket or somethin

as for other fish i plan on getting a group of acei's again my wife loves those fish and always rags on me for selling them she calls them her aceis lol, that covers purple/yellow, might add something blue too but not sure yet


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

tropheus pictures by darrin34 - Photobucket


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

thanks for the pics! Your new trophs will go in this tank too?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

yes they will lots of space for them


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Mferko said:


> i have been  spent at least 6 hours the last few days reading all the articles on cichlid-forums and other sites with articles by ad konings etc
> im just going to take the advice of the cichlid-forum articles and preventatively treat them with metro when they arrive to prevent bloat
> and not feed much the first week, i'll only feed NLS and spirulina flakes, no high protein meaty foods
> 
> ...


Ask Doug for a little supply of the food thats he's been feeding the juvies, you can slowly acclimate them to your food over a period of time.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

those are awesome trophs bubba, thx for posting  and answering all my q's the last couple days



hp10BII said:


> Ask Doug for a little supply of the food thats he's been feeding the juvies, you can slowly acclimate them to your food over a period of time.


alrdy did on the phone but i'll remind him again, he feeds them something called " Xtreme Cichlid Diet- ground up small pellets"


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

xtreme cichlid diet you can get anywhere , and no problem anytime i love tropheus and think it is cool when someone else gets into them . if my illangi bread for me i would send u out fry they would be f1 no carge just would be shipping for u


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## African_Fever (Apr 22, 2010)

Great looking Tropheus bubba! Definitely making it a much harder decision for me as to what to do with a 77 bowfront I've been staring at nearly empty in my office for a couple weeks now...A group of 20 would be an awesome colony to watch.


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> xtreme cichlid diet you can get anywhere , and no problem anytime i love tropheus and think it is cool when someone else gets into them . if my illangi bread for me i would send u out fry they would be f1 no carge just would be shipping for u


Ilangi are nice.

I think we need to start a tropheus support group. Since we don't have enough space/tanks to keep all the variants we like, each member should keep a colony different from everybody else so when the time comes to start a new tank, hopefully someone else would have the type you'd like to try. :bigsmile:

I'm having a tough time deciding - leaning towards one of the rainbow types.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> xtreme cichlid diet you can get anywhere , and no problem anytime i love tropheus and think it is cool when someone else gets into them . if my illangi bread for me i would send u out fry they would be f1 no carge just would be shipping for u


awesome  i'll send you some ndole red's in return when mine breed


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

African_Fever said:


> Great looking Tropheus bubba! Definitely making it a much harder decision for me as to what to do with a 77 bowfront I've been staring at nearly empty in my office for a couple weeks now...A group of 20 would be an awesome colony to watch.


nice thing with tropheus there peacful enough you can put shellies in with them along with cyplachromis and goobies. was reading an artical about the cyps they will ease the skiddishness of tropheus , i gues in the wild if they are out and about must be safe . plus they come in so many deffrent colors is nice to have them as dither fish .


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cyps are cool yea, i noticed my calvus came out more when i had cyps tho that resulted in the calvus eating more of the shellies fry haha
now that i rehomed the cyps, the calvus stay near the rocks and the shellies are reproducing like crazy, i may get another school of cyps in the future but not yet.

theres definitely gonna be at least one goby in there tho


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

also Mferko is good idea in the summer to put some rocks in a shallow toat and put them in the sun till they get lots of algae growing on them then put them back in your tank and have a few rocls so u can keep re adding them . then they will graze off the rocks . that is the best food for them and they are doing what they do naturaly , and if u have fry they will feed off of the algae also . just like little moo cows


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

haha cool, i ordered 2 5foot strips of bright white LED lights and a 5 foot strip of blue for moonlighting that will be on 24/7, hopefully they will help to grow lots of algae, im going to stick them to the underside of the glass top theyre waterproof 

alrdy found some nice round river rocks too

was also thinking of getting some slate tiles and putting them against the back of the tank but on a slight angle and use the dremmel or a hammer to knock out some little cave entrances in the bottom of them and hopefully algae would grow on the slate since its angled towards the light - not sure yet tho thatl be in the future when i can buy them


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

cool that woill be nice now that is giving me an idea i have a nice glass ring around the top of my tank i could put lights on hmmmmm

we have an acreadge here in alberta right on the river so will go rock hunting , i have a spot i made with slate can put a pile of rocks on . also is good for the fry to hide in .


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

ya i wanna try to create some areas that only fry can get into, and stay safe from the calvus


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

and two days till i get my illangi ohhh just like a kid on christmas , only thing else i am excited for is my remote control buggy i bought from ebay that i am now addicted to ,


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

You guys should try to get a bunch of holey rock. They worked really well for my Tropheus and some fry were always able to survive in the holes that the bigger fish couldn't get into. The fish just loved to swim in and out of the holes...it was like a playground for them. Also, algae readily grew all over them and the trophs picked them clean.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

u talking texas holey rock ???


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i have holey rock but tbh the thing i hate about it is whenever i want to net a fish out like a holding female or a hyperaggressive male to go on time out, or if i just want to take them out to clean them, my calvus and sometimes multi's will dart into them and will not leave even once u take it out of the water and shake it its a huge pita - lost 2 calvus's to that and almost a third but i was able to revive it shaking him under the bubbles, they get into such small spaces that you dont even know they are there. id rather do multiple piles of medium sized round river rocks so theyre crevices the fry can squeeze thru, but when i take them out theres no risk of a fish being hidden inside them
at least with the shellies i can hold the shell in front of a bright light and see if there is a fish in there or not


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i kninda miss my shelies i had qwite a few deffrent kinds


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yea shellies are pretty cool ive only had multi's but i like them alot


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

lets see i have had , caudopunctatus, oceletus blue,black ,pearly, brevis sunspots. multies,


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

my wife said no to the slate against the back glass she is paranoid about the glass breaking, when i insisted there was nothing to worry about she said she'd buy the 3d background in july, i guess i'll have to use some of that orca glue from munster tanks to install it 
i really wanted the 3d background originally but at 385 dollars its more than the 125g tank (330 dollars) and i couldnt fit it into the budget, at least now it'l happen in the near future 

which do u think looks better? top or bottom? both come in 72x24 inch which fits the tank im getting perfectly

















im leaning towards the bottom one, 'tanganyika grey'


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## ngo911 (May 19, 2010)

I like the top one myself, I like the deep shadows. But the bottom one is nice too, I think I've seen it in someones tank on BCA. The bottom one will probably give the appearance of a larger too since the top one has such huge boulders.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

where do the intakes fot for the cannisters ???


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I like the bottom one, which one would take up more volume?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> where do the intakes fot for the cannisters ???


the cannister im going to be using has 2 intakes and 1 out that goes to a spraybar the, so the spraybar will be in the center and should be above the thing if not i'll notch it out, in going to put the intakes one on either end on the sides in front of the background i dont want to sacrifice filtration, the heaters will be right by the filter intakes too so there is lots of flow past them i have a fluval E200 and E300 that are going in there



hp10BII said:


> I like the bottom one, which one would take up more volume?


the bottom one is 2" thick in most places but a max of 8 on a couple of the rocks on the top/bottom depends how you decide to put it, i'll probably have the thickest part at the top as pictured above

the malawi one is 2-11 inches because it has a very deep cave built in that apparently can be cut off to make the max only 8 inches, but you can tell by looking at it its at that depth alot more throughout the background where as the tanganyikan one is only thick on one edge


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I like the bottom one myself and it also seems to be less intrusive and eat into the tank space. I've seen some tanks with these before and you can build your own filtration behind the background which is pretty neat.


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## saltwaterfish (Mar 7, 2011)

Wow, these fishes are beautiful ~~:lol:


Mferko said:


> cool, i think im going to try them, ive been putting it off for ages due to all the articles that say they are hard but now that im getting the 125 gallon tank i think its time
> now the hard part is deciding which ones to keep! i only want to keep one kind, and get a large number of them like 20-30, im having a hard time deciding between the red moliro, ndole red, purple rainbow aka moori lufubu, or chaitika aka blue rainbow, or possibly brichardi ujiji?
> heres pics..
> moliro
> ...


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## shelltoes (Oct 11, 2010)

I Vote bottom..You may want to re-think the spray bar idea. I'm not sure how you would notch out the background and still be able to keep fish from going behind the background.. Your other option ,if you were set on using it would be to run it down the side of the tank spraying the length of the tank..
The water level on mine is 1" below the top of the background and I've had a couple jumpers get stuck behind there..NOT FUN! I said every profanity there is trying to get them out.. so consider using a bit of gutter mesh to cover the top of it..


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

shelltoes said:


> I Vote bottom..You may want to re-think the spray bar idea. I'm not sure how you would notch out the background and still be able to keep fish from going behind the background.. Your other option ,if you were set on using it would be to run it down the side of the tank spraying the length of the tank..
> The water level on mine is 1" below the top of the background and I've had a couple jumpers get stuck behind there..NOT FUN! I said every profanity there is trying to get them out.. so consider using a bit of gutter mesh to cover the top of it..


haha ok i'll figure something out when i get it, wont be till july, might even instal it the other way around so the thin side is at the top then i can watch all the gobies perching on the little ledges and there will be more room at the top to rig something up that comes over the top of it for the filter outlet


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

saltwaterfish said:


> Wow, these fishes are beautiful ~~:lol:


yea im pretty excited to get em


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## Blair917 (May 10, 2010)

I like the bottom background a bit better too. Both are pretty sick though, either way it will look good.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i bought some spirulina flakes last night and my calvus are not at all impressed, they mouth it and then spit it out, that prompted me to do some research on other foods for trophs
seems dainichi veggie fx, NLS cichlid and NLS thera A 1mm pellets are all recommended

update: i went to aprils and picked up the dainichi stuff because its more vegetable based proteins than fish compared to NLS tho it does have shrimp as like the 5th ingredient or something

just fed it to the fish and all of em gobbled it up incl the calvus  success


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

ooooooomg im so excited to get these ndole reds i just found pics of another guy who has a colony of F1 these are almost mature adults but he said they havent begun breeding yet so not 'old', they are F1 same as the ones im getting - now that ive seen these im sure i made the right decision - and illustrates what jordonsmom said about her moliros being both bright red and black 

















































































found them here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=160386&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

That's a really nice looking fish. I like the color on the first two pictures. Also the black head and tail with yellow body looks nice too.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

clintgv said:


> That's a really nice looking fish. I like the color on the first two pictures. Also the black head and tail with yellow body looks nice too.


ya its a nice combo, think im going to add some yellow labs/acei too for more color. i plan on selling fry in the future so its probably best to keep just 1 tropheus colony in there so theres no hybridization risk, tho i wouldnt be able to pass up these if they became available: tropheus yellow line bred by Burundi farms - does not exist in the wild


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

tropheus wont cross bread i was reading .. like dubosi wont breed with sp.black and moori or vise versa


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## Nanokid (May 18, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> tropheus wont cross bread i was reading .. like dubosi wont breed with sp.black and moori or vise versa


certain kinds can. you have to be careful.


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Mferko said:


> ya its a nice combo, think im going to add some yellow labs/acei too for more color. i plan on selling fry in the future so its probably best to keep just 1 tropheus colony in there so theres no hybridization risk, tho i wouldnt be able to pass up these if they became available: tropheus yellow line bred by Burundi farms - does not exist in the wild


Yeah those will be a great add of color in the tank. Can't wait too see them together hehe.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i wouldnt put it past any fish to try, the desire to pass on their genes to the next generation is strong and its alot easier with fish than mammals thats why the male has to defend his territory so fiercely or one subdominant male can quickly dash over *squirt squirt* and ruin things... the temptation is probably strong once the female is spawning and those pheromones are in the water too.
like the tanganyikan shellies that will go around milting in shells of other males colonies to try and fertilize the female eggs in there lol, theres multiple strategies for passing on your genes  
however if your not going to be selling fry as a pure strain then imo no reason not to mix you can certainly get an amazing looking tank by mixing
i heard that OB peacocks are peacocks crossed with mbuna and its not like people hesitate to buy those things despite being hybrids, same with flowerhorns and many others im sure


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have my illangi finaly there so pretty lol


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i cant wait to see them


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have thry little fry that one of the females spit out so i bought one of those platic hang on breeder boxes put some sandin there , and pebbles for them to hide so i hope it works


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

awesome  if theyre alrdy in the larval stage should be good, its when theyre eggs that u gotta worry about water movement like a egg tumbler creates to prevent that stupid white fungus from ruining them all


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## bingerz (Mar 3, 2011)

what's an egg tumbler?! ive seen them contraptions...but never saw it working. maybe i should youtube it?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

there like quarter of an inch right now


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

this is an egg tumbler: gently moves water past the eggs to simulate whats goin on in the females mouth


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

those are cool


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

here is video of my tank sorry for bad quality DSCF0371.mp4 video by darrin34 - Photobucket

DSCF0370.mp4 video by darrin34 - Photobucket


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> here is video of my tank sorry for bad quality DSCF0371.mp4 video by darrin34 - Photobucket
> 
> DSCF0370.mp4 video by darrin34 - Photobucket


nice, so how many trophs in total now?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

well lets see

26 dubosi
12 krisa
8 illangi so that is 46 all together


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

thats sweet, is that 8 illangi incl their fry?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

nope is 8 plus three fry


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

*Ndole reds*

Nice pick Mike. Must of been difficult to narrow it down to just one variety. 
Well looking forward to hopefully seeing your new tank tonight. 
See you this evening.

Lukasz


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

VERY difficult lol
im still hoping to hear from JL about the tank today


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

thats the thing about trophs i guess, theres just so many nice varieties, no wonder lots of troph keepers have multiple colonies


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i would go with two groups , of 15 of the ones u like but get a moori and that other one u ike then they wont cross bread . i have three deffrent species that wont cross bread


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> ya its a nice combo, think im going to add some yellow labs/acei too for more color. i plan on selling fry in the future so its probably best to keep just 1 tropheus colony in there so theres no hybridization risk, tho i wouldnt be able to pass up these if they became available: tropheus yellow line bred by Burundi farms - does not exist in the wild


You can get them in Europe. I've talked to the guy who breeds them. He is from Czech republic. 1 Year waiting time. 20 - 25 Euro's each for a 1.5" fish.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

awesome lol, i want some
was it just a mutation to an ikola kaiser so they dont produce black or what? youd definitely make your money back on those if you got a colony breeding here i would think.


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> awesome lol, i want some
> was it just a mutation to an ikola kaiser so they dont produce black or what? youd definitely make your money back on those if you got a colony breeding here i would think.


I asked him about the Burundi farms, he denied they came from them but wouldn't tell me exactly how and where he got them from. He supplies germany thats why there is 1 year waiting list. They dont breed as much, fry will be yellow / blue eyes.

The image you have posted (Gernot Hensel) I believe they are from a different breeder.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cool, thx for the info you seem to really know your stuff
do you know any local tropheus breeders? 
i like your website too btw


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Here you go. Tropheus spec. aff. Black - Golden Kiriza


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

And here you go another mutation Tropheus sp. "*ASIA*"  aka. Tropheus sp. "Red Phoenix"


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

oh man tropheus are awesome i can see im going to be hooked
what species do you keep?


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't keep anything at the moment since I'm not home most of the time. 
I used to keep Tropheus and Simochromis.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

thats cool
eventually i want to get a bunch of 75G stackers and get different colonies of trophs breeding as well as gobies, shellies, and likely calvus


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## RD. (Jun 2, 2010)

Just some random thoughts with regards to tropheus, diet, bloat, etc.

Bloat is caused by stress, and almost never triggered by dietary stress, unless the food is full of difficult to digest starch/grain fillers.

I've lost count as to how many people I've seen feeding NLS exclusively & never once encountering bloat, including myself.  Don Gross here in town probably maintained more tropehus tanks & species of tropheus than you will ever see in one room, and he also fed NLS, and had zero issues with bloat even when keeping adult breeding groups in 24x24" tanks. At that time he was keeping & breeding Kambwimba Red Rainbow, Ilangi, Bembas, Duboisi Maswa, Ikola Kaiser, Kiriza Kaiser II, and Bulu Point cherry spots.

Kbuntu also fed NLS exclusively to his trophs.

IMO the vast majority of bloat cases with herbivorous cichlids has nothing to do with the diet, but with other stressful factors, such as aggression, lack of shelter, water quality, etc., which in turn can cause a 'normal' amount of intestinal pathogens to proliferate to harmful numbers. Ad Konings & many others concur with this. In some cases it may be nothing more than survival of the fittest, which is what takes place in Lake Malawi & Lake Tanganyika every day. A fish with a weak immune system will obviously be the first fish to succumb to illness if/when stress becomes a factor, no matter what you feed them.

These are definitely not beginner fish, they can be nasty pieces of work & if by the luck of the draw you end up with too many dominant males, or some smaller weaker specimens, the stress from aggression can end up triggering bloat within the colony. Having said that if one follows a few basic rules they can be almost as easy as keeping guppies.

The secret to keeping tropheus successfully is as follows.

*1.* The larger the tank the better.

When conversing with Mark Young (at that time a collector & exporter living on the shores of Lake Tanganyika) he told me that in his experience dom males would stop chasing at the 6-8ft mark, so he built all of his concrete vats 12 ft. End of aggression problems.

*2.* The more fish that you can accommodate in your tank the better, it helps spread aggression so that no one fish is ever singled out and chased or harassed relentlessly.

Mark kept _hundreds_ of tropheus together in his 12 ft vats, but they also held several hundred gallons of water. In a 75 gallon, I would go with a min of 15 adults, 20 is doable and probably better, so if buying juvies get 25-30, which will allow you to remove extra males as the fish mature.

*3.* Massive water changes on a regular basis, and high levels of 02 at all times.

These fish are found in the surf zone, where there is lots of current & high 02 levels. If you don't like water changes, pass on tropheus, as the more fresh water that you can throw at them the better. Even in Mark's massive tanks he had a constant 24/7 flow of water being exported out of the bottom, and a constant 24/7 flow of fresh water coming in.

*4.* The less territory there is for dom males to fight over, the better.

While not many people like bare tanks with no rock work, with tropheus less = more. Mark's large vats were typically void of any type of structure that a dom male might claim as being his. Sometimes he would add a few boulders when adding a new group of wild fish just to help calm them, once the fish settled in then out the rocks came. Other than a sand substrate, Don G's tropheus tanks were always bare as well.

*5.* Keep the diet simple, feed small amounts 2-3 times a day, vs one big meal a day.

The more that you deviate from the above, the more risk you will have in stressing out your fish, and potentially having them come down with bloat. Sometimes you can push the envelope and it's all good, and sometimes it can end up a disaster.

Below is a pic of one of Mark's tropheus 'tanks".










With regards to preventative treatment for bloat, as in treating newly acquired fish - there is a much cheaper, much safer way to do this than using metronidazole.

I recently posted the following on some other forums. Trust me, it works. 

*Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus with Epsom Salt Solution*

This is a rather safe way to treat any newly imported fish, as a prophylactic, just as one would use a de-wormer. It's not only an extremely cheap way to treat fish, the active ingredients are readily available world-wide, and it's also much safer than using most forms of medication. Unlike most medications, there should be no worries about flagellates/pathogens building up a resistance to it, and excess magnesium is easily flushed from a fishes system. In my experience, it's very easy on fish, even very young juvenile fish. The best part - it works!

While Metronidazole has always been the drug of choice when combating internal parasites such as hexamita and/or spironucleus (which are what cause bloat in tropheus), metronidazole (or any other type of medication) should never be used on a regular basis as a prophylactic, and doing so may cause flagellates/parasites to develop a resistance to the medication, and possibly even mutate and become super bugs. It's also been stated by at least one researcher that excessive use of metronidazole can cause organ damage in fish.



> In fish, an excessive use of metronidazole can damage kidneys and other internal organs.(Bassleer, 1983)


Other cons with metronidazole is its solubility in water is very poor, in aquarium settings it has been suggested that it can precipitate out of solution within 6-8 hours, and it can become rather expensive when treating large systems.

While doing some online research on spironucleus I came across an interesting study that mentioned the use of Magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt) in treating internal parasites in angel fish. 
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-120399-140825/unrestricted/ANGEL.PDF

A long read (200+ pages) but the idea of using something as basic as epsom salt to treat internal parasites in fish intrigued me, which in turn lead me to dig deeper.

This is where it got interesting ........

The Israeli Journal of Aquaculture - Bamidgeh 57(2), 2005, 97-104.

http://siamb.org.il/uploads/57_2_Ogut.pdf



> Mortality ceased with application of medicated feed (magnesium sulfate at 3% of the feed) - Hexamita salmonis.





> In early June 2004, a treatment of magnesium sulfate (3% of feed for three days) lowered the parasite load to almost undetectable levels.


In his book; *Fish Disease: diagnosis and treatment*, Edward J. Noga mentions treating hexamita (spironucleus) orally with Magnesium sulphate.

This is certainly encouraging news for anyone who's fish is still eating, or begins eating after treatment with Metro. Not only does Epsom salt assist in recovery when added directly to the aquarium (as per the links above), but according to the research posted above it has a deadly effect on hexamita when ingested.

Dr. Edward J. Noga, MS, DVM, is a highly respected professor of aquatic medicine and immunology, and he has been published approx. 150 times in related papers/journals. His lab at NC State University specializes in the study of infectious diseases of finfish and shellfish. As a side note for Discus keepers, Dr. Noga's book on fish disease is the book that Andrew Soh often refers to for disease/treatment information.

Now for the treatment ......

*For a 3% solution of Magnesium sulphate, add 1 level tablespoon (15 grams) magnesium sulphate to 500 milliliters of distilled water.* Stir, and it's good to go.

Use an eye dropper or pipette to add to pellet food (or any other food that will readily absorb it), and stop dripping water once the pellets become saturated. Use only enough water to saturate the food, with no excess water, so that the water soluble vitamins in the food remain intact. Feed twice a day, for 3-5 days. (I went with 5 days)

In extreme cases, the oral solution could be administered to a fish via a pipette.Just make sure to use a flexible tip so as not to damage the fishes esophagus when squirting the solution down the fishes throat. Only a small amount is required, but repeat daily until the fish is accepting pre-soaked pellets, and continue treatment for 5 days.

My own experience with this treatment ........ so far it's proven to be a life saver, where all other previous 'textbook' methods of treatment for internal parasites have failed, including several days of treating with 500mg Metro per 10 gallons, while feeding Metro soaked food at the same time. (fish was chewing & spitting, but was eating some food twice a day)

In less than 48 hrs of the 3% Magnesium sulphate treatment, for the first time in 30 days the fish was no longer shedding the mucous lining of his intestine. (white/clear feces) After 5 days of feeding the 3% solution via pellets, the fish had made a complete recovery & was back eating like gang busters. Several months later this fish is still as healthy as a horse. Other hobbyists have tried this same epsom treatment & had 100% success.

Hopefully some members here will find this information useful.

Neil


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Neil, how have you been? wow. it's been a long time.


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## RD. (Jun 2, 2010)

Still alive, and waiting to see you with a tank full of those Golden Kiriza.


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

wont happen anytime soon. I had to get rid of all my tanks. Lots of things have changed and just home on weekends. Will give you a call a bit later on see if you are around.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

Neil - massive thank you for taking the time to type all that out! very helpful. i'll try the epsom salt treatment and save metro for when things are serious.
im gonna send you a quick pm with a couple questions


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## RD. (Jun 2, 2010)

No problem Mike, glad to help.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have not had any problem with bloat i feed nls but also veggie flake .. i use the 1mm pellots . i never used melafix or epson salts . i have sand and rock piles . i get the odd lip lock for a min but thats about it . less crap u add to your tank the better i have three big filters on my tank . and an air stone. i have three groups 

26 dubosi
12 krisa kaiser 2 
8 plus 2 fry wild caught illangi 

plus other fish and have not had any aggresion problems . there all mostly full grown now .


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah, I had bloat issues for the first week when I introduced the fish but after a quick treatment with metro (cheap from Ken's Fish) everything was fine and the fish grew and spawned for me several times. They are not nearly as hard to keep as people make it sound. Great fish and fun to watch. They definitely don't just hang out and do nothing. Very active.


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## RD. (Jun 2, 2010)

What one needs to add, or not add to the water is dependent on the local water supply. In AB the water is typically hard, or at least moderately hard with high mineral content & high pH. In parts of BC the water is completely void of mineral content and buffering capacity & tap water alone isn't going to be very ideal for tropehus, hence they must add some minerals back to the water.

Either way, the epsom salt solution was referring to an oral treatment for internal parasites, not adding it to the tank water. It's far cheaper, far safer, and IME if the fish are still eating far more effective than metronidazole. I only posted that info as it proved to be a life saver for me when conventional treatments failed, and it's not exactly common knowledge amongst most hobbyists. In fact, up until my research on spironucleus last year I had never heard or read of using an oral treatment of epsom salt to eradicate internal parasites.

As far as aggression, every set up will differ. I've seen breeding groups with 18 adults in a 24x24 tank with zero problems. I've seen other set ups where a couple of hyper dominant males attempt to kill everything in their path. No different than any other species of African cichlids, they all have their own individual behaviour, and will all react differently to different stimulus.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i was planning to cull out the first few males that showed lots of aggression, i ordered 35 fish id like to end up with a group of ~20 and only a few males


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Thanks Mike for starting this thread, it should help people thinking about tropheus whether to make the commitment or not.

Thanks for the seasoned tropheus veteran keepers for sharing their personal experiences with this fish. Nice to hear what worked for them. Gives newbies the best chance for success.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

my trophs came in on friday, here are some pics:


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Colours are starting to come in already! Nice looking colony.

So why are they rasping your hand, do they double as spa fish?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yes, for 20 bucks you can come stick your hand in my tank, sorry no feet tho


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## Brisch (May 13, 2010)

Ok I had bulu point moorii....they didnt make it, but I have a few simochromis diagramma in my tank that are doing quite well, little fin nipping buggers though


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## Petah (Dec 19, 2010)

Nice looking fish! how many did you get?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

the most ive counted at once is 38, its not easy cuz theyre always moving haha, i ordered 35 but doug shipped extras


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Nice looking colony! I've been working on cleaning and fixing up an old 75G Oceanic with the idea of housing a colony of Troph's in the next month. Where did you order yours from?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

from here: Tropheus :: Lake Tanganyika :: Reserve Stock Cichlids

Tropheus ftw!


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Thanks for the link! They have a pretty big selection there. How was your experience with dealing with them? Did they discount their prices for buying in volume? How much was shipping?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

sent you a pm 
regardless of where you get them your gonna love your tropheus, i sure do  ive spent hours already in a chair with my face a foot from the glass mesmerized by them, theyre soo cute and theyre not boring to watch at all theyre always action in the tank, theyre not just hovering there looking pretty like some other fish.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

like right now, i have errands to run today and i cant peel myself away from that darn tank!


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

oh and Rayne i cant stress this enough, if you get tropheus, make sure you get some gobies too!! they go very well together and gobies are awesomesauce. theyre aggressive eaters like trophs too - they need to be if theyre going to get any food, trophs dont even let it hit the ground its gone in seconds.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Thanks for the PM Mferko. Appreciate the reply and your insight. I was thinking about adding something else to the colony but wasn't sure what to do. I was kinda leaning towards having some kind of cleaning crew but I don't know what would be compatable with a rambunctious group of Trophs! I dont know if a 75G would give enough room for another species to be in the middle to top of the tank, thoughts?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cyprichromis will school in the top portion of the tank and can even have a calming effect on other fish and make them come out more, theyre aggressive eaters too, should work well, big bubba b has over a dozen in his troph tank. theyre also very colorful and prolific breeders. as for cleaners a few BN plecos for the glass but not so many theyre taking all the algae on the rocks away from the trophs, i have a couple l144 and a few silvertips in my 125, gobies also go around sifting the sand and picking up little leftovers. 
keep in mind tho the trophs are very active and swim around alot and not only on the bottom, so its not like you "need" dither fish, i opted for a larger # of trophs instead of cyps i may have done both if i wasnt limited by $$, if i could find some cyps locally at a decent price i'd add em

here is a great site if you want more info or want to ask questions to more experienced troph keepers, this is my first colony 
Trophs.com


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

yep my cyps get along with the tropheus they hang out in there group . i have the ocasional guy chasing one away but all in all they ignore each other. if u look up cyps on cichlid forum will tell u they will make the other fish comfortable . and come out of hiding . some guys will put shell dwellersin witht here tropheus . because they wont attack them


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> yep my cyps get along with the tropheus they hang out in there group . i have the ocasional guy chasing one away but all in all they ignore each other. if u look up cyps on cichlid forum will tell u they will make the other fish comfortable . and come out of hiding . some guys will put shell dwellersin witht here tropheus . because they wont attack them


my male multi (shellie) has single handedly chased off all 38 tropheus from his corner, he's the most fearless fish i have ever seen!! he pushes them all the way back to the middle of the tank before going back to his shells - very impressive for the smallest species of cichlid in the world.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

marius had multies in his tropheus tank . and they would dart out and shoosh away the troph that was 20 times its size


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yeah exactly they dart out like a lightning strike, so fast that the other fish cant really counter it, and they fake it sometimes so the fish doesnt know if its actually gonna strike or not, if u look close at their mouth they have these two fangs that i figure prly helps them move shells as well as well as doubling for daggers when striking.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

when i had my brvevis and put my hand in to clean it he would stike without mercy couple times i had little holes in my finger .


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hehe fortunately mine hasnt done that, i put the food in their little area with my hand so they wait a bit for food and if its too close they hop into the shells, made it pretty easy to move them from my old tank to this one


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

received a pm asking for more pics so i figured i'd just put em here:


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

Holy crap - are they EVER cute!!!! I have to admit, I haven't been much into cichlids except for the round, flat ones. But after picking up a couple of dwarf congo cichlids from April, I'm really getting into them. Thinking of doing up a tank of dwarfs if I can get my hands on them. Your guys are pretty cool - very interactive like my wilds are finally getting.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

thank you Shelly  you wont regret it if you decide to get some
here is a terrible quality video (i was planning to wait till my LED's arrived but wanted to show a friend their behavior) that shows how the majority of them swim around together while a couple males try to claim rocks





if i come close to the tank they all stop what theyre doing and swarm the glass in front of where im standing


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

wow active little guys i find them more entertaining then . comunty tanks or discus and those swamp rat fish ..(bettas) i tell u i will never not have tropheus anything else would do a small reef tank


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

me too lol, no desire for other fish anymore im hooked on tropheus for life i think, gobies too ofc 
if i do another tank it will be salty with a porcupine puffer/lionfish somethin like that

wait a few mins im uploading a video of feeding time - talk about active...


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

heres a short video of feeding time! remember to set it to hd/720p if your connection can handle it




so you can see why i had to get rid of my vampire plecos - no way they can compete and get food.

moar pics u can tell which trophs have been fighting cuz of the white lips 









couple zambian blue spot gobies one is on the heater
















4 gobies in this one below can u see em all?
























i dont even know how waldo got in that spot but he had to find his way out backwards, theres another goby right above him


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

wow verry nice


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Thanks for the pics and videos, seen the tank in person, videos are nice but looks much spectacular live. Unreal that they were in shipping bags for 36 hours just last Friday and they're so active now.

Had to laugh in the first video - multies claim the dark (left) side as their own and then you have this school of fish swarm the shell bed, probably drove the head multie nuts.

Some of the juveniles have already coloured some, but wait until they're adults, when they really colour up. Gobies are such a nice complement to the school of trophs.

I was thinking about a wild discus tank a little while back, I prefer wilds to domestic. I'm planning on a tropheus tank now.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

good we have recruited another soon there will be many .


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## bingerz (Mar 3, 2011)

<---- you've got another recruit here!! mike's turned me on to tropheus!


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## jdm_03 (Apr 22, 2010)

Looks great man!! Just add water, sit back and watch them grow, like a CHIA PET.. lol


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Spectacular action in that tank! And a truly stunning setup. Thank you for posting ... my fish are couch potatoes by comparison.


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

Wow, are they ever fast at feeding time. Love the videos ... like how they swarm across the tank .. like a bunch of kids, one starts across and the gang follows.


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Very nice selection of fish. Is this the final colouration of them or will they be even more better as they grow up?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

thanks for all the kind words everyone
Ed - you wont regret getting the tropheus and your going to save alot of money compared to bringing in wild discus - and your totally right about the multi i think hes part of the reason they go back and fourth so much he shoos them away but hes starting to tolerate them schooling above the shells as long as they dont come too close to the bottom
Maureen - theyre turning me into a couch potato i cant pull myself away from the tank 
traco - very fast at feeding time and i also love how they follow each other back and fourth
and clint theyre still juvies so theyre going to get more and more color as time goes on


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

Look what you've created. So much for only posting pics to the tropheus forum ... look how many people here are loving these guys! lol


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

traco said:


> Look what you've created. So much for only posting pics to the tropheus forum ... look how many people here are loving these guys! lol


lol ok well as long as people seem interested i guess i'll keep posting
i need to wipe the glass at the bottom on the inside when i was initially buffering the tank before the fish came some stuck to the glass, i wiped most of it but i missed that spot.
























































thanks for looking


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

traco said:


> Look what you've created. So much for only posting pics to the tropheus forum ... look how many people here are loving these guys! lol


Barb, are you tempted? :bigsmile:


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Thanks for the pics.

I love the interaction of the trophs at the juvenile stage, they flex their fish muscles and form their heirarchies within the colony. I get a kick out of growing out any form of juvenile fish, more fun that whey as you learn about that group and see them colour up into mature adults. Cheaper too!


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hp10BII said:


> Thanks for the pics.
> 
> I love the interaction of the trophs at the juvenile stage, they flex their fish muscles and form their heirarchies within the colony. I get a kick out of growing out any form of juvenile fish, more fun that whey as you learn about that group and see them colour up into mature adults. Cheaper too!


agreed its neat getting to see all the differences in personalities and watching their colors change over time - i love how theres so much variety between individuals even from the same collection point too


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Btw, the feeding video you took was awesome. I have no idea how I missed that in this thread hehe. More More More


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

hp10BII said:


> Barb, are you tempted? :bigsmile:


Ed, don't ... although ... I did some research, somehow I thought these guys would be big like frontosas but they only get around 5-6" when full grown? And I do have a 90 gallon with angel juvies growing out, sand in the bottom ... hmmmm .... 

And what about you, Ed? What kind are you getting?


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

there fairly easy to take care of and they realy grow fast . i have mostly big adults in my tank three deffrent kinds. lots of color and personality . i love them . so glad i have them


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

traco said:


> Ed, don't ... although ... I did some research, somehow I thought these guys would be big like frontosas but they only get around 5-6" when full grown? And I do have a 90 gallon with angel juvies growing out, sand in the bottom ... hmmmm ....
> 
> And what about you, Ed? What kind are you getting?


90 gallon is perfect  these guys have lots of personality you wont regret getting some!


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

traco said:


> Ed, don't ... although ... I did some research, somehow I thought these guys would be big like frontosas but they only get around 5-6" when full grown? And I do have a 90 gallon with angel juvies growing out, sand in the bottom ... hmmmm ....
> 
> And what about you, Ed? What kind are you getting?


I agree, a 90 gallon would do very nicely.

Haven't really decided what variant. Most likely Moorii, one of the rainbow ones or mpulungu.


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

Are they as sensitive as discus (ie water changes)? I currently have the 90 gallon, AC110, 2 sponge filters and a AC70 for filtration. Stock at the moment is 3 adult angels, 6 pre-adult angels, 7 juvie angels, a few cories and some BN plecos and I do w/c every 2-3 weeks 75-90%. I have no idea on nitrates (how bad is that, huh? :lol I gave up on discus due to having to have pristine water conditions and all those water changes.

So, is my regime too lazy for tropheus?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

traco said:


> Are they as sensitive as discus (ie water changes)? I currently have the 90 gallon, AC110, 2 sponge filters and a AC70 for filtration. Stock at the moment is 3 adult angels, 6 pre-adult angels, 7 juvie angels, a few cories and some BN plecos and I do w/c every 2-3 weeks 75-90%. I have no idea on nitrates (how bad is that, huh? :lol I gave up on discus due to having to have pristine water conditions and all those water changes.
> 
> So, is my regime too lazy for tropheus?


you could do troph's they arent as sensitive as discus and since they like the water really hard you dont have to worry about ph crashing its buffered so heavily, a weekly water change is enough dont have to do the daily ones anymore but its important to have really good filtration so theres no ammonia or nitrite and not to feed too much. african cichlids in general are extremely hardy.

moops are cool as are illangi, i even like the ikola or the bulu point cherry spots... i think no matter what variant i chose i'd be happy cuz the behavior is just so cool as well. basically just pick your fav color and you'll be happy
i even like the murago's with their green spots


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

My PH is 7.6 out of the tap, Alk. is 70 mg/L, Hardness is 80 mg/L. I've kept aceis, labs, calvus and currently have shellies. All have bred in my water so tropheus should be okay if fed small amounts 3-4 times daily?

Look at what you've created with your thread! lol


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

yes calvus are far more finnicky than tropheus so if you've mannaged to keep and breed those i'd say your ready 
and yes, feeding small amounts often is what you want to do, and limit their protein dont feed meaty foods.

glad some of my excitement is rubbing off on others  i think they will be just as happy with their tropheus as i am so might as well spread it around


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

..............


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

traco said:


> ..............


check out kbuntu's awesome cichlid profiling website, it will help you choose which tropheus you want 

Tropheini - Tanganyikan Cichlids
skip the petros theyre pricey and harder to find/keep go straight down to the tropheus


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

i just LOVE how the trophs are drawing out the calvus, watching them gracefully swim the entire length of the tank is really cool


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

i have two of my dubosi are holding now . an the fry i got from the guy when i gt my illangi are realy starting to grow now .


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

they have pleco anonymous should do a tropheus one . 
of course i would be #1 lol


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

awesome news bubba, so how long will they take for mine to double in size?
heres more pics, the last 2 are some males establishing their pecking order and taken only seconds apart theyre so fast

and yes we should do trophaholics


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

3-4 months they will be old enough to start breeding


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

nice u can see the colouring coming into them


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## mrmarcu (Apr 21, 2010)

Found some old pics of some of the troph Ive kept in the past. Thought I would share them 

Chipimbi










WC Lufubu


















Duboisi


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

awesome very nice thx for sharing


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

Mferko what are u feeding them ???


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

a mix of dainichi veggie fx and NLS 2x a day and spirulina flake in the evening


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

mrmarcu - very nice trophs. You don't keep trophs anymore?


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

mrmarcu does still have trophs  il let him answer which ones

i just saw rayne posting on trophs.com asking about flow rate it appears we have another convert! woohoo


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## mrmarcu (Apr 21, 2010)

I stopped the hobby for a while and I'm just getting back into it. I plan on only keeping trophs only. Right now I have a colony of ikolas but ilangis are on my wishlist for sure. I've kept the following, chipimbi, moliro, kasangas,duboisi, kiriza and the lufubu.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

finally got my LED lights, i found the supplier a few weeks ago but was distracted by someone claiming they could get better prices... been almost 3 weeks now and he hasnt come through and has started ignoring my PM's so i went back with GBL they have way better customer service. each strip is 9.5watts, its really bright.

i need to get a timed relay with a 120V power circuit and 12V control circuit with a set of NO and a set of NC contacts to automate the moonlighting im going to do that next month, until then im just going to run the bright white for like 16 hrs a day to try and get some algae on the rocks for my trophs.
if u want to get some lights from these guys theyre on hastings and nanaimo in van
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/othe...ocal-led-supplier-gbl-led-lighting-inc-13850/

here are 9 new pics i took, sorry the background looks like crap i didnt bother taking out all the bubbles since im getting a 3d background in the near future.


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

wow looking realy good


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

Great looking LEDs... and fish!


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

big_bubba_B said:


> wow looking realy good





crazy72 said:


> Great looking LEDs... and fish!


thanks guys


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

just found a neat vid of the same strain i have


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Not mine but from a guy in germany.
Some Tropheus Yellow and some very very rare Pseudosimochromis curvifrons


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

wow, what do those pseudosimo's go for?


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> wow, what do those pseudosimo's go for?


Extremely hard to find. The last time I recall just 2 - 3 people had them. One in france, germany and I believe in California.

Extremely agressive. Bluechip had some for $30 each I think. I could be wrong.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

wow, i think i know what i want in my next tank


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## kbuntu (Apr 21, 2010)

Ask Charles, Maybe he can bring them in with some of the African orders. Sweet fish.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

oh it wont be for a while my wife would explode if i said i wanted a new tank so soon after i got the 125 that ive been pushing for for almost a year... i even had to take down my other tanks in order to get this one


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

hehe bodo (Chris) just came over and saw the new tank, by the sounds of it we might have another tropheus convert in the near future


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Mferko said:


> hehe bodo (Chris) just came over and saw the new tank, by the sounds of it we might have another tropheus convert in the near future


I think you need people to sign a disclaimer before you allow any personal viewing of your tank.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Mferko said:


> mrmarcu does still have trophs  il let him answer which ones
> 
> i just saw rayne posting on trophs.com asking about flow rate it appears we have another convert! woohoo


Haha yes we do! I just ordered 25 Chimba Reds from Spencer last night! :bigsmile: The Chimba's weren't my first choice, I was hoping to get Lufubu's or Katchese but apparently it's almost impossible to get US breeders to ship up to PG and Spencer was all out of the variants I really wanted. Oh well! I'm still pretty pumped about the Chimba's and I think they will still look amazing once they start to color up.

I've been reading about Trophs almost obssesively for the past month while I've been setting up my 75G and waiting for it to cycle. I cant wait to finally get them in the tank and see what all this fuss is about.. lol.

Here's a full tank shot.. 









Tank - 75G Oceanic drilled
Filtration - Aqueon Proflex 3
Lighting - TMC GroBeam 500 x2
Substrate - PFS
Plants - Jungle Val & Java Fern


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

so my illangi spawned i found a few under a peace of slate so just leaving them be no ones is attacking so after a few weeks willbe big enough they wont eat them


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## jdm_03 (Apr 22, 2010)

Looking like a good setup and nice home! Can't wait til I get my ilangis and ikolas this summer from Little Africa. Maybe also pick up that G6 that's for sale on here...



Rayne said:


> Haha yes we do! I just ordered 25 Chimba Reds from Spencer last night! :bigsmile: The Chimba's weren't my first choice, I was hoping to get Lufubu's or Katchese but apparently it's almost impossible to get US breeders to ship up to PG and Spencer was all out of the variants I really wanted. Oh well! I'm still pretty pumped about the Chimba's and I think they will still look amazing once they start to color up.
> 
> I've been reading about Trophs almost obssesively for the past month while I've been setting up my 75G and waiting for it to cycle. I cant wait to finally get them in the tank and see what all this fuss is about.. lol.
> 
> ...


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## Slopster (Mar 14, 2011)

That's a nice set up.


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