Tank size

[NatetheGreat]

mark i know you have one of your big tanks standing by for fish..... why not put some trophs in one of those awesome tanks you have. i say the bigger the tank the better. i have my 135g filled with 20 trophs and i want more for that tank.

[24Tropheus]

Good thoughts guys esp about crowding um to keep um alive. Yep I agree it helps in small tanks and you have to have very few rocks and the right sex mix and you need the filtration and care (waterchanges to back this up) in this type of aquaria. I have found they do not kill each other in sparcly populated tanks as long as they are big and have separate small rock piles (as opposed to trad rock walls).
So you pays your money and takes your choice what sort of tank you want.
On balance I reckon a big tank can be cheeper to run as well as far more stable and disease free and likely to forgive a few mistakes and be ok on your holls.
This may shock some of you given my earlier comments but I have kept and bred duboisi 20 or so years ago in a 36"x15"x18". A group of 8 fish that became a group of 7 (very lucky to get a layed back male that did not start on the females after clearing the tank of competition)
I would not think that it would be good advice to get other folk try this though.

[zallyn]

I think the key to keeping them alive is water quality, nutrition and learning to control the aggression.

40 breeders, 40 long, 55, 75, 90.....tried them all at one time or another, now days I stick with groups of 18 to 24 in the 75 and 22 to 30 in the 90.

Just what works for me...

[HornPlayer54]

I think the key to keeping them alive is water quality, nutrition and learning to control the aggression.[/b]

Completely agree. I have 32 +fry in a 90g and 31 (two species) in a 75g. Both tanks are thriving and I attribute it to my (over)obsessive water change schedule. LOL

[BrownBullhead]

In my 150-gallon, 48" L × 24" W × 30" H, I've had 55 adults (sp. Black "Kiriza" / Moorii "Nkonde") and I've also had 24 adults (Duboisi "Kigoma") and I've found that the "mix" colonies, beyond the one colony looking very "down and out," was also that one colony ("Nkonde") would not breed and just generally didn't seem very positive for the owner or the animals.

I would say that the "footprint" (L × W) are the crucial elements, with L >= 48" and W >= 18" being what I would consider "minimum" parameters, for a group of 24 or so adults. In this case scenario, the "crowding" takes place.

My current configuration is 1 × 3" Tropheus per 6 gallons of water, combined with 1 Syno. Petricola per same amount (I actually have more Syno. Petricola in my setup than Tropheus!)

[hazard]

I like the 75g tanks for tropheus. A group of 15-20 adults are a perfect fit for a 75g. Not enough room for territories.

Chris

[sylvain]

it's interesting to see so many different opinions on keeping tropheus, I for my part keep a WC colony of red rainbow blue maze in a 90g (48X18X24), with some hiding places, all I can say for this colony is that they are doing extremely well as a group, agression is at the lowest, they school most of the time, of course from time to time you have one of the males going at it with the others but it never last very long, I have 2 eheim pro II 2028 for filtration, temperature is 26, lights are on 8 hours/day, and I feed them once a day, water changes once a week, they are by themselves in the tank no other species. So for my part, I wouldn't put more then 16-18 full grown up adults in a 90, introduced all at once.

[flashg]

I have 38 red moliros in a 75 gallon tank... They thrive and breed like crazy...

[sgmccool]

In a 200 Gallon I believe 96" x 22" X 22"

Would you suggest 2 colonies of 25 to 30 or 3 colonies of around 25

Consider rocks and filter system a non issue, I spared no exspense with them.

If you recommend 3 colonies can I start with two and then add the third later for cost reasons? If so how long is too long to add a third colony?

Sam

[MarcoITR]

Tanksize is allways difficult; I'm currently starting a 105 Gallon (400 liters) for a group of 20+ Chaitika blue Rainbow, don't think it 's overcrowded, but only time will tell. I'm gone have Just one group for now!!!! There will be rocks in it and natural sand as well as a BTN Background "Tanganyika"- type B)

Grtz Marco