Stone Aquatics: Tropheus Moorii

There are over 40 variants of Tropheus moorii in Lake Tanganyika and they are all of the most colorful and active species available to keep in the aquarium.

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What you have available jack?

 

Dammit... Wish I'd gone with tangs instead of Malawis

 

Wow, Beautiful fish

 

@Ebrahim - nothing available at the moment but should have some Red Rainbow and also Tropheus Brichardi Kipili available soon I hope.
@Broder - Never to late to switch to the better Rift Lake! Heheheh.
@Ortaega - The Tropheus moorii Ilangi in picture is definitely one of the most prized variants of Tropheus moorii

Anybody still thinking Tanganyikans don't have color? Heheheh!

 

some more color

 

Hi guys

For the last year or two I have been absolutely infatuated with Tropheus moorii. They are by far the most beautiful of all African Cichlids.
Their unique behaviour and special needs set them apart from other african cichlids. They are the Discus of African cichlids!
Absolutely amazing fish!
@Jack Stone keep up the good work sir. Im planning my Tropheus adventure and will definitly be contacting you in a year or so.
I just cant make up my mind as to which Id go for. Ideally I want to set up 2 x 600 lit tanks for them, and then have a different colony for each tank. Ilangi is stunning of course, Sunspot Red Rainbows also. Probably my favourites. But Ikola, Moliro and Golden Kazumba are also stunning.
I have time to decide luckily....

One question I have if you dont mind -
With Discus you find breeders have deliberately been crossing wild caught fish and selectively breeding them to develop and improve strains. This seem to be frowned upon in the Tropheus community and most , if not all breeders and serious keepers keep the fish in original colour forms only, and very seldom is hybridizing allowed/promoted. Is this purely a purist approach, or has this been tried with bad results? I have concluded it is partly due to the fish being popular mostly in Europe and not Asia, and European fish keepers tend to gravitate more to authenticity than new developments

I keenly watch your posts.

Kind regards

Marco

 

@Marco , Jack Stone is just fantastic to chat to about fish. I currently have a tank(600Lts ish) full of some Tropheus Duboisi which I am absolutely loving! They are stunning and really interesting, mine have just started their basic mating dances and I havent seen eggs yet but Im sure theres been a fish or two holding some eggs which I think are getting eaten at the moment. These guys in a species only tank is the only way to go the way the interact will keep you watching for longer than you realise. Hopefully ill be getting a bigger tank for mine soon!

So many types to choose between, i love the Blue Rainbow and the Bulu point the most, Trying to save for a WC Blue rainbow colony from Jack Stone most likely in a year or so myself. Let me know when you and Jack hook up Im keen to join you guys in discussing some potential Fish to import xD

 

Good question Marco....im also waiting patiently for the answer. Jack?

 

@Ebrahim - ja, but that's a Julidochromis bru... ;-P
@Marco - Selecting a Tropheus variant may be one of the more difficult choices to make in fish-keeping, hehehe, once you get through all the Tropheus moorii species then you still need to start on the Brichardi and the Sps. Then who's heard of Tropheus annectens? There are hundreds of Tropheus out there... and then there is Petrochromis as well! Just a quick fact to avoid confusion. The Sunspot Tropheus are not Red Rainbow Tropheus at all, Sunspot can be found at Mpulungu, Kasakalawe and Mbita I believe. Red Rainbow can be found at Kasanga, Kambwimba and Kantalamba. Both of these can probably be found at more locations in the lake as well, but I guess these are the common collection locations.

Regarding cross-breeding of variants. Yes, they started doing that years ago. In my opinion they have not yet come up with anything worth speaking about, let alone feeding to your Frontosa... hahaha! The most popular man-made Tropheus variants are Caramba Red Bishop and Yellow Canary I believe. You can make up your own mind about what they look like to you, but I would stress that you should first have a look at Petrochromis sp. Red Bulu Point and Petrochromis moshi Yellow - those are made by mother nature, as is that Ilangi above.

I can't agree with this: "European fish keepers tend to gravitate more to authenticity than new developments." - while that may be true of the many of the Tanganyika fanatics and probably some of the Malawi keepers as well, it is probably true to some degree here too. Still most fish keepers (world-wide) just buy what looks good at the pet store and most of those fish have been line-bred for many many years. I hope we can learn from the extinction of many of the Lake Victorian species and preserve good bloodlines in our Tanganyika breeding colonies so that the introduction of predatory food stock or a major oil spill will not stop us from being able to observe and appreciate these fish as they are today.

Always welcome to ask questions and I'm glad somebody is watching our posts!
@nodac - Get some pictures of your colony up somewhere! Have a close look around the rocks come feeding time, you might start spotting one or two fry surviving there?

My absolute favorite Tropheus at the moment are the Red Rainbow Kasanga variant, I would like to see how they compare to Ilangi in full size and color (never had the chance to see this). As some of you might know and others probably not, Tropheus moorii Ilangi are found in the Nsumbu National Park, it became illegal to collect wild fish there, as such the Ilangi are not supposed to be available from the wild, unfortunately the demand drives some collectors to do so anyway, the public should be aware and not purchase these fish.

 

i know Jack... its here becuase i like it.... its a nice fishy....

 

Hehehehe, @Ebrahim , just pulling your leg. There are some stunning Julidochromis species out there. I'm a big fan of Julidochromis regani Kipili, recently reclassified as Julidochromis marksmithi. They make good tank mates for Tropheus apparently, I have yet to give it a shot.

 

The cross breeding thing dont sit so lekke with me. with Tangs, collection points are very importand when it comes to pricing, i.e at first glance all zaire frontosa look the same but pricing are different when it comes to collection point. many dont have a issue with cross breeding zaire variant with zaire variant and tanzanian with tanzanian variant but then its very important not to attach a variant name to that breed. many sell it as zaire blue which is a good indication that it is cross breed. as for tropheus i dont think cross breeding is going to make fish keepers go wow as there are so many nice variants available. it feels lekke to know you have fish that are not hybrid. just my 2 cents.

 

i ask you last year if you can get Petrochromis sp. remember?

 

@Marco...juvenile/baby tropheus are difficult to tell apart (as they all look similar,apart from the duboisi which has distinct markings that we can see from the moon, I would think that the pull towards authentic fish is probably more so for the after market,so that prospective hobbyists/clients will be assured of the specie/variant of tropheus that is being purchased by comparing to the parents)

As to the exceptions, there have albino varients of tropheus sp. in the market, but that will boil down to whether that's your cuppa tea or not.

The true beauty of these fish are to admired in a colony, their high energy levels and non-stop swimming is another factor, and something to get used to especially if you have been keeping discus.

@Jack....wrt your comment about the oil spill,just a point of note is that there is major oil and gas exploration scheduled for lake Tanganyika,



And then to the cross breeding.....not keen on that.....look at the rubbish wrt the frontosa black widow

 

@ fishcrazy.... rubbish is the right word for black widow thing and that brown thing they call red frontosa.... very ugly when they get big.
also agree with you on the energy of the troupheus... amaising.... they just go on and on and on and on.....

 

Hey guys

Lol you all basically confirm my observation and as suspected most people interested in Tropheus frown at the mere possibility of hybrids.
Im all for that and agree completely. If you look at the availables you realise that no more is needed.
Same with Wild discus though....and that did not stop the desire for MORE and MORE varieties.
It has somewhat "cheapened" the Discus in my opinion.
But enough comparing them to discus....

Jack I gotta agree with you (and thanks for the clarification on the Sunspot) the Red Rainbow is most definitly a favourite. You not kidding about it being extremely hard to decide which type to chose-its incredibly difficult because they all have their appeal.

I know the Bulu point cause I had it on an import list a while ago and needed to figure out what it was. Its a very pretty fish also yes.
@Ebrahim - its common practise with wild caught fish to label them according to the location they are caught. Often times unscrupulous dealers add names etc solely for the purpose of driving the prices up.
As Jack pointed out the Ilangi is now found in a nature reserve. However dont be surprised at them being sold as per location etc etc just to charge a premium. Wherever a buck is to be made humans jump at it.
@fishcrazy - I hear you but one must accept that new types can be developed and "fixed" and these can also be guaranteed to resemble parents.
I find that the desire for this is completely absent in Tropheus circles and its a good thing-Im not complaining!
Its just quite interesting cause in Wild form it has already shown amazing genetic diversity and usually that is jumped at by adventurous breeders.

Tropheus are not everyones cup of tea though. I agree with Jack that people buy what theysee in a lps and what they like, but with more difficult species such as Trophes sp it should be discouraged really.
Soon it goes the same route as Discus and you end up with mostly rubbish available in shops and that is a pointless excercise. Better to keep it as it is and not have the fish suffer Id say.

Nice to see that there is such a passionate group of people about a species which is not everyones cup of tea.

Rgds

Marco

 

@Marco...i think that the issue of purchasing a colony as opposed to a few fish is one of the reasons that deters and individual in purchasing these lovely sp.,in the past we only managed to get in wild caught semi-adults/adults and then at that ,its a long process to acclimatise them.The importers/wholesalers did not bring in many variants of the tropheus sp. as it was not deemed a popular fish.

I was lucky enough to have had the Ilangi(adults),lufubu and the chimba......many years back,and they where very impressive. Unbelievable coloration as nature intended it to be.

 

Sorry guys but i have to chime in here and say the Tropues Moorii Nkondi is better looking to the ilangi in my opinion. Both protected.



and offcause the Tropheus Moorii Red Rainbow Kasanga available from Stone Aquatics

 

Hi

Ebrahim you are not helping....
Lol

Would you guys say a wild caught colony is more difficult to keep/maintain than a tankbred colony.
I understand aggression is worse and then of course the bloat challenge.

Rgds