Tropheus duboisi in community tank?

[vwcabriogirl13]

I'm relatively new to taking care of fish and have a question about mixing a tropheus duboisi (little black guy with white/blue spots in juvenile stage) with my community tank. Right now in the tank I have 2 gold dust mollies, 1 guppy, 1 female betta (who is the queen of the tank pretty much), 1 upside down catfish, 1 rainbow shark (that i just got--he's really really little!) and an african dwarf frog. I want to put a tropheus duboisi in with the mix and thought that if it was small enough it might get along with the other fish. I tried it and the TD was only in the tank for 24 hours and died. Was this just due to stress? While he was in the tank he wasn't attaking or bothering any of the other fish and none of the other fish were bothering him either. Advice/suggestions?

 

[severum mama]

Hey, vw, welcome to AA!!!!

I wouldn't put the duboisi in a community tank. Things may work for a while, but the duboisi will eventually hit sexual maturity, and become much too aggressive for a community tank. I don't know much about that particular species, but I'm of the opinion that African cichlids are best kept with other Africans. JMO

 

[DeFeKt]

duboisi and tropheous in general are best kept in a species only tank.
They are aggresive and VERY dependant on dietry requirements.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I agree with DefeKt. I've heard they should be kept in species tanks only.

 

[Stephen]

Tropheus are generally kept in a specie tank for two reasons.

First, the water parameters where Tropheus thrive are way different from most tropicals. While most of the South American and Asian fishes do well with slightly acidic to neutral water, Tropheus, being from Lake Tanganyika, would feel at home in liquid rock (i.e. water with a high pH and kH).

Second, while there are a lot of other fishes coming from Lake Tanganyika, the special dietary requirements of Tropheus, which are vegetarians, is the reason why they are recommended in specie tanks. If you keep them in community tanks with carnivores/omnivores, the chances are these fish will end up with bloat.

 

[ThaBone]

That depends on the fish. I have a Tropheus moori with guppies, zebras and german rams and none of them are hurted by the tropheus.

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

Tropheus should be kept in Tropheus-only tanks. Please don't try to keep them in a community tank-- not even a Tanganyikan community tank, unless you've got one at least several hundred gallons in size.

 

[triazole]

^ agree.

 

[DeFeKt]

That depends on the fish. I have a Tropheus moori with guppies, zebras and german rams and none of them are hurted by the tropheus.

poor fish

 

[Stephen]

There's no way that the Tropheus moori you have is comfortable in that tank.

 

[vwcabriogirl13]

because of it's tank mates?

 

[ThaBone]

I had to transfer the Tropheus to that tank because I have a johanni that teared the tropheus fins apart. But I noticed that the tropheus fit well there so I left him.