Catfish for breeding Tropheus Tank

All posts regarding the care and breeding of catfishes from Africa.
Post Reply
User avatar
24tropheus
Posts: 34
Joined: 16 Jul 2006, 00:50
My cats species list: 1 (i:0, k:0)
My aquaria list: 1 (i:0)
Location 1: London UK
Interests: SCUBA

Post by 24tropheus »

Well I have been doing quite a lot of research on this and eventualy come up with some advice on NLS that I think is good. Thanks Pam Chin.

Regarding foods: Their main objective in life, behind breeding, is to eat, they have been recorded scraping the rocks for algae over 1500 times per hour. The algae they are scraping off the rocks in the wild is more of a pale green slime, they have to eat all day to get enough nourishment! While the are foraging they are occationaly eating other things, and some of them are high in protein; fish eggs.

I think a green flake with a fish meal base is fine. Just be aware of the ingredients. My main goal in feeding them is to promote grazing, and just use the flake or pellet as a supplement. I feed a lot of frozen and cooked green peas, sprouts and seaweed paper are excellent. They do well on homemade foods with a base of shrimp <10% and peas, and then you can add whatever you want; spirulina, color enhancers, vitamins, etc.

There are a lot of hobbyists who feed NLS (New Life Spectrum) exclusively and seem to be successful, for me that is just way to rich, and it is like feeding your Tropheus at McDonalds everyday, and sure they will love it, but the fat is deposited around the reproductive orgrans as well as the liver. I think they will live longer on a diet that is similar to what they would find in the wild.
User avatar
24tropheus
Posts: 34
Joined: 16 Jul 2006, 00:50
My cats species list: 1 (i:0, k:0)
My aquaria list: 1 (i:0)
Location 1: London UK
Interests: SCUBA

Post by 24tropheus »

Ps I have not given up on the idea of petricola with breeding Tropheus but am letting a friend try it first :lol:
User avatar
PlecoCrazy
Posts: 592
Joined: 09 May 2003, 05:34
I've donated: $25.00!
My cats species list: 42 (i:1, k:0)
My aquaria list: 1 (i:0)
My BLogs: 3 (i:1, p:92)
Location 1: Fort Wayne, IN USA
Location 2: Fort Wayne, IN USA
Interests: Fish, Fishing, Computers, Golf, Video Games

Post by PlecoCrazy »

I feed my Tropheaus Omega One Veggie Flakes and NLS Cichlid formula. Never a case of bloat and they breed just fine.

The only other species of fish in the tank are petricolas which I have a piece of gray pvc with a T on the bottom to help make sure I get some of the spectrum pellets down to the cats at night. They get some during regular feedings but the tropheus obviously have the whole column of water to get the pellets before they make it to the bottom where the cats can get them. The cats also do swim upside down and get some of the floating flakes as well.

This tank has been setup for about 4-5 years now with no problems. I do loose a baby or two within the first month or so after being released but I have found that leaving a night light on above the tank for the first month or two after being released greatly decreased the amount of babies lost. After a few months they are removed anyways to a bare grow out tank.

Its definently possible to keep both in the same tank and have success breeding, you might loose a few babies but you'll wind up with more than you know what to do with anyways so oh well.

Also, my tank is not bare I have about 20-30 pounds of rock and also a breeding pot turned upside down over a saucer of marbles for the petricolas. The saucer is glass and there is no substrate underneath making it easy to look from below and see if there are any eggs that needs removed.

While it might not be advised it is definently possible. Give it a try if your interested.

Last bit of advise; Keep up on the water changes!!! GOOD LUCK!!!
-Trent
User avatar
24tropheus
Posts: 34
Joined: 16 Jul 2006, 00:50
My cats species list: 1 (i:0, k:0)
My aquaria list: 1 (i:0)
Location 1: London UK
Interests: SCUBA

Re: Catfish for breeding Tropheus Tank

Post by 24tropheus »

Its a very old thread but the advice here I found as good. Yep I got quite a lot of fry survival. Yep I enjoyed the Synos in the tank. But yep they reduced the breeding compared to my Tropheus only tank/tanks. I never directly saw loss of fry to lucipinis (not petricola as they were sold to me as (sadly still a problem I understand)) but recon it probably was going on for a few slow or unlucky fry.
Oh tank was set up and going for many years I recon they were getting quite in bred towards the end (though I saw no reduction in quality) before I moved house and dismantle the tank.

All the best
James
Post Reply

Return to “African Catfishes”