Fish per gallon

[melsbydidntfumble]

Is there a rule of thumb with regards to how many WC tropheus should be kept per gallon? For example, how many in a 55g, 75g, 90, 125?

Thanks in advance. Also an recommendations as to who imports the highest quality?

[GMtrophs]

Hhmmm..i would like to know as well. All i know the more the better lol!

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Dec 25, 2015 17:15:58 GMT -5 melsbydidntfumble said:

Is there a rule of thumb with regards to how many WC tropheus should be kept per gallon? For example, how many in a 55g, 75g, 90, 125?

Thanks in advance. Also an recommendations as to who imports the highest quality?

Hey there and welcome to forum.

This is a good question and I believe that there are a couple of other things that factor into this answer like how much filtration the tank has and what size, how much you are overfeeding (Which can happen until you get the feeding and appetite routine for the colony tune in for now extra food) and how much water is being changed and how often.

If you have a 75g sump on a 75 gallon tank, that means that you are roughly about 140g of water taking into account water displacement by rocks, media and fish. If you have a small canister filtering the tank and don't have the ability to do water changes every week, you might not be able to safely get away with housing 25-30 fish in a 75g without causing issues in tanks environment.

Assuming one has an ample filtration and water change schedule, I think that it's safe to say that you could house up to 30 Adult Tropheus in a 75g long term.

I would say that an FX5 sized filter is ample enough and weekly 50-75+ water changes would be enough to keep nitrates down.

You could also use a product by SeaChem called "Matrix". It's enormous amount of external and more important internal bio surface causes the growth of anaerobic bacteria deep within the stones that consume nitrates once established. Or an algae scrubber of sorts which allows the algae to build up externally from the tank and the algae consume the nitrates and phosphates in the water, produced by the nitrogen cycle. Or encourage heavy algae foliage growth in tank that will benefit both the Tropheus' diet and environment.

[melsbydidntfumble]

I appreciate the response, however, it was not responsive with respect to the query. I am well aware of filtration, water changes and aquaria maintenance. I've been keeping fish for decades. The question was how many WC Trophs are recommended on a per gallon basis. Is length more important than depth?

Secondarily, I asked the board for recommendations wrt importers in the US.

Thanks

Melsby

[ben]

Depending on filtration, tank size etc anywhere from 3-6 gal per adult Tropheus and sorry I'm from the uk so can't help you finding an importer unless you want f1 in which case Andrew is your man.

Ben

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Dec 26, 2015 16:04:30 GMT -5 melsbydidntfumble said:

I appreciate the response, however, it was not responsive with respect to the query. I am well aware of filtration, water changes and aquaria maintenance. I've been keeping fish for decades. The question was how many WC Trophs are recommended on a per gallon basis. Is length more important than depth?

Secondarily, I asked the board for recommendations wrt importers in the US.

Thanks

Melsby

1 fish/ 2 gallons max. Yes Length of tank is better as Tropheus are very territorial. So more square footage will be better for them.

As Far as Quality of WC Tropheus. You will pretty much get the same quality fish no matter what importer you go to as there is a bit of variation in every colony. So, unless they are willing to personally hand pick a colony from a bunch of their fresh imports.

I think that the better question would be which importer(s) sell the healthiest WC Fish.

Personally I have had the best experience with *********** at SI Cichlids. I have received fish from a couple of other importers. One has poor acclimating, housing and treatment regimens and the other sold me some pretty bum looking fish fro what I ordered. There things such as deformed spines and very poorly colored fish compared to the advertisement of them.

[melsbydidntfumble]

Good stuff. Is a 55g tank too small? Obviously bigger the better, but is a 15+ in a 55 too aggressive.

[johnnyhildo]

Dec 26, 2015 19:57:23 GMT -5 melsbydidntfumble said:

Good stuff. Is a 55g tank too small? Obviously bigger the better, but is a 15+ in a 55 too aggressive.

i'm going to say yes.
i had 15 in a 77gal and found the aggression to be too much. there just wasn't enough space to keep the alpha from finding the fish he wanted to pick on easily. 55 gallons is fine to raise them in to start but to keep them healthy chances are you're going to require more water in the not-so-distant future.

[Mastiffman/ Duramax7Man7]

Dec 26, 2015 19:57:23 GMT -5 melsbydidntfumble said:

Good stuff. Is a 55g tank too small? Obviously bigger the better, but is a 15+ in a 55 too aggressive.

I agree. 55g would be okay to raise them in and you are in fact better off with a larger colony, more like 20+.

Which would actually lower the aggression per fish. So the more you have the more the aggression is spread out amongst the colony.

If you did raise them in a 55g you would likely need to put them in a larger 75g in about 10-12mnths for optimal cohabitation...