Help with ID'ing an African

[BluEyes]

I've been into fish for some time now, and finally took the jump to cichlids. Picked up a charming little guy at a good LFS a few days ago. He bit my finger a few times in the store, how could I resist? ;)
Anyways, the lady who netted him for us (she's pretty knowledgeable about fish) said he was a Pseudotropheus Tropheops, and the Cichlid book in the store had a picture that was right on. Except, when I look up that name here, or in my Baensch atlas, it says that's a "Golden Tropheops", and this guy is definately NOT golden! Are there different color phases, or is this just a bad ID?
Well, the fish is a kind of dark lavender/purple on the body with yellow edging on the dorsal and tail fins. His ventral fins also have a blue/white strpie running down the leading edge. He's around 3-4" long as well.
Oh, and he's a digger. and I mean digger. Tank I put him in is mostly planted, so there's a rather fine-grained, deep, light substrate and some nice rocks. Well, he's excavated through several inches of substrate in the middle of the tank down to the glass, and piled it all up along the front of the tank. He's completley undermined one rock which is now laying on its side in the middle of this crater, and the guys still going! He just sucks up one mouthful of gravel, swims off, spits it out by the glass, and goes back. I expected some re-arranging, but not quite this much. At least the fish is enjoying himself!
Well, enough ranting for now, any ideas what this fish is? He'll definately be getting a tank with more rocks shortly, but I'd like to know what really to give this little guy, and what kind of tank mates to look for?

[ChilDawg]

I'd suggest Googling that species of fish, but I think that your description matches (with a great degree of accuracy) the pictures of Pseudotropheus tropheops that I can find online.

[BluEyes]

:eek: There certainly are a great deal of variants of that guy! He seems to fit the P. Tropheops Tropheops "Lilac Mambu"...

So, is massive excavation a common behavior for Tropheops? There's literally 4.5" of gravel built up above the plastic rim at the front of the tank now, he's clearing it down to the glass in the middle, and he's still working - one mouthfull at a time!
Not enough rocks to make him happy?
My g/f says she recalls National Geographic showing some Cichlids in the wild who build a wall around their territory?

[jimbo]

The Pseudotropheus tropheops was always considered to be a sub-specie of the Pseudotropheus group. Although some still use this name, nowadays they have their own species name (given by Trewavas in 1984) and are classified as Tropheops tropheops. This family includes, up till now, around 50 species of which a few have been officially classified like the Tropheops tropheops, T.gracilior, T.lucerna, T.macrophthalmus, T.novemfasciatus, and T.romandi.
The others don’t have their official scientific name yet and are given the extension sp. behind their species name followed by their “colour” or “place they are found” or a combination of both. In your case you will probably be the owner of a Tropheops sp. “Lilac”

Except from defending their territory fiercely, which can be as big as 3 or even 6 feet, they all show different preferences for choosing or building one. It all depends on the environment they are living in. Some will excavate, others will occupy the top of a rocky area to have a good view over their territory, and some will have their territory on top of a big rock from where they try to catch the attention of a female but will spawn in a hole beneath that rock.
For as far I know, the big craterlike territories, your g/f is referring to, are build by some Copadichromis, Taeniolethrinops, Lethrinops, Tramitichromis and Otopharynx species.

I’m not sure this will help you identifying your Tropheops but at least it will give you some extra information.

Jimmy

[BluEyes]

Is there some way to discourage this crater-digging, though? Short of having a bottom of slate?
I kinda like being able to see into my tanks...

[jimbo]

Haha...Perhaps and only perhaps a pile of rocks build up from the bottom could help.

[stoopid]

My cichlids dig, but I found they did a lot less once the rock cave and some plants were added.

My guess is that he isn't feeling "safe" and is trying to build some cover for himself.

[BluEyes]

Yeah, I guess the tank layout was a bit open for cichlids. Well, he's certainly got enough cover now!
I've got a bunch of rocks I can pile together, hope that makes the guy happy. I suppose also reducing the amount of substrate would limit any digging.