Tropheus moorii "Chipimbi"

[santana770]

hi im new to the forum and i was looking for some help and advice one these fish Tropheus moorii "Chipimbi" i recently purchased these fish and from my research it said they require a ph of 8.5 to 9.0 and i purchased 7 of them and at first they were great beatifull fish and than about in 3 weeks they started dieing one by one droping like flies i had no ammonia
and no nitrates water tested fine and i had them in a 55 gallon tank all by them self so they were not getting bullied so i lost a lot of money on these fish because all togher i bought 3 sets of 7 and all 3 sets died
if any could help i would highly appreciate it thanks

 

[Pittbull]

What are you feeding them. What was your PH..

 

[efors]

The way you described it, I think they got Bloat. So, that's why Pittbull asked you what were you feeding them.

 

[rufioman]

Bloat sounds like the ticket. Try only feeding your fish twice or thrice a day for 2 minutes. Works for me. And yes, I used the word thrice

 

[efors]

But it is very important to point out that Tropheus are strictly vegetarians; a high animal protein meaty food will cause bloat to them, easily. So, their diet should be flakes with veggies and spirulina and veggie based pellets.

 

[jpappy789]

:iagree:

Avoid meaty foods regardless of how often you feed them per day.

 

[rufioman]

Yep. Spirulina's awesome.

 

[santana770]

ok my ph is 8.5 and i been feeding them sera flora it says it for vegetable diets is that other food you guys reccomend avaible in local pet shops and thanks for the advice and any other advice would highly appreciated i have just purchased another 13 of them trying to establish a good colony for breeding would any of you guys know what i would have to do to start breeding them thanks

 

[blue2fyre]

Over feeding can also lead to bloat in tropheus. Also your groups seems a bit small you might be loosing them to aggression and bullying among themselves. Topheus are really aggressive towards one another and to get a successful breeding group you usually have to start with a very large colony. I know people that start with 20 tropheus in order to get a colony going. They also expect to loose some to aggression and stress.

 

[efors]

As for other foods: Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Veggie flakes and pellets, Omega One veggie flakes, Hikari Cichlid Excel pellets. Also, you can get on line from Kensfish, great flake foods for vegetarian cichlids.