# Anyone Keep Neolamprologus Tretocephalus'?



## Brentt700 (Mar 14, 2013)

Just wondering since I never see any posts about these fish in this forum how many here keep these fish? I have one and I LOVE it to death! Has such a strong personality and can hold it's own to pretty much any fish in my tank. I also find it cool how they flare their gills out when they become aggressive towards other fish. Plus the colors on mine are so beautiful...like a pearlescent tone with blues in the fins with the five bold black stripes. Anyone else have these fish here and how do you like them?


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## webbie (Apr 29, 2012)

1st started keeping tangs about 2 years ago and they were the fish that got me into tangs,started off with three but have reduced that to one single tret,one was permanently bullied by the other two expected I suppose and another was returned to the LFS when I had to thin my stock a bit,but the remaining one is a star,now prob 3 inches long ,and no probs where the other fish are concerned,I do believe these fish have a bit of a bad rep ,but honestly its unjustified


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

As a single fish, most of the time their aggression isn't too bad. There are instances where they can be quite aggressive as a single fish, but it isn't common.

A pair on the other hand, once they've spawned can be very aggressive, and difficult to keep with any fish at all, in tanks less than 6ft. There has been a couple of rare successes in 4ft tanks with other fish as a pair. The reputations are made due to their aggressive defence of the eggs and fry... it is well earned.


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## webbie (Apr 29, 2012)

No more than any other tang parents surely fogelhound,my female regani is very aggressive when she has young,and colonies of multis just as feisty when they protect their offspring


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

webbie said:


> No more than any other tang parents surely fogelhound,my female regani is very aggressive when she has young,and colonies of multis just as feisty when they protect their offspring


No, quite a bit more aggressive than a regani typically are, and far more capable than a multi.

There is a large degree of variability in the aggression and capability of Tang parents.


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## Brentt700 (Mar 14, 2013)

I agree with Fogelhund on what is said about Trets and their aggressiveness. I know by really watching my one Tretocephalus in my tank and his behaviour towards others that this is one really TOUGH fish. I have one main fish which is the alpha in the tank....a male Parallelus we nicknamed "the Boss" and the Parallelus tries to get the Tretocephalus to fight him once every while by his body actions when around the same area in the tank. The Tret never has taken on the Parallelus yet, but I have seen him have little "tiffs" with all of the other fish and he holds his own very easily. I would hate to see how aggressive a mating pair would be! I can only imagine how mean they would be to the other fish in the tank when spawning and taking care of their fry.


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## christy_lee (Jun 25, 2013)

I LOVE my tret! He's by far my favorite fish and so so sooo gorgeous! I got him all by accident too! I currently have mbuna cichlids and as usual overstock to throw off the aggression..I saw the trets and I was like I have to have one of those. The guy at my LFS never mentioned they were from a different lake. So I got one.

I'm actually now in the process of selling all my Mbuna's to start a tang tank! Aggression wise..when I first introduced him to the tank I thought he was going to wreck havoc. He "claimed" a cave my Acei had claimed and well..that quickly changed. My Acei ended up finding new real estate in the tank. LOL. Other than that one time he's shown no aggression at all. He even shares caves with one of my electric yellows.


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