# Breeding tropheus



## nene (Jan 5, 2008)

I hava kept tropheus for three years and never seen any fry... I've never had any death except one the very first week so I have assumed my insuccess is due to the mixture of different species.I have a 180g tank with:
15 Ilangi
14 Bemba
so... are these species particularly difficult to breed?

AND(most important) what is the easiest species/geographical morph to breed?

i am planning to set up a new 75g colony with only one wild caught species


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## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

There might be more than one contributing factor in why they aren't breeding. It could be that the male/female ratio are not good within the colonies. Or it could be your water parameters.

Before buying the wild caught colony you might want to try moving one of the variants from the 180 and put them in the 75g to see if both colonies start to breed while separate.

Which variant are you going to be getting anyway? What I would do if it was me would is buy a big colony of 25-30 fish and put them in the 180g and keep the Ilangi colony in the 75g.

Just some food for thought. :thumb:


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## geoff_tropheus (Feb 13, 2003)

Anytime that you keep two or more variants together the breeding is not very successful.

I keep lots of them together, and I rarely get more than 6-8 at a time from either colony every quarter. Most get eaten or not held to term.

Do you have any other fish in this tank or is it just them?

For me the easiest fish to breed is just about all of them really as long as they are the lone variant in the tank.

My suggestion to you is on most keep 1Male to 2 female, the more agressive types like brichardi, annectens, mpimbwe keep 1 male to 6 or more females.

Duboisi works really well in 1:1 ratio.

If I had to say...duboisi is more likely the easiest to get going.


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## nene (Jan 5, 2008)

it's just them and a pair of eretmodus...I have ceck the water parameters regularly and they are ok.
I had decided I am going to sell my old two colonies to get enough money to buy a large group of 45 of a single species to create two different colonies in the two tanks....say 30 in the 180g and 15-20 in the 75g.
So would you guys get dubs? What about sp. red like a moliro?


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## mcorbeil (Jan 16, 2007)

Duboisi are good breeders and start pretty young too. 
I'm not sure what the layout of your tank is, but you could try to make you rock piles more "private" and "defendable". When i had two sp together, they interupt each others spawns, so i moved the opposing rock piles a little closer together to give some room between the side glass panes. If the mating male can hold his territory long enough to do his thing you should have fry in no time. good luck!


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## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

nene said:


> 15 Ilangi 14 Bemba
> so... are these species particularly difficult to breed?


 ilangi, and all rainbows, were tough to breed, IME. any sp. black was much easier, in comparison, but will likely play the subdominant role in a mixed tank. either of these variants will have difficulty building from numbers as low as yours.



nene said:


> AND(most important) what is the easiest species/geographical morph to breed?
> i am planning to set up a new 75g colony with only one wild caught species


 duboisi 'maswa' was the easiest variant to breed, IME, but will still be a challenge to keep longterm in a 4 ft tank.


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