The Lighter Side of Tropheus

by Dave Ball
President of the Southern Colorado Aquarium Society
Aquarticles

Tropheus. Hmmmmm? A tough fish to raise some say. Maybe so, maybe not. I had my share of problems with my first serious attempt. They still spawned after nine months of caring for them. I kept them wet and fed. Gave them plenty of room and places to hide, let alone the number of various spawning sites I made for them. Yet, they still managed to be a frustrating fish to get to spawn. I am still hoping for them to spawn with my Synodontis multipunctatus. Yes, I know this is reaching a bit, but how many people out there have tried this combination? A Lake Tanganyika catfish with a cichlid from the same lake. I am asking for a long, slow, and .... It’s called self-inflicted torture. I asked for it. I’ve got it. This is not why I am writing this article. I have to in order to get my B.A.P. points. I like writing, so this is not a problem. The problem is what category do my fish fall into?

The names of Tropheus are changing again. Nothing major, but it still causes some confusion. I’ll try to explain this as best as I can. Some of the Tropheus moorii complex has been broken up into two different groups. T. moorii and T. sp. “Black” are now the current groups. The main difference is, those that have a dark body with color in certain areas fall into the T. sp. “Black” group. These fish are, just to name a few, “Orange Flame”, “Red Saddle”, “Kaiser II”, “Lime Spot” and “Cherry Spot”. The latter is the main subject of this article. This is just too much to handle. I have to keep track of all this and it became time to call in some help.

I spent a lot of time tracking down the person who could help me out. Yes, you guessed it. The man himself. The one who started this whole mess. The one, the only, Dr. Trofayyus Morereeye. Yea, the one the fish was named after. Who else can one go to when you need help? I found his number in the local telephone book, the yellow pages that is. It’s listed under pets. He has a toll free number also. Its 1-800-933-7465-34789-3474- 92837. That’s 1-800-WEDRINK DIRTY FISH WATER, if you have a problem remembering telephone numbers.

After many hours of discussion about the keeping of the hardy, but trying Tropheus, I came to the conclusion that my Tropheus are an entirely different group all by themselves. I have proof on this. Tropheus create their own sub-species in the aquaria. There are many people out in the fish-keeping hobby who have gone through this intra-speciation, but it was unknown to them. I shall explain. They used to be called T. moorii “Cherry Spot”. They come from Bulu Point (you called it right, Doogie). It’s simple enough. Now they are called T. sp. “Black”. What has happened to the color? Some have red, some yellow, and some have orange. I am in the dark, so to speak, on this. I know it will get organized some day. What I want to inform the other hobbyists of is this change within a confined group. I know this goes on and I just want to clear some things up.

My T. sp. “Black” “Cherry Spots” are not black. They are a different color. They should be called T. sp. “Dark Chocolate Brown with Two Red Patches on Both Sides”. Of course that changes with the mood of the fish. See what I mean, they’ve changed already. It gets worse from there. I bought these “Cherry Spot” Tropheus at our club auction. This was just what I was waiting for. A chance to get a group started and take the plunge. Things went great at the start. The first eight were doing fine. I knew I had to increase the number of the group, so I bought eight more from Doogie. Things couldn’t have been better. Young Tropheus growing up with the catfish. It should work out just fine, I thought to myself.

That’s when they decided to go through this confined group change syndrome. A few of them got together and went on a hunger strike. Some people call this “bloat” but it’s not, I later found out. Normally you treat this problem with “Clout” and things get better. I called my friend Jon Kelley to see if he had any and he loaned me half a bottle. This is why you have to have fish friends. They give you half a bottle and you buy them a full bottle to replace that half a bottle. Then you call Doogie to find out if double dose is the right measure. It is if you don’t have scaleless catfish in your 125-gallon tank. I just about went into cardiac arrest when I found that out. I had already put some medicine in the tank. Those 22 S. multipunctatus survived the whole thing. They are very hardy little animals. I still have nightmares about that.

This is when I first noticed that this lack of eating is merely a change in the sub-species. The fish undergo a cranial fluid deprivation brought on by gastro-intestinal blockage. This in turn causes the genes to modify themselves. The new species is documented under the name, T. sp. “Dead”. A very common variant found in many aquariums around the world. Most often seen or found in the early morning hours right around breakfast time. After the medication process is over, the tank returns to a pseudo-normal state. It looks OK, but you never know for sure until they spawn.

Mine finally spawned. It took almost nine months, but they managed to make babies. Keep in mind I wanted catfish fry. I’ll settle for the cichlids, S. multipunctatus babies are still the main goal. Here is where they changed again. This one female would not eat. Everyone else did. I wondered if it was going to start all over again, this not eating thing. It didn’t. She was being stubborn. She didn’t look like she was holding. This has turned out to be next in line of the new sub-species. They are called T. sp. var. “Let’s Mess With The Owner's Head Until I Start To Show”. This change lasts about 10 days. After that another change occurs. Around the 21st day the metamorphosis is complete. The female in question has evolved into one of two hypo subspecies. Which are T. sp. var. aff. “Nah Nah! You Can’t Catch Me” and/or var. aff. “I’m Not Gonna Release My Babies Until I’m Darn Good And Ready”. This has a way of getting under the skin of the owner, namely me.

I had had enough of this at the 29th day. I tore the tank down, caught the female in question and proceeded to strip the fry. Mind you, this is not fun. The fry came out rather easy. They should. They’ve been in there long enough. No catfish. Just little Tropheus. Five to be exact. The magic number to get B.A.P. points. This is when I found out about the other sub-variants of this fish. The fry turn out to be the same fish described under two names. They are T. sp. var. “Very Small and Striped” and T. sp. var. “Oh! They’re So Cute”.

If there are any of you who read this article and still want to raise some Tropheus, if you haven’t tried already, give it a whirl, IT’S WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Reference: Konings, Ad (Editor), (1993) The Cichlids Yearbook, “Speciation, DNA, and Tropheus”, Cichlid Press; Vol. 3; pp. 24 - 27. St. Leon-Rot, Germany.