My dream has always been a large tropheus tank but now I'm somewhat reconsidering it. I guess this is a question to all you tropheus keepers, whats preventing you guys from replacing your tropheus with a single species of any colorful mbuna such as msobo and calling it a day. I guess I just want to hear first hand what makes tropheus more rewarding than mbuna despite the extra cost and effort.
a question to tropheus keepers.
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That is a good question.
I like Tropheus but don't prefer them over Mbuna or other African cichlids.
I know a lot of people who say you love them or hate them. I don't see it that black and white. But I have to admit I only know people who didn't try or tried once and didn't like them and people who tried and got addicted to Tropheus.
The pros of Tropheus in my eyes are:
- they develop a certain dynamic in the group that I have never seen in a tank with a lot of Mbunas
- many varieties show a really different and interesting coloration when juvenile while the most Mbuna fry is just grey or brown except for the deeper water species with yellow females like sp. msobo magunga
- the body shape looks nicer than most Mbuna in my and I think also in lot of others opinion
- you need way less stones compared to mbuna
Another point that is neither pro nor con but plays a role:
they don't have the bad image of lake Malawi cichlids. At least here in Germany a lot of people look down on Malawis. I think this is because of the Malwi boom in the 90s to early 2000s that brought a lot of idiots, greedy breeders etc to the hobby. Tropheus attract this kind of people too but they get sorted out way quicker because Tropheus are more difficult when you don't know what you're doing.
Keeping lake Tanganyika cichlids for while gave me the impression that there are at least some people who keep Tropheus for their image. They feel like they are the fish keeper elite because they keep "difficult" and expensive fish.
Coming from this background I really like your question.
I like Tropheus but don't prefer them over Mbuna or other African cichlids.
I know a lot of people who say you love them or hate them. I don't see it that black and white. But I have to admit I only know people who didn't try or tried once and didn't like them and people who tried and got addicted to Tropheus.
The pros of Tropheus in my eyes are:
- they develop a certain dynamic in the group that I have never seen in a tank with a lot of Mbunas
- many varieties show a really different and interesting coloration when juvenile while the most Mbuna fry is just grey or brown except for the deeper water species with yellow females like sp. msobo magunga
- the body shape looks nicer than most Mbuna in my and I think also in lot of others opinion
- you need way less stones compared to mbuna
Another point that is neither pro nor con but plays a role:
they don't have the bad image of lake Malawi cichlids. At least here in Germany a lot of people look down on Malawis. I think this is because of the Malwi boom in the 90s to early 2000s that brought a lot of idiots, greedy breeders etc to the hobby. Tropheus attract this kind of people too but they get sorted out way quicker because Tropheus are more difficult when you don't know what you're doing.
Keeping lake Tanganyika cichlids for while gave me the impression that there are at least some people who keep Tropheus for their image. They feel like they are the fish keeper elite because they keep "difficult" and expensive fish.
Coming from this background I really like your question.