New Tropheus Red Bishop group

[danotaylor]

They look just awesome. Good for you. I'd honestly be excited myself if I received those fish.

What's the pH of the water you'll be keeping them in? There's an experienced tanganyikan fish keeper on the cichlid-forum that swears that keeping tropheus at pH 9.0 - 9.4 really makes a difference, whether captive-bred or wild caught. As an experienced tropheus keeper yourself, what's your take on this?

On the subject, I've always kept my Frontosa in sodium bicarbonate buffered water, which only goes up to a max of 8.4 pH. I've only recently started including enough sodium carbonate in my buffer to bring my water up to pH 9.0 and I will say it has made a postive difference in how comfortable my Moba are in their activity level and being slightly less shy. Note that my Moba are wild caught.

Thanks mate! Appreciate the kind words. Our current water comes out at pH 8.8-9 and gases off to 8-8.2. I have typically kept my trophs in 8-8.2 using aragonite substrate. In one of the homes we lived in we were on well water which was perfect straight out the faucet at 8.4-8.6. I have also successfully kept & bred them in 7.6-7.8 as well without additional buffering. To be honest, I don't think I have noticed any truly discernable differences in behavior or breeding at the variety of pH's I have kept them at. This probably the reason I have only invested in tanganyika buffer a handful of times.

 

[Milingu]

They look just awesome. Good for you. I'd honestly be excited myself if I received those fish.

What's the pH of the water you'll be keeping them in? There's an experienced tanganyikan fish keeper on the cichlid-forum that swears that keeping tropheus at pH 9.0 - 9.4 really makes a difference, whether captive-bred or wild caught. As an experienced tropheus keeper yourself, what's your take on this?

On the subject, I've always kept my Frontosa in sodium bicarbonate buffered water, which only goes up to a max of 8.4 pH. I've only recently started including enough sodium carbonate in my buffer to bring my water up to pH 9.0 and I will say it has made a postive difference in how comfortable my Moba are in their activity level and being slightly less shy. Note that my Moba are wild caught.

In my experience a stable pH is more important than a super high one. If the fish are better in a pH 9 than in pH 8,4, I would question the stability of the 8,4 over the time between water changes.
In the lake the pH is also often a good bit below 9 depending on where you are and which season it is.

They are actually a moori mutation variant.

They are "made" of Tropheus sp. black from Cape Caramba. There are no T. moori at Caramba.
The red bishop are marketed as selectiv breed and I personally think they are. But there is a little doubt because I have seen crossbreeds between black Caramba and some albinos or lutino with red eyes (Chipimbi ?) that looked quite similar to red bishop.

 

[danotaylor]

They are "made" of Tropheus sp. black from Cape Caramba. There are no T. moori at Caramba.
The red bishop are marketed as selectiv breed and I personally think they are. But there is a little doubt because I have seen crossbreeds between black Caramba and some albinos or lutino with red eyes (Chipimbi ?) that looked quite similar to red bishop.

I actually always thought the same thing but when I did some research recently couldn’t find anything to confirm the sp. black aspect. I always thought caramba were sp black and have even seen them for sale locally here in Cinci. What I did discover, whether it is true or not I don’t know, was the mutation was established through selective breeding to arrive at what we see today. It would be interesting to do a gene study to establish some scientific evidence of the genetic background of these trophs…but whose gonna pay for that LOL
All things considered, they’re a beautiful fish, and I will go back to the sp black caramba mutation theory. They certainly have the species black body & head shape