T. Duboisi Maswa breeding

Q&A about Tropheus and Petrochromis

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atalee
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Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 11:10 pm
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T. Duboisi Maswa breeding

Post by atalee »

Hi Pam,
I have 24 duboisi maswa in 150 gal aquarium, 5 male and 19 female, they all about 1.5 yrs, i fed them spirulina pellets twice a day.
i have saw some female carry eggs, but always disappear after several days, been like that for couples of times, i even try to take the eggs out of the mother mouth, and do the tumbleing hatching, but the eggs got fungus.
I wonder, is my fish too young? or something wrong with the food? should i try other pellets? at what age tropheus mature sexually, male and female?

i am sorry for my bad english, but your help is greatly appreciated
Best Regards
Ata
Pam Chin
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Post by Pam Chin »

Hi ATA,

Well I know exactly what you are talking about, and I am having the same problem. Tropheus are sexually mature around 14 - 18 months old, some people think the males are before the females. I have a group of Tropheus duboisi halembe, and they are about 6 months older than yours. I have them in a 140 gal tank. I too have observed females holding but not more than a few days. I can't believe they aren't spawning.

So short of beating them with a net, I decided to sex them. There is theory that males eat only other males fry, so with multiple males in your tank, the fry are all getting ate. So removing all the extra males should be the answer to that. But, it hasn't seem to help me, they have been with one male now for over a month now and still no fry.

I have a friend that told me I should give them a sprinkling of New Life Spectrum, and that would give them the energy to spawn. But, I am too chicken, I have killed too many tropheus over the years, and these duboisi are souvenirs of my trip to africa, I would be devasted if I killed them!

We have to be patient, sometimes it just takes a while before they are successful. It takes the females awhile before they figure out the whole holding process. So, continue what you are doing, and hopefully it will only be a matter of time before nature takes its course.
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