Tropheus with red eye-ring?

[harnsheng]

Hey guys,

Does anyone have explanation on the eye-ring colors of Tropheus, in terms of variants/locality or even species? I saw a batch of Tropheus, that very much looks like Ikola, with large spread of yellow. The juveniles have the same white dots just like T.duboisi fries. The thing that makes me wonder is the eye-ring color. I've done some googling and it seems that most tropheus (ie Ikola or Duboisi) have white(silverish) eye-ring compared to the red one i saw in LFS.

Couldnt take any photos in the LFS though.. the only way is to purchase it. What's stopping me is the real identity of the Tropheus. Dont want to end up with some weird hybrids.

Btw, does anyone knows how many variants of Tropheus in Singapore market? Or those duboisi/ikola/kaiser or even kiriza lookalike? How pure are they?

[harnsheng]

Corrected: Ikola does have the red eye-ring but the larger yellow marking confused me. Could it be line-bred to produce more yellow Ikola?

[TaNgS_RuLe]

I believe Ikolas show red on the top of their eyes, do a search on google

To differentiate duboisi and mooriis, look at the mouth shape, mooriis have wider mouths, while duboisis have sharper mouths. Moorii should not have white spots like a duboisi..

I have seen the following variants from taiwan in the LFS: duboisi, moliro, ikola, bemba, bulu point, brichardi. Most look pure, but you always come accross those very duboius looking ones If you really want to go for them you have to be very sure of how to identify the various varients, which could be very tricky when the fish are still young.

At these prices it offers a good opportunity to learn to raise them. This is especially since tropheus is a very challenging fish to keep, I have loss countless colonies for various reasons.

[harnsheng]

Yeap, i did google and found out photos of both red eye-ring and white eye-ring ikola. :P

Does the white spots only on Duboisi?

It's pretty cheap nowadays compared to 6 years back when i first keep Duboisi and Moliro. I still remember how hard to find Ikola or Duboisi Maswa that time.. talking bout losses, i think i'm pretty lucky when i first bought a colony of Moliro (my first Tropheus!) Packed 60 adults in a big bag, stuff them in a luggage and carry them on lrt, den 5 hours bus home and not a single casualties! But it's the aggression that killing them even though i kept them in a 7ft X 7ft X 2.5ft cement pond. Every month or two, i'll find a dead male..

[TaNgS_RuLe]

Yup, I believe the only tropheus that has white spots is duboisi.

Wow! That should be a very good size for keeping a large colony of tropheus, no experience with keeping them in such a large space, but I have kept my groups from a 3 footer to a 6 footer and I do not have much issues with aggression. The key is to have a good sized colony, which you should have.. thus it puzzles me...

[harnsheng]

yeap.. that puzzles me too! Even in such a big pond, they still fight..
Gonna try again soon, preparing a 4 footer for them, temporarily keeping them until adults, then transfer them into the cement ponds..

Was eyeing on Ikola and maybe Bemba/sp. Black variants. Looks better and contrasty on a greyish cement background XD. Btw, do you see Red Chimba in Singapore before? That's a nice variant too!

[TaNgS_RuLe]

I usually stay away those variants you get from the normal LFS, haha.. 4 footer is a fine size, you can keep them there even as adults. I keep the rock work simple with rocks scattered throughout the tank, some larger some small. Yup, I can imagine the black sp. will look good in a cement pond.They will also look great together as a colony as their colouration is more uniform.

[harnsheng]

Getting probably 20 pcs first, should be a nice amount for 4footer?
Sp. black is nice.. Let see if i could find some.