Tropheus Substrates and Color - Try my luck here

[jgauna]

In choosing a substrate and rocks to go into a troph tank, does the color of the substrate and rocks effect the color of the trophs?
I have read in different forums that the color of lets say the river rock color will effect the color of the trophs. Is this true?

I currently have a peacock/hap tank and am bored with it. Looking at converting it to a troph tank. It's only a 55, but i plan to over filter it and add a couple of power heads in it.

I have crushed coral and plan on mixing it with a very fine white sand used for sandblasting as the substrate, and choice of rock i am not sure yet. Though from what i have read no rough or sharp edges. Suggestions would be welcome.
Any advice and or input would be greatly appreciated.

[algarciajr]

I just replaced all the eco-complete black gravel in my tropheus kachese tank to aragonite because of their color. IMO they look a lot better with white substrate, I plan on doing the same thing on my Nkonde tank.

[geoff_tropheus]

The lighter the color of substrate and or background does effect their color. I once saw this German Ilangi setup that was done in yellow, but man those were some of the very best Ilangi I ever seen in pictures. But the Yellow background was atrocious to look at, tank wise. But man those fish...

In a 55 gallon if your keeping adults, I would not put more than 12-14 fish. If your keeping juviniles like 3.5" and under 20 is ok, but they'll need to move up to a 75/90 gallon soon.

[myjohnson]

fishes will adjust their body color (to some degree) to the surrounding colors.

[jgauna]

I plan on putting 15 or so trophs in the 55, like 12f 3 m. I hope i can create this ratio.
So lets say i get red rainbows or the yellow ones with red on them. Not sure of the name (newb to trophs) and i go with white substrate, as well as white or whitish river rock, black background on tank. The yellow and red should really stand out in theory right?

[geoff_tropheus]

The Lighter the color the brighter the fish will be.

If you are new to Tropheus, I would go with a 75 gallon for your 15 fish. It will be easier on them and you to take care of them.

[Zulaab]

If you dont have the substrate yet, I am a huge user of Leslie's pool sand which is off white in color, cheap to get and if you remove it from your tank at any point, its cheap again to replace it. I use mexican beach pebble rock as my rock work and works very well in my troph tank. A 55 is smaller than I would ever want to put Trophs in. Replace it as soon as you can with a 4ft 90, 5ft 100 or 6ft 125 as soon as you can. I say dont spend all this money to upgrade all this filtration for your 55 when you honestly should look at a bigger tank first and then get filtration / powerheads to work on a tank that size.

If you can I would go with a wet/dry on your new tank because trophs REALLY will like the extra filtration and the high amount of oxygenation that a wet/dry offers. Get a couple of powerheads to move water too.

Again more than anything else.. tank size, get a bigger tank. I recommend looking here on this forum for a bigger tank, or look on craigslist.

I would measure the space you have to install a tank and get something that will fill out that spot as best as possible.

Just my 2.3c
Jesper

[jgauna]

I am going in this direction now being that i have 2 55's already and want to get rid of the peacock/haps. The mbuna i am keeping in the other. And want to use the 55 that housed the peacocks and haps.
So would reducing the number of fish help them out?
I currently have an ac50 and ac70, plan on putting an xp3 and a couple of power heads in there. I think this should be enough filtration.
Of coarse this is a short term fix, as i know trophs should be kept in bigger tanks but am bored as hell with my peacock and haps and want something different.

[Zulaab]

Well selling off the fish would be the first part I would work on.
I had a 70 (3ft) which I kept 10 trophs in. This was nerve racking 3 months.
I considered it under filtered with a AC110 (500gph), Eheim 2215 (165 gph) MaxiJet 1200 (300gph water movement). Aggression was not a major problem as it only allowed one alpha male and no beta male.
If you use canister filtration you NEED 10-12x filtration and 10x water movement to have ideal filtration.
With a wet/dry you only need to use about 66% filtration. So 10-12x multiplied by (0.66) = 7-8x filtration.
Over filtration above these numbers is simply just a big plus :)

Rena XP3 = 350 + AC50 = 200 + AC70 (300) = 850 gph which brings you into the 15x filtration. You will need one Maxijet1200 with the EcoMod installed to push 1000 gph This will bring you over the 10x water movement you will need.

I hope this helps

[geoff_tropheus]

Are you planning on getting adults or juviniles?

I suggest to you to get Juviniles, this way the costs are minimized, and they will work better for you in a tank this small.

Adults will be a lot more work in a 55 gallon than the juviniles.

[cichlid1409]

I just replaced all the eco-complete black gravel in my tropheus kachese tank to aragonite because of their color. IMO they look a lot better with white substrate, I plan on doing the same thing on my Nkonde tank.

sweet! pics?

[jgauna]

It was suggested to me to get around 25-30 juvies and sale off the males to get the ratio i was wanting to accomplish. Though someone may be parting with his adult colony dont know the exact number of fish though. I may just get a 75 or higher, have to talk the wife into it!
Thanks for all the help and or advise.

[geoff_tropheus]

If your staying with that 55 do not get more than about 15-18 juvinile fish. You'll be doing more harm than good with 25-30.

25-30 I would get 125 gallon -6ft. Or if your are limited to the 4ft wall space, get a 120 gallon (4x2x2) or 140 gallon (4x2x30in) for permanent housing.

[h0nkzz]

The lighter the color of substrate and or background does effect their color. I once saw this German Ilangi setup that was done in yellow, but man those were some of the very best Ilangi I ever seen in pictures. But the Yellow background was atrocious to look at, tank wise. But man those fish...
.

I'm sure you've seen the Ikola with yellow substrate ?! Now thats a killer !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9wxIkRNFqI&feature=channel