Romand's tropheops

Care at a glance

Overview

Romand's tropheops is an mbuna, a rock-grazing Malawi cichlid that is lively and quarrelsome. Keep it as a group and stock more females than males so one male cannot corner a single target, and choose tankmates with care: other robust, similarly sized mbuna that can hold their own. It spends its time working the rocks near the bottom. Feed a vegetable-based diet of spirulina flake and algae wafers rather than rich meaty foods, which mbuna digest poorly. A rocky aquarium of around 200 liters gives a group the territories and sight breaks it needs.

In the wild

Tropheops romandi grazes the shallow, rocky, algae-covered zones of Lake Malawi. That water is hard and strongly alkaline, warm, and clear. Match it with hard alkaline water at pH 7.5-8.5 and 24-28 C, a sandy base, and generous piles of rock stacked into caves and grazing surfaces where a film of algae can grow.

Good to know

Tropheops romandi is a cichlid reaching about 8 centimeters, one of the smaller members of its genus. Females and young are a plain gold, while dominant males darken and show a brassy line along the dorsal. Like all Malawi mbuna it is a maternal mouthbrooder: the female holds eggs and fry in her mouth for around three weeks. Breeding is of medium difficulty.

Did you know

Tropheops graze by tilting up to the rock and tugging tough algae loose with comb-like teeth. Even in this pocket-sized species a ripening male trades the female gold for a dark, brassy-crowned display the moment he takes a territory.

Common questions

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• 

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