Tropheus Male to Female Ratio - What is best to have?

[Lawsman]

I know this is a dumb question but..... what is your opinion on the optimal female to male ratio for breeding Trophs. How many total in a well filtrated 156 gallon?

[ssrprelude]

Over rated, healthy fish is breeding fish. I say 30 fish, give them room to grow.

[geoff_tropheus]

156 gallon 6ft ? 40 MAX, ideal would be 30 fish.

Ratio really depends a lot on variant, but I would say trio's are perfectly fine.

The more territories you can scape in, the more males you have can lay claim and court females into the T-position

[myjohnson]

Over rated, healthy fish is breeding fish. I say 30 fish, give them room to grow.

+1. Ratio is really over rated if you are dealing with a big group in a big tank. It's more important in a small colony and small tank.

EK had the best ratio I've seen to date. 4 males and 35+ females. There were some females that never bred and just hung around in colony. We both figure some females are just picky (go figure).

I have 31 lufubu 1:1 ratio. There is always 4-7 females holding at one time if I have no tank mates messing with them (i.e. petros). Only two males hold down the right and left rock piles.

Better ratio don't hurt, but I don't think it's needed.

In a small tank it's a whole new ball game. Only two males should hold down rock piles. Anymore and you are asking for it.

[geoff_tropheus]

Larger tanks 6ft+ are alot more forgiving for agression problems than the 4ft and less tanks.

Aquascaping is very important. I have 6-7 male Ujiji who have spawning sites and at just about any given time, atleast 4 or 5 spawns going on at once regularly.

The brichardi groups are much more agressive and need more females to have a successful breeding colony. The brichardi are more pit/territorial spawners than the other variants.

Duboisi, and most the other moorii are fine with 1:1 or even a few extra males is ok.

It really boils down to having good ripe females, and males that can dominate and hold down a spawning site to get things done, and not be off running around bogged down in other matters.

[myjohnson]

It really boils down to having good ripe females.

You can say that again! )