hi Elliot
there has been a rash, or is that a herd, of colonies come up for sale recently.
A great way to put together some young adult colonies imho. Wish they were around like that when I was trying to find some!
I have limited tank space so cant hang on to my unwanted fry for too long. So far i have had no trouble shifting them. Bear in mind young females might only have 3 or 4 fry so it does take a while to be able to offer a decent number for sale. ime they dont really hit their breeding straps until about 3 years.
Like a lot of fish, some fishkeepers tire of them after a few months or a year or so and want something different, so getting a few young adult colonies off a couple of these sellers and putting them together would then give you a great colony to go on with. If my memory serves me right you could have put together a colony of Ikola or a colony of Bemba from different sources with the recent posts.
A lot of Tropheus keepers keep them for years - I have heard of one Perth colony going for 15 years.
Some fish come in and out of fashion, and maybe Tropheus might be like that, but I havent seen evidence of that yet. I think there is a lot more information around on them now so peope are not killing them off as much as they once did.
Another thing about Tropheus is that people usually plan ahead for them. You dont get dudes going into an lfs and buying 15 Tropheus on impulse. Most keep them in a species only tank so they need a dedicated tank available. I had a guy come and buy some Ikola yesterday, but he first contacted me about 3 months ago. To be honest I dont really expect instant sales from classifieds like the one above - it just to let people know what is about and coming up. Oh, and I am moving house so a few less fish to move would help a lot lol.
I know one lfs worker who has kept the wholesale price list of Tropheus going back years and years and he says the price has never come down. But I guess that means in real terms they are cheaper cause a $100 was worth more 10 years ago than now.
I also think the quality coming into Australia has improved a lot in the last year or two thanks to guys like Nigel/Airfish bringing in wildcaughts - something not for the fainthearted. And a few of those colonies are starting to breed now thru people like Jim in Sydney.
At the end of the day you keep Tropheus because you enjoy them. If you can sell a few fry and recoup some costs - all the better.
Steve
Visit my site: Steves Tropheus