The natural habitat of Tropheus duboisi is in the rocky coastal waters of Northern Lake Tanganyika. Although this fish loves to fight, hobbyist loves them for their adorable coloration pattern.
Tropheus duboisi is known as the strongest Cichlid from Lake Tanganyika. As a youth, this fascinating creature has a black body with dozens of white spots on the sides of its body. When it turns adult, the white spots disappear and are replaced by its initial blue-and-black body with its unique vertical yellow band under the dorsal fin. Tropheus duboisi is popular as a fighting fish. Still, many fish hobbyists love it for its gorgeous coloration pattern. To learn more about this Cichlid, here is useful information about the habitat of Tropheus duboisi.
Origin Habitat
Tropheus duboisi originally comes from the rocky coastal waters of Northern Lake Tanganyika in Africa. This species is sought-after thanks to its changing ornamented figure. The juveniles have a jet-black figure with white spots, which lasts for almost a year, but stunningly transform into a blue-back body with captivating yellow or white vertical strap. Most people also know this species as “Pearly Butterfly”.
Tropheus duboisi is very quarrelsome towards their kinds. However, whenever it feels threatened, it usually hides between rocks. In the natural habitat of Tropheus duboisi, this fish doesn’t own an indefinite colony because it has been seen in numerous other mouthbrooders. This Pearly Butterfly doesn’t live in a big community but prefers to live in small groups or even on its own. They change territory for food search.
Food in the Wild
Habitat of Tropheus duboisi is mostly found in the deep surface between 7 and 25 meters. Therefore, its main diet in the wild is mainly algae mats. But since this algae-mat is not growing quite thick in a rock, Tropheus duboisi has to go from one rock to another to search for lush blue-green cyanobacteria and sediments. This adorable fish can ingest the sediments found in the rock as well.
Even though Tropheus duboisi consumes plenty of food, the calories from the diet are tiny. All the food it ingests will go through the long gut in a fairly quick tempo. If you keep this species in captivity and feed them with an easily digestible diet, it will uncontrollably swallow as much food as possible.
It doesn’t mean a good thing because sooner or later, it will have a bloating belly which makes it vulnerable to several infections. The bloating belly can also make them die. Hence, avoid giving Tropheus duboisi soft and easily digestible food.
Water Condition
In the natural habitat of Tropheus duboisi, this little buddy swims in the water with 9 pH, conductivity of 600 microSiemens, and a temperature of 26.5 Celsius. So if you wish to keep Tropheus duboisi in a tank, make sure to pay good attention to the water pH. Place them in an aquarium with a pH range between 7.8 and 9.5. If you put them in water with a pH of 6.5 or lower, your Tropheus duboisi will die a split second.
That is necessary facts about the habitat of Tropheus duboisi. This species doesn’t school in the wild. They are known for fighting amongst themselves. Still, their fascinating feature makes them worth keeping in captivity.