Tropheus brichardi ulwille - Cichlid Fish for Sale UK

Get the group dynamics right and everything else about Tropheus brichardi Ulwille follows. This Lake Tanganyika locality form is recorded as semi-aggressive with a territorial streak, and the established answer is structure: conspecifics kept together in a proper group, in a tank large enough that no individual can police all of it. It is a project fish — and for expert keepers, that is exactly the appeal.

Ulwille adults reach around 15 cm and live in the region of ten years, so the aquarium has to be planned rather than improvised. The record sets the floor at 300 litres of hard, alkaline Tanganyika water: 24 to 27 °C, pH 7.5 to 8.5, hardness from 12 up to 30 dGH. Feeding is non-negotiable — this is a herbivore, and a vegetable-led diet is a large part of what separates thriving Tropheus from struggling ones. The expert care rating is there for good reason, yet none of the individual requirements is mysterious; the discipline lies in keeping all of them steady at once, every week, for years. Budget for good filtration and a fixed maintenance routine from day one — with water this hard and a group this demanding, consistency is bought with equipment and habit rather than luck.

Visually it rewards the effort: a settled Ulwille group working the middle of a rock-built Tanganyika tank is the kind of display that stops people mid-sentence.

What Ulwille demands

• Expert-level care; semi-aggressive, can become territorial
• About 15 cm at adult size; lifespan around 10 years
• From 300 litres; 24–27 °C; pH 7.5–8.5; hardness 12–30 dGH
• Herbivore — keep the diet vegetable-based
• Middle-region swimmer; keep in a correctly structured group

Planning your stock list

Alongside its own group, the only companions the record supports are other large, similarly assertive Lake Tanganyika cichlids in appropriately sized setups — and it explicitly warns off shell dwellers and very passive species. Avoid small fish that would be bullied or outcompeted, fin-nippers, large aggressive cichlids, soft-water fish, and mixed cichlid communities with incompatible diets. Fish are sent with a licensed live-animal courier and arrive backed by our live arrival guarantee.