210 gallon Frontosa build

[Bwirtz]

I have had my group for three years and they are still a bit skittish at times. Walk past the tank and they bang around. These are 7-11 inch fish. Other times they are puppy dogs waiting to be fed.

I noticed in one of the pictures that there appears to be some posturing with some gills flaring. I only see that usually with females on females or males sparing for dominance with other males.

Keep doing your normal feeding and maintenance, and keep an eye out for bullying. She will eat eventually. If you do feed frozen brine periodically I would give that a try as well, as it's crack to small and juvenile cyphos.

Another thing to try would be to re-scape the tank minimizing hinding spots and see if that will get her in the open and reset the heirachy.

 

[danotaylor]

She is definitely not holding mate

 

[Caperguy99]

She is definitely not holding mate

Good to know! Thanks so much.

Something clearly happened - must have fought when I wasn’t watching or something. The fish came out of the cave and ate today, brine shrimp, but still super skittish. If it went for the same piece as another fish - even the smallest one - it would dart and zoom back into the cave before mustering up the courage to come back out and chase another piece.

Odd for the second largest fish in the tank, but I’ll keep an eye on it and see how we go.

 

[Caperguy99]

She is definitely not holding mate

After watching today, it’s definitely something relating to breeding. The fish in the cave cleared off a flat section right on the bottom, and was rubbing its belly there just like on videos of Frontosa spawning that I’ve seen on YouTube. No visible breeding tube though, as far as I can tell.

My suspected male has also been mulling about the cave entrance - but it’s like he doesn’t know what to do.

I know there’s no chance of babies considering the ages of the possible males, but wow what a cool thing to see!

In this photo you can see the section inside the cave cleared down to the glass, and the female inside is looking at her possible boyfriend like “What now!?” lol

 

[ken31cay]

Approximately how old would you say they are again?

 

[Caperguy99]

Approximately how old would you say they are again?

The two new females - which were larger than the ones I’ve had for a year - I don’t have an age on. I bought them at 4-4.5 inches or so from a shop in Ontario. This is one of the ones who is exhibiting this behavior. Perhaps I will contact the owner and see how long he had them for.

The 4 smaller ones I bought last summer from Cichlids and Herps - they were really small when I had them, so I’m guessing a few months old? Alison didn’t say, but I’m guessing she sells them quite young. For this reason, I’m certain they likely won’t breed for another few years.

 

[Caperguy99]

Solved a filtration issue today . . . I’m learning this fishkeeping thing!

After I serviced one of the FX-6 last week, I noticed a little bit more noise than usual. Not really loud, but definitely a noticeable change.

I took the filter out again today, rinsed all the media and everything and put it all back. No difference. I thought air might have been getting trapped.

Took everything out again, but this time I had the guts to take off the impeller housing to check if there were any issues there. Turns out a piece of Seachem Matrix had made its way into the impeller housing and was causing the noise! I had foolishly put the Matrix on my bottom tray and it was working its way into the canister.

Hooked everything back up - completely silent again!

 

[Bwirtz]

Good job problem solving, nothing worse than a piece of media killing your impeller. I run a sump on my big tank so usually don't have any problems, just sock removal and cleaning.

I do have two Fluval 405s on my 125 gallon tank and have had similar issues over the years. I do course sponges on the bottom, filter floss in the middle and bio rings on the top. It has been going a good job. They get cleaned out every 3-6 months depending on the water flow. Always check out the impellers each time.

 

[Caperguy99]

It’s so weird how they recognize people -

I was away for 10 days and my wife had to feed the Frontosa. They hid from her every time she came in the room, and would only come out to eat after she left.

After getting home, when I first sat to look at the tank they all scattered and hid - but I could actually tell when they recognized me and came out from hiding. Since that first time, when I come in the room they come right to the top as they usually would to beg for food.

Weird to think that the fish in our tanks must be able to make out details about their surroundings outside the tank.

 

[ken31cay]

Whever I go away one of my daughters feeds my Frontosa and basically the same thing happens to me when I come back home.