Breeding frontosa???

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PetsGoRound

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 2, 2008
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Bowling Green KY
I have a 80 gal tank with 4 frontosa's (4") and 5 sub adult bristle nose plecos. I am wanting to breed both. Should I seperate them and only have the fronts in the tank for a better chance of them breeding (one day)?

Thank You for your help
Jason
 
hi Jason..

I moved this thread to the african rift lake sub-forum where all the experienced rift lake cichlid keepers hang out. I also renamed the thread to add frontosa into the title to attract the attention of the experienced frontosa breeders. :)

I've never bred fronts myself but I did keep some for a while and did quite a bit of research. the best way to breed them is to keep them in a colony. you want the ratio to be around 1 male to 3 females if you can though sexing them is near impossible as juveniles so the best thing to do, though this can be expensive, is to get as many juveniles as possible and grow them up together and once you can sex them then keep as many as you can keeping to the ratio I mentioned. They do take quite a while to reach sexual maturity so I hope you're a patient man..lol. I believe 3-5 years from birth is around the time they reach breeding age but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.

Good luck...fronts are awesome fish.

as for the bristlenose, your best bet is to put them in a separate tank (a 20 long would work perfect, and let a pair form. then remove the rest and they should breed fairly easily. just make sure there are hiding places...caves of some sort. If you go to your local walmart and go to the gardening section where they have their clay/terracotta pots...they have clay (for lack of a better word) trays that can sit under the clay pots to catch water...or whatever they're for. lol Anyway, I've seen several breeders take those clay trays and knock a hole out of one edge big enough for the bn plecs to enter and they breed very happily inside those. :)
 
It is possiable to keep a trio of 1 m and 2 females in a 4 or 5 foot tank. I have heard a couple success stories, but to be honest i hear more failure stories . Always the same reason too, aggression from the alpha male. Females have limeted escape areas and fewer females to occupy the male so when he is in a mood one of them is getting their you know what kicked. Fronts are very timid around other species , wimpy even, but with their own kind they can be down right viscous sometimes. My alpha practically terrorizes the other 5 fronts in his 6 foot tank, i can only imagine what kind of horror he would inflict on them in a 4 foot tank LOL. All other species of fish no matter male or female , big or small are completely ignored. He only bothers fronts.
 
I agree they can be overly aggressive but the most important thing is hiding spots. You can even use a PVC pipe large enough for the female but to small for the male to swim in (3" or so).

A 6 foot 125 is 2 feet longer than a 75, yet people have 6-8 fronts (or more) that breed so long as they have hiding spots for the females. I think a 4 foot 90 is plenty for a trio of fronts as long as the females have a place to hide.

I still don't know the dimensions of the 80 gallon tank. That will help me decide whether or not it can work.
 
A bigger tank will better your chances for the Fronts to breed.
 
for best success I would seperate them

I currently have a group in a 350(of 12) and 2 pairs of bristlenose

both spawn regularly for me, but the survival rate of bristlenose fry is very poor. The adults keep the tank clean of algae
 
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