Frontosa ?s

[mike dunagan]

if two inches with in 1 1/2...

 

[Red Devil]

They tend to be timid feeders in community tank setups. You will need to feed the other fish floating and sprinkle in sinking pellets for the fronts. Fronts have been known to starve to death in community setups with aggressive feeders. They like sand and rockwork with caves, they are not aggressive to other fish . They can be very aggressive to eachother. The alpha male will often damage or kill other male fronts. He will not want to share his girlfriends. They get what are called trailers (fin extentions) that are glorius but easy for tankmates to nip off to stubbs.(that is why they are often kept alone as a species) They are very slow growers after the first year. Adult males are over 12 inches often reaching 13 or more inches but take many years to reach that size and females while smaller can get 10-12 inches after many years.Both male and females get humps on the head, but a alpha males hump is often larger. Burundi varient are known for massive humps compared to other varients. Minumum recommended tank size for adult fronts is a six foot long tank. The bigger the better since they are a colony fish and live in groups of one (sometimes two) males and 5 or 6 females. The larger tank sizes allow for hiding areas when aggression occurs.

very good info !!

 

[groovitudedude]

Yeah, thanks for all the info guys! What are the best tankmates for these guys? Other Fs?

 

[cwill78295]

very good info !!

+1
How do you think 4 Fronts will do with about 3 venustus, 2 ahlis,and 3 moori

 

[crashinc25]

Mmmm...... females w/humps?

 

[Red Devil]

+1
How do you think 4 Fronts will do with about 3 venustus, 2 ahlis,and 3 moori

how big is the tank.. and how big are the fish and are the venustus males or females.. i have my older female venustus who is about 5 inches in with my fronts in 125gal and all is perfect..she never bothers anyone.. where as my 7 inch male venustus i would not trust with fronts

 

[gollum]

hi
just thought I'd add that frontosa's are tanganyikan cichlids
requiring much higher ph than your other tankmates (8.6 ideally)
they will not be happy fish otherwise....display dark colour and sulk in the corner etc...

in the wild they prey on julidichromis spec. or anything they can fit in their mouth but will take most pellet food in the tank.
your fire eel likes much sorfter water so they aren't suitable tankmates (imho)

 

[cwill78295]

how big is the tank.. and how big are the fish and are the venustus males or females.. i have my older female venustus who is about 5 inches in with my fronts in 125gal and all is perfect..she never bothers anyone.. where as my 7 inch male venustus i would not trust with fronts

180 gallon tank, I will buy all babies but of course i know that the other fish will grow faster than the fronts, and am wondering how aggressive the other fish would be toward the fronts. Also i figure with 4 of them they will hold their own as a group.

 

[Red Devil]

180 gallon tank, I will buy all babies but of course i know that the other fish will grow faster than the fronts, and am wondering how aggressive the other fish would be toward the fronts. Also i figure with 4 of them they will hold their own as a group.

If you have not bought any fish yet then you should really decide to go with fronts or go with lake malawi or tang .. i cannot advise you to have a mixture of fronts and others.. i only said it can work if you were in a jam more or less for room..like i am with male and female venustus needing to be apart for awhile.. fronts cannot hold up the fort against anyone who wants to be aggressive to them..they don't even have to be touched to die from the stress by it self of the other fish just acting like they want to attack them.. neverwords if the aggressive fish looks at them funny..it will be enough for them to stop eating and stress.. fronts are only aggressive to other fronts and that is when they are at the mating age.. so if you are just beginning i would say to you..go with all fronts ..nice big colony..or forget the fronts and go for the variety of africans who will be very active and give you lots of color.. but not both together if you don't have too..

 

[cwill78295]

I have been raising africans for over 10 years and actually had a front that was in my tank of mostly mbuna for 5 years by himself he was a good 7 inches and yet he stayed to himself most times he was in great health. Last night unfortunately he jumped out of the tank to his death. I loved that fish. and granted i know it was not supposed to be a perfect mix , it worked. My tank just went through a recent catastrophe and i will be restocking but I would like to go with more haps, than Mbuna. However I still have mbuna in the tank. I like to see the tank the way nature intended which is the haps mostly on top(open water) and the mbuna rock dwelling but i really want some more fronts. Yeah your right trying to have my cake and eat it too. but I think I will have to buy a second tank for what I want.