Frontosa with Mbuna ??

[signde]

i would think the diet difference alone would be reason enough not to do this.

 

[Betta Mania]

Fronts with mbuna works fine as long as the fronts are bigger so the aggressive mbuna cant bother the slow moving fronts. Alot of people say theyre too skittish to be kept with mbuna but ive seen it work plenty of times. one thing to keep in mind is that fronts need some protein in their diet while the mbuna are vegetarian, so id give more of a mixed diet than most people do if you wanna combine the two

The challenge is that fronts are slower and more sedate in nature. They are also more skittish and mbuna characters are more boisterous and active. That is why I keep them in seperate tanks - east is east, west is west and the twain shall never meet.

It's fine if you're not trying to raise any of the frontosa fry, however, like they said above I would be hesitant to add some of your larger mbuna as they may harass your smaller fronts. It's kinda a 50/50.

Personally better not to - the mbunas can be a challenge and stressful for frontosas they are worlds apart in behavior and tempremants, It will be challenging if you want to breed as mbunas are eating machines

Frontosa + mbuna = fail

It'll (probably) work for awhile but long term, the differences in aggression, diet and temperment will doom the frontosa or mbuna or both...

Matt

Hear! Hear! Well said..!!!

My advice is different as I would say no, anytime I ve seen it done the fronts are nipped at and get picked on (yes I ve seen small mbuna go at a full grown front) and the ones i see always look very stressed out. I even just recently tried to introduce a mbuna I have that I was gonna try to sell.... just to give him more space untill I sell him.. needless to say he chased all 12 of my fronts and shreaded the fins on the large one in which its half the size of, so I removed him. I did keep a few peacocks at one point in time with my fronts... it wasnt toooo bad but they did tend to nip the fins of the fronts. Its really up to you and if you want to give it a try. If you really just want to keep tank mates with them I would look into rock dwellers and open dwellers from lake tang... I ve kept different varaties with my fronts with great success. I know I ve seen people do it and seems to be ok... but ime and from what I have personally seen... it doesnt work out and the fronts tend to be stressed.

Full 100% support you bro!!

 

[Cleanbio]

I have kept fonts with mubana and haps as well...it was an "okay" set up, but you can definitely tell the behavioral differences between the slow, calm fonts, and their rowdy tank mates. Not the most ideal set up, but it definitely can work if desired.

 

[Brian_Indiana]

I wouldn't keep Frontosa with Mbuna, unless the fronts are exceptionally larger.

Keeping peacocks and some haps with fronts has worked for me.

 

[Rockhoe14er]

i would think the diet difference alone would be reason enough not to do this.

yeah i agree with this statement. It'll be to hard to separate the foods for the fronts and mabuna. I think you'll risk getting bloat for a lot of your mabuna.


I think it's possible to keep these two together but it's going to be extremely difficult. I wouldn't suggest it but as long as you pay attention and watch for problems as they occur you should be able to fix them. But my suggestion is to not do it.

 

[DaveB]

Depends on the mbuna. You can keep them with labs - which basically work with anything - and it'll be fine.

I have that combo now. But I kind of feel dirty mixing regions. I'm selling the fronts. (Though that's motivated mostly because I am not upsizing the tank, not because of the mix issue... they get along just fine. Labs can eat meats, though, which is helpful. Also, my fronts are pre-breeding age.)

The poster who mentioned Leleupi is right though. Also those are Lake Tan as well, I believe, which is more natural. That said, IME Leleupi were more active than my labs ever were...