Frontosas & Set Up

[Babymandm]

Hello, my name is Michelle & I’m new to the forum. Right now I have a 75 gallon tank set up with 3 Frontosas. I’m looking to upgrade to a larger tank and want to add more Frontosas eventually. Would it be best to go with a 180 or 210 gallon?

Also, I think I have one larger male and the other two are slightly smaller females. The larger male is chasing them a lot, to the point one hides in the corner a lot and the other hides towards the bottom of the same corner, I don’t know if this will get better as they are all new to the tank & I have reorganized the tank a few times but he’s still the top dog so to speak. Once I upgrade, how many total Fronts could I have & how many males to females should I keep? I’m also worried about breeding, there’s nothing you can do to stop it, so would it be better to have all males or all females? Do they eat the babies if they do breed? I would feel terrible, but I’m new to all this & want to do what’s best for them.

Thanks for sharing your advice and expertise to this newbie. I really want to make sure they are happy, healthy, & in the best possible home.

One other thing, what is the best food for them, I have medium sinking pellets right now from a local store & they eat but not very much, I really don’t think they like these pellets & I see some many brands online, I want to give them the most healthiest food that they will enjoy & help them grow.
Thanks again, really appreciate it!

 

[ken31cay]

Both tanks have the same footprint so either is fine since Frontosa are bottom dwellers. What size are the three you have now? 75 gal is smaller than I'd recommend for a Frontosa tank and might be a contributing factor in the aggression you're seeing. Three is usually not a good number to keep for cichlids unless the tank is especially large.

5-6 Frontosa should work in the new 6-foot tank assuming no hyper aggressive individuals, so you'll need to watch to see they mix well. I would recommend 1 or 2 males, the rest females.

Since you're not interested in breeding then I would simply let nature take it's course and if by chance you do encounter a successful breeding then you could come back to the forums for more advice.

For packaged foods I feed Northfin Cichlid Food (sinking pellets) as a staple and Northfin Krill Gold as a treat. Though I find myself feeding frozen krill and cut pieces of raw shrimp most of the time now since I have them spoiled on this.

Hope this helps.