Success at last - Breeding Cyphotilapia frontosaWill Hayward;2134999; said:
by Steve Thompson
From the Cichlid Circular, New South Wales Cichlid Society, Australia, February 1988
Aquarticles
It took me almost eight years to get my first successful spawning of frontosa, but it was well worth waiting for. I've grown all my frontosa up from 1" fry and now my two oldest and original males are 14" long. I've read that Discus are the king of the aquarium, but when I see my two large males swimming so majestically through my tank, then to me they are the kings! Kings of the African cichlids anyway.
I keep my Frontosas in a 6'x2'x20" tank and apart from my two large males I also have a young male of about 8" and three females which are between 6" and 7", two of which are the same age as the two large males, being almost 8 years old. Housed together with this colony is also a colony of Cyrtocara moorii (two males and four females), which breeds on a regular basis without interfering with the Frontosas. It has been written that Frontosa and C. moorii are each others counterparts in their respective lakes. But I just keep them together, because they have similar temperaments and also because they compliment each others beauty (or maybe I have a thing about fish with lumps on their heads).
Their water is kept at 25ºC and a pH or 7.8. The fish are fed on Hikari pellets and flake food, Also about three times a week I feed them whole whitebait. These are small soft fish about 2" long, which can be bought at most fish co-operatives fairly cheaply. They are seasonal, so when they are available, I usually buy a couple of kilograms and freeze them in a thin block and just break off whatever I need to use. It is a much more natural food than beef heart, which I never use, and the Frontosa certainly relish them. In my opinion the food value of the beef heart isn't worth the risk of bloat.
My Frontosa had spawned on four previous occasions, all unsuccessful, so this time, when I noticed a female starting to fill out and one of the males showing a bit more interest in her than usual, I decided to build a rock pile in the centre of my tank so as to form a type of barricade from the other fish and allow the pair of Frontosa a large open area at one end in which they could spawn. This worked perfectly, and they actually formed a pair bond and together kept the other fish at bay on the other side of the rock pile.
It was two days later and about three hours after I did a partial water change that I noticed the female's breeding tube showing, and that evening over a period of about 1 hour she laid about 30 eggs and at no time did the male get aggressive with her, even when she had finished spawning. The whole spawning ritual seemed to happen in slow motion and there was none of the usual dashing about and tail wagging, which we've come to expect from mouth brooding cichlids.
Later that night, I turned the lights off and left the room for about 30 minutes, returning with a net and an ice-cream container to catch the female and strip her of her eggs, because I didn't want her to eat the eggs again, as she had done on previous occasions.
I first filled the ice-cream container with water and sat it on top of the tank. I then caught the female who was half asleep and didn't realise, what was happening. I opened her mouth and gently let the eggs tumble into the ice cream container. I then released the female back into the tank and turned off the lights again. I placed the eggs into a previously prepared tank, using the same water and set at the same temperature as the spawning tank, to be artificially incubated in the usual manner. I noticed, however, that one airstone was not enough to rotate these very large and heavy eggs. so I had to use another airstone. Unfortunately, Over half the eggs were infertile and had to be removed after two days, to prevent the pollution of the water. I think my male was a bit too casual about the whole affair. I did, however, manage to get 12 healthy fry fully developed after 28 days. SUCCESS AT LAST - after eight years!
Even though it took me eight years to finally get a successful spawn, it was well worth the wait and gave me great satisfaction. So, anyone having difficulty breeding a certain species, hang in there! Don't give up! You will be well rewarded in the long run and nothing will give you more pleasure, than breeding a species which has been difficult for you.
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