mixing frontosas with central americans?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Oscars a schooling fish? As adults?

And fish don't just need clean water, food, and space to swim. If you are following the animal welfare research then in order to provide well being the fish need "the ability to display wild type behavioral patterns." I equate many mfk'ers with their mega predators in cramped tanks like the old zoos with a pacing tiger. Intelligent fish like oscars are especially vulnerable.

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What you might think is schooling is really them thinking they will get food from you. Oscars are famous for thier begging and when they see you they think they will be fed. They just follow each other. Cichlids aren't schooling fish, and live solitary lives. That is why they are territorial.
A 125g is small tank for all those fish.
 
cichlidfish said:
What you might think is schooling is really them thinking they will get food from you. Oscars are famous for thier begging and when they see you they think they will be fed. They just follow each other. Cichlids aren't schooling fish, and live solitary lives. That is why they are territorial.
A 125g is small tank for all those fish.
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Not all live in solitary lives. Cyprichromis species or sardine cichlid from Tanganyikan are open water schooling cichlids, so are many rock dwelling colony forming Lamprologus Brichardi complex species. All cichlid fry are schooling until they reach juvenile or sub adult stage when their territorial behavior is stronger than their schooling behavior.
 
I'd have to agree with most posts. once everything is full grown you will def be overstocked but as far as mixing CA and african most of these fish are hatched for many generations on fish farms the water parameters are not nearly as important as they would be in a wild caught fish. Your biggest problem will be the temperment of your fish...some will be tolerant some wont.
 
AConrad said:
I would never. Frontosa are non aggressive. The jag or JD will end up killing it.
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AConrad said:
fronts get big quick. My 210 they got to a foot in a little over a year.
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umm i disagree with both, although its a bit odd mixing africans with centrals, the fronts can hold their own with a 'normal' jag or jd, now if you are talking about a trimac or red devil might be a different story

also, fronts are one of the slowest growing cichlids i have ever owned and known to be 'slower' growers, it could take 5 plus years before they reach full size from what i remember

pics of your foot long frontosa in your 210?
 
clekchau said:
umm i disagree with both, although its a bit odd mixing africans with centrals, the fronts can hold their own with a 'normal' jag or jd, now if you are talking about a trimac or red devil might be a different story

also, fronts are one of the slowest growing cichlids i have ever owned and known to be 'slower' growers, it could take 5 plus years before they reach full size from what i remember

pics of your foot long frontosa in your 210?
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That was quite a while ago, dont have any pics on hand at the moment. I'll look though. Jaguar cichlids are one of the most aggressive imo. I've had a jag tear up other CA cichlids, i cant even imagine what one could do to a frontosa.
 
Bottom line, I don't think you should be adding any more fish to the 125.

I have a 210 gallon with five adult severums, an 8"+ Saxatilis pike, and about four adult Geos, and it's too much. Even with a huge wet/dry and an FX5, I have to do at least one massive (maybe 2) water changes a week to keep the nitrates in check and I've recently added Pothos to help. In addition to that, the aggression is very high when the severums are spawning because it forces all the rest of the tankmates into one half of the tank and this makes the pike uneasy/cranky.

Ammonia and nitrite should always be zero as long as your filter is cycled but that doesn't mean the water is "clean." My guess is that the nitrates are over 10ppm unless you feed very lightly and do massive w/c every week.
 
Please tell me how you grew a front to 12 inches in a year. I feed heavily and vary the food, do massive water changes, and drastically over filter water. It takes me at least two years to get to breeding size and that is well below the twelve inch mark. Big fronts go for big money because it takes so long and so often something goes wrong in that time and the fish dies.

Jags are impressive at times. Had a pair chase a 24 inch redline snakehead out of the tank through a hood. Temperment depends on individual fish though too. I have seen passive CA that are supposed to be aggressive and vice versa. Biggest thug I have ever seen was a huge male synspillum. He wrecked anything that came into his 240 except the female he eventually paired with. I have seen a few flowerhorns not far behind. A buddy of mine has a 16 inch plus super red texas that has an algae cover tank cus he wont let you put your hand in to clean it unless you wanna lose some tissue. He even rips the algae magnet off the wall so he is relegated to a life in a green walled room.

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