Thinking of keeping Frontosa

[DaveB]

I'm nearly sure I want to keep frontosa in a new tank when I move. The upstairs tanks will have hard water since they won't be on the RO/drip setup and I know I can keep fronts with some other colorful fish and it'll make a nice feature tank in one of the living areas.

Two quick questions though:

- should Mpimbwes be kept with dark or light substrate? They kind of fall in between the super bright and super blue groups, so I'm not sure which is better.

- what's the largest fish a 5-6" Mpimbwe would eat? I probably won't go too strict on the geography here - keeping it to just Africa will likely be the extent of it - and I have a bunch of 4" yellow labs, for instance. Would they become food for the biggest ones? I'm not a huge volume feeder so I'm not worried about the Fronts getting to be 10-12 inches any time soon.

I know in general what I can and can't keep with them, but from experience, any other suggestions for ideal semi-nearby fish to keep with them? I'll also probably have my distichodus in with them. His red will be a nice contrast and I've known people that did well with that combo before.

edit: they'll likely be in a 240, which will be more than enough space at their size.

 

[Crispy]

I know you wanted to stick to african fish, but I like a few fancy plecos and clown loaches with my kigoma colony.

 

[Pharaoh]

I used to keep mine with Calvus and Compressiceps.

 

[mike dunagan]

I do keep mine with calvus and compressiceps...

 

[ward1066]

I have adult mpimbwes and I wouldnt mix them with the labs. If the fronts are small they will get picked on or killed and if they are adult they will get their fins nippped. Fronts grow really slow so they wont get large really fast. As far as substrate, mine were to dark on black sand and look better on white. Probably a mix of both (grey) is ideal for mpimbwes.heres some pics of mine on white sand (pool filter or silica sand)

 

[DaveB]

I have adult mpimbwes and I wouldnt mix them with the labs. If the fronts are small they will get picked on or killed and if they are adult they will get their fins nippped. Fronts grow really slow so they wont get large really fast. As far as substrate, mine were to dark on black sand and look better on white. Probably a mix of both (grey) is ideal for mpimbwes.heres some pics of mine on white sand (pool filter or silica sand)

Interesting. I always thought labs was a common combo. The fronts will be 4-5 inches and the labs are all roughly that length. There are two I worry might become food, but I never would guess that the labs would bug the fronts at all. Mine have never been aggressive types.

I already have them so I'll give it a shot, but they're kind of perpetually for sale so I can dump them if need be. I'm not a huge fan of calvus/comps though. Might just keep them with nothing but themselves for a while. I'll be broke for a bit after moving anyway, so there'll be plenty of time to decide.

As it happens I have white sand with a lot of black flecks. Those pics look great, so I think mine'll be perfect. Most of my rocks are also light, but I think I'll probably redo that... likely removing a bunch of them. Yours look amazing on that blue BG. I imagine black might also seem too dark, even with whitish substrate. Which is too bad, as otherwise I greatly prefer black.

I know you wanted to stick to african fish, but I like a few fancy plecos and clown loaches with my kigoma colony.

I will probably have them with the loaches. All my other tanks are SA so I definitely like to keep them together, but in the interest of having a decent variety elsewhere without having 4 tanks in every room I'm willing to blend non-SA eastern hemisphere fish without getting too upset.


This all assumes I find a way to get them tomorrow. I'm in Indy and thought I brought my battery powered air pump, but I have batteries, tubing, a stone, but no pump. Damn it. Gonna see if I can buy/return or borrow one or something. The mpimbwe are local here and this was going to be excellent timing...

 

[ward1066]

just watch for agression. IMO fronts are best in a species only tank. I like black also, heres my kaps on black with white sand

 

[DaveB]

Nice.

Yeah, I've gotten a pretty low tolerance for aggression. I sold the demasoni (that I had raised since birth years ago) because as their population shrank below 12 they started getting mean to each other... overcrowding truly is the solution for them... and I just got tired of it and someone else added them to his 8 or 9. I've gotten rid of several other fish when they got mean too, so I can't see myself putting up with it. If I can have more colors, great, but if not, the others can move or be sold.

 

[gomezladdams]

Just saw a few groups of gold neolamprologus sexfaciatus today.Always sounded like a hot mix of fish to me!
Kind of hard to find though.
I have black comps in with my mpimbwe too.

black sand with white holey rock.They dont look right if the substrate is all black,they darken up too much.

 

[mike dunagan]

agreed too much black and they darken up too much...