Frontosa

[NjOyRiD]

Hi, I'd like to know, ppl that has Frontosa; how's the temperament of this beautiful fish against other fish?!
thanx

[sniggir]

Frontosa are not overly agressive, but they are picivores so they will eat any fish that can fit into there mouth. also if you plan on haveing more than one unless they are females, they will fight the smallest colonie you can have is 1 male and 3 females as the male will be aggressive to the females..... they are great fish I realy miss mine, one other thing is that they do not do well with agressive fish as they are slow eaters, try sending Bitterman a PM he can give you some guidance on Fronts for sure

Pat

[NjOyRiD]

k kewl thanx

[darkdep]

Bruce advised me that having a single works ok as long as you pay attention to the piscivore thing.  Sure enough, my big female isn't seemingly attacking anything else.

[NjOyRiD]

what does piscivore means? never heard that word before?

[darkdep]

It means they eat fish.

[NjOyRiD]

ok thank you

so dark you have only one female in the tank ?

[sniggir]

yup and she is a big girl realy nice looking.

[darkdep]

Yep, she's a huge thing...A certain grace all her own.  She looks so dominant yet never makes an aggressive move at all.  I think when I'm gone she scares everyone. 

I HAVE had some deaths in the tank...but I don't suspect her.  The injuries...didn't look right for her.  I've never witnessed any aggression.

[bitterman]

Yep, she's a huge thing...A certain grace all her own.  She looks so dominant yet never makes an aggressive move at all.  I think when I'm gone she scares everyone. 

I HAVE had some deaths in the tank...but I don't suspect her.  The injuries...didn't look right for her.  I've never witnessed any aggression.

If she is the culprit, you will most likely never see it. Fronts stay lerking in a corner or under a rock and normally wait till fish are sleeping to sneak out and attack something... This is how Fronts hunt crypts in the wild (catch them after they goto sleep). Gerry did have this front eat a yellow lab in his tank and thats why he sold it to me APW... That being said it did not bother 1.5" synos I got at the time.

Another thing to pay attention to if you are doing the lone frontosa, is activity in the tank... a very active tank can stress out a lonely front and essentially cause death/sickness/ refusal to eat...   Also it can be hard to ensure the Frontosa is getting enough food as they are not aggressive feeders like most Malawi's.... Tropheus for example are such a  busy/agressive fish that the poor front would be a goner for sure.... Also keep an eye on fin nipping... One of the wonderfull traits of frontosa are the long trailers they can develop.... In a tank with tank mates other then frontosa, most often they are nipped off faster then they grow.

What frontosa variant are you looking at... there are 2-3 main sub species of Frontosa. But this is controversial due to one of the latest published article saying the 7 stripers and Sp. North are the same species with a morph. Then there are the Gibberosa.

If you want big humps, go for one of the Sp. North collection points / variants.
If you want rich blues and purples go for a Gibberosa variant.. Zaire's being the richest in colour. Moba, Kap's and Kit's etc
If you want a nice mixture of still alot of blue, but easier to get a hold of Mpimbwe are a great pick... Float can be an issue in all fronts, even though many people say Mpimbwe are plagued with it.. I tend to disagree.

Float is a big topic in the frontosa world.. Basically it can occur is all.. There are a few ways to easily avoid it

1) Minimize stress in the tank
2) Don't Over Feed
3) Feed only sinking food

Float is often more an issue with Wild Caught fish. This is for several reasons. So variants are said to have float being more of an issue. I believe this is more to do with the temperament of different variants and also how deep the fish were collected from. The deeper the fish was collected from the more likely they might have swim bladder damage from to fast of decompression.

1) Swim bladder damage occurs when decompressing the fronts.
2) Wild fish are more pron to stress
3) Wild fish are accustom to eat way less in the wild then we feed them. As a result many are over feed and this results in possible float issue.

This past topic has alot of information of different Frontosa Collection points and Identification of the different variant.
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=12050.0

Bruce

[darkdep]

In my case, the big girl is a surprisingly active eater.  She wasn't for a very long time...more so than any other fish I've kept, I had to "earn her trust" it seems.  She now will come out when I'm around and will head over FAST when she sees the food come out.

Nobody bothers her.  course, she's easily 4 times larger than anything else in the tank.

I can see why people fall in love with this fish.  I kept this lone one when I sold Bruce's colony back to him, just for variety...I think I didn't have the colony long enough to fall in love with them.

[bitterman]

In my case, the big girl is a surprisingly active eater.  She wasn't for a very long time...more so than any other fish I've kept, I had to "earn her trust" it seems.  She now will come out when I'm around and will head over FAST when she sees the food come out.

Glad to hear she doing well!!!!!

[darkdep]

Yeah, she is the queen of my tanks, by far.

[gmann]

Yes I am very glad she found a loving home(twice). It was hard to let her go but it was the best  for her. Plus I was out 4 ruby reds, 2 yellow labs and 1 2.5" sunshine.. 

[darkdep]

Interestingly enough, I just lost my last two Ruby Reds...