Frontosa Breeding Suggestions Please

[NYQYL]

Hi,

I have decided that I want to breed frontosas due to the fact that my natural tap water has a high PH of 8-9.

Right now I have a 120, 40 and 20 gallon tanks ready for this purpose.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on breeding them? What type are the most popular? Substrate and so on. Thanks

Or if anyone knows any links so I can do as much research as possible.

 

[Mcdaphnia]

A 120 -- is that 24 X 24 X 48"? I think that fronts like a six foot or eight foot tank a lot better. I moved a colony from a 96 X 36 X 42 tank into a 120 with the dimensions given at the top. I only put in one male, but in spite of the reduction in numbers, they were unhappy and stopped spawning for a couple months.

 

[NYQYL]

Interesting, thanks for your reply. Yes the dimensions are 48 x 24 x 24. This is too small to breed fronts? I really prefer South American cichlids anyway. What SA's will breed well in water with a high PH of 8-9?

Would one male front work out ok with a few females in a 120?

 

[STUNNA]

I'd buy a bunch of frontosa(at least 7-10) and leave them together in the 120 for a while> Then as dominant fish start to appear, you can be assured that they are males and separate them out into the smaller tanks. Then as soon as you have one male left with 3-4 females, I'd say that you're on your way. Just make sure that you have a lot of rock in the tank & that you pay attention to the requirements for breeding frontosa. Also, with 4-5 fronts & a lot of rock in your 120, you could prolly have a bunch of neolamprologus in there too. BTW-you can get rid of the extra males. if you need any info, check outwww.cyphotilapia.com & http://www.frontosa.com

 

[Mcdaphnia]

A 120 is not too small to raise fronts. It's more work and less flexible than a six or eight foot long tank with some depth. In a six foot tank you can have three males, one with the females, and one each behind eggcrate dividers on either end.

I would not follow stunna's advice unless you don't mind very slow growing fry that tend more to poor body shape and finnage and broken striping. Start with about a dozen fry or juveniles in the 120. Remove every male until you have all females.

You can add a male from somewhere else that you are sure is not related to your females into an end divider or into a nearby tank even before you discover all the males. Get rid of ALL the males that are siblings to your females. Inbred fry are inferior all around, and harder to raise in the bargain.

Let's say you can get three males that are not related to your females and you have them set up as suggested, or one male and the females in the 120 and the other males elsewhere. When the male with the females begins to get to rowdy or aggressive, move him behind a divider and put one of the sequestered males in with the females. This will reduce any problems of harassing females or worse.

 

[NYQYL]

Thank you very much for your replies. This was the type of information I was looking for.

Would I be able to get away with having 4-5 clown loaches with the fronts? Would they interfere with the breeding process or possibly get eaten?

 

[Mcdaphnia]

Clown loaches like to have a lot of worms in their diet. How would you keep the fronts from eating the loach food? Too many worms could mean bloat or digestive problems even though fronts are mcuh more meat-eaters than mbuna are.

Loaches are nocturnal and like to hide in a big tangle of driftwood during the daylight hours. You could have some driftwood in with fronts if you wish. Some people don't like to on esthetic grounds that there is probably no driftwood in most natural frontosa haunts.

The loaches might scarf up a few eggs before the female front picks them up to brood, but that is not a big concern unless you must have every single possible fry. What concerns me more is that in any confrontation, the clown loach has a spine by each eye that it uses to slice its opponents. There may be something on these spines that encourages infection, as well as the fact that who wants their fronts to be sliced up even if it eventually heals?