Keeping Frontosas - Please help me

[nagukush]

Hi Friends !

I just bought 6 x 3" Frontosas from a local pet shop and I plan to keep them in a 4 Feet (250 Litre) Tank. I dont want to keep any other fish in the tank except these 6 Fishes...

My problem is that I'm not able to afford / arrange a Filter and aeriator for the tank. I guess it will be about a week to 10 days before I can get them. Just wanted to know if these fishes will be safe in the tank without a filter and aeriator till then ?

Also wanted to request you to kindly advice if fronts are easy to keep ? Are they hardy fish ? Also can I breed them successfully ? Will I have to remove a breeding pair from the tank for the safety of the eggs / young ones ?

Sorry for so many questions - its just that I've never kept fronts and I very excited to have them now.

Kindly guide me a little...
Thanks !
Kush

 

[Rallysman]

Forget the thought of breeding them until you get them a proper home. Like all fish, they need filtration to keep from poisoning themselves. Without a filter the fish will die. Frontosas are fairy hardy as they mature, but young ones (like most other fish) are more fragile.

If you manage to keep them alive they'll be permanently damaged from their own waste if you don't take proper precautions.

Take them back to the store and use the store credit to buy a filter. If nothing else, get a sponge filter or under gravel filter. Those filters are effective but inexpensive. Even with proper filtration, you're either going to have to wait until you've established a bacterial colony in the filter or seed the new filter with established media (sludge or "old" gravel).


Worst case scenario, change 50% of the water daily with dechlorinated temperature matched water and feed very very lightly, if at all. In the long run a standard 4ft tank will not be enough for all of the fish, unless it's a 4x2 footprint, and that would really be pushing it.

 

[rinmouse]

I don't really understand why you bought the fish first?

 

[Pittbull]

as of right now you need to react to the situation at hand, because what you have done is made an impulse buy, alot of hobbyist do this some worse than others aye, so first thing first you need a filter of some type right now to move the water usually a hang on back filter will do for now, so you can beg or bum from a friend to see if they will loan you a filter and like my brothers pet shop he has surplus filters in his back room and possible your LFS may have some as well just let them know you made a newbie error and they may loan you a used one for a week or so may even give it to you but it will be an old filter, until you can get adequate filtration going, you will have to do a 50% water change almost everyday until then, like was mentioned from above if you need to feed them i would do a small pinch every other day as long as your doing the water changes, also you may want to get some stress coat as well to help aid them, i have 5 frontosa in a 120gal with 2 canister filters, i over filtrate on all my setups, i also have small colonies of other tanganyika's in my tank but as for you i believe 6 fronts in i think is a 60gal tank with those litres would be enough until you get some experience behind you or not your call, fronts are easy to keep for me but i have 21+ years of experience in raising fish mostly africans, when there young they are the most sensitive they will need to really be by themselves do not add any mbuna with them while their young, these fish have a life span of 25 years they are slow growers and they usually take any where from 3 to 5 years to mature and breed some quicker than others aye, oh yeah if you can not get a filter tomorrow i would donate blood and go to wal-mart and buy a el cheapo for now thats what i would do aye.. good luck..

 

[Pittbull]

let me reiterate a bit, my above message is intended for a 60 to 65gal tank with 6 small fronts in mind, you are going to run out of room down the road good thing is that they are very slow growers so you should have some time to plan ahead for a larger tank like 125gal..

 

[rinmouse]

why don't you return the fish (any store I've ever dealt with will take them back) get a filter, cycle your tank, then get the fish? I don't know. If you really are looking forward to them, it would be really sad if they died.

 

[nagukush]

Hey Friends !

Thanks so much for the replies and advice ! Just wanted to let you know that I finally managed to take out my Old Eheim 2217 Filter and an Eheim Internal Filter. Just wanted to request you for guidance on the below-

1. I have the Eheim 2217 Filter, but I dont have / cant get the White Colored Sponge that comes with it. Instead I have the Blue Colored 'Coarse' Sponges intact. Can I use the filter with only the Blue Sponges inside ? Will it still be effective ? Can I add something else on top as a finer filtration media ?

2. I have 2 Eheim 2217 filters and will it advicable to install both of them in the tank ? or should one be enough ? ( I already have installed the Eheim Internal Filter and its running perfectly fine)

3. I dont have a aeriator with a Air Stone, but I have connected the Diffusor thing on the Eheim Internal Filter (the one from which a tube hangs outside the tank and which sprays fine bubbles along with the Filter's output) - So should this be enough or is it advicable to have a seperate air generator ?

4. I have also decorated the Tank with about 0.5" to 1" medium sized gravel + a few Clay Pots as caves (I believe they love caves) and have also added a few rocks. I have also added a 3d Rock kind of background (the one that sticks on the inside)

So execept for the fact that I have not cycled the tank, am I doing everything fine ? Please guide me on the above, I'm really excited and I want to keep these fish as happy as they can be...I guess I'm trying my best....

Thanks again for all the kind replys and for caring...

 

[Coler]

Are these filters coming from an established tank - i seem to remember you another one ? If they came straight from an established tank to this one they will retain a good lot of bacteria, helping to cycle the tank very quickly.

If not you are in a fish cycle and need to change water whenever ammonia or nitrite is above 0. This could be twice a day, changing large amounts. You will only know when to do the changes if you have and use a liquid drop test kit. Seachem Prime can help to alleviate the adverse consequences of spikes during the cycle.

To be honest, when you ask whether aside from not cycling the tank you are doing fine, everything aside from cycling the tank is less important now than managing the cycle. If you can test and change water enough often enough to cycle the tank, then you'll be doing fine. This could be a number of weeks down the road.

 

[Pittbull]

hello, i have 2 RENA XP3 filters on my frontosa 120gal and the XP3 has a three chamber setup i dont use the recommended manufactures replacement filter pads or inserts but what i do is i setup one filter with just carbon in one chamber the next chamber i do ammonia removing crystals and the third chamber i use the floss, hand cut filter material padding the second XP3 is setup bio-balls first chamber ceramic noodles in the second chamber and foam padding for the third chamber, on both units i have a layer of filter micron padding in between each chamber which allows my frontosa tank to be crystal clear along with weekly 30 to 40% water changes, coler said it right since you didnt allow for a cycle period you will need to monitor your water quality twice a day and be ready to intervien when necessary do not overfeed and water changes are a must even if the water is new good luck..

 

[kay-bee]

I'd actually recommend making solid plans to get a 125gal+ tank now.

In my opinion, frontosa's are slow growers only when compared to fast growing large-species cichlids (such as those species which can pack on maybe 1 inch a month); frontosa growth may also be considered slow when considering the time takes them to attain maximum size (12"+).

However a frontosa can be a large fish prior to attaining full size.

It doesn't take them long to put on actual size (albeit it will take years from them to get to the 12+" size category, a 1" juvenile frontosa can be a 5" fish in 12 months.