After more than a year of planning and setting up the tank, last night I finally got my fronts! The tank is a 240G from Glasscages with all the gizmos that compulsive readers of these forums like myself need to have - dual sump setup (2x45G) with 2" Durso drainpipes, 2 oversized FBFs, 24 jet UGJ system, continuous automatic waterchanger, black substrate, real rock background, T8 lighting, LED moonlighting, real plants, and so on. 8)
Unfortunately after setting all this up, there wasn't enough money left for a colony of wild-caught Moba, and I realized that I would have to settle for Burundis. I went around a few LFS and local breeders, and finally bought 50 juveniles of about 2" each from a breeder about 1h from my place.
I introduced them to my tank last night with the lights switched off, and immediately noticed how blue their finnage looked in my setup! I was kinda worried that this would be less noticable once the lights were on, but today it's still there
I haven't actually seen that many fronts in the flesh - just the deformed wretches you find at most LFS - and after reading on this site, I never thought that humble Burundis - and especially juvies of this size - could be quite that blue! In short, I am very happy with these fish, and just needed to let somebody know. Since I don't own a digital camera, it will be a few weeks before I have the first photos, but I'll make sure to post them here as soon as they become available!
congratulations, I remember the thrill of getting my first fronts. but I didn't get that many. Burundi are great, and now you have an excuse for another tank and more fish.
He always shows this much blue, it is just a darker shade than what shows in the pic, because of the flash. Burundi's can get plenty of blue, it just doesn't show up on the forehead, like the southern varients.
Thanks for all your comments. As I said, pictures will be forthcoming eventually!
bizdaddy - wow, that's a nice Burundi male you got there. Hope mine will look like that when they grow up! I guess there simply isn't space on the forehead to be blue, because that's where the hump is :lol:
frontosa_guy_dan - yep, it shure is a busy tank. It is fascinating to see though how even the little 2" juvies are showing the slow, graceful moves that fit so well with the adults. There is no hustle and bustle and unruly chasing in that tank that you would see with tropheus or mbunas.
Time will tell how long I can have 50 in there. As soon as it appears crowded I am going to sell some, and in the end I am hoping to end up with a colony of a maximum of 3 males and 12 females. I am going to keep the best females and maybe sell all the males and buy a WC male to bring new blood into the colony.
The 50 I have now are F2s from two different females of the same colony. The guy I got them from bought the WC grandparents of mine, which he sold, then bought some of their fry back from the buyer, because he realized that they were pretty special in color for Burundis.
As promised, here are the 1st pictures of my Burundis. Not exactly technically flawless shots, but I couldn't wait any longer to upload some pictures of them.
Of course I think they look fantastic, but they are the 1st Fronts of that size I have ever seen, so I am kinda lacking a comparison. If you guys think they look like inbread monsters, please let me know. It would be better to find out now than in a few years time when I am trying to flog off their fry
This is a whole-tank shot of the 8'x2'x2' they are in:
fmueller....my burundi fry were that blue when I first got them and almost 2 years later they are still that blue. Even my alpha male who goes dark quite often, has the most deepest blue in his fins. He looks awesome. Good luck with yours.
What a great setup you have!
From your date of posting, the only thing i can said is frontosa growth rate are really slow.
Anyway one of the best setup i have ever seen.
Just thought I'd post some new tank shots just to show everybody keeps on growing
One day I am going to get around to create a web site which details how this tank was set up, but unfortunately it hasn't happened yet. I am the stay-at-home Dad of a recently adopted 7 and 8 year old, and the little munchkins are keeping me pretty busy ;-)
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