Question about Cyphotilapia frontosa

The best tankmates are other frontosas. They grow to 14" as adults and will attempt to eat anything that will fit in their mouths. However, you can sometimes get lucky. The best way is to grow up juveniles with the tank mates and that way they may get used to them and not view them as food. Potential tankmates are Altolamprologus calvus or compressiceps but if you want colour then possibly Leleupi or cyprichromis. Cyps are their natural food in the wild, but if you have juvenile fronts and adult cyps they may be ok for a while - no long term guarantees though. My cyps lasted about 4-5 weeks before they were munched. You have been warned.
Also remember that adult fronts will need a tank of at least 5'.

Better still in a 72" tank. Ammunition to talk Mrs. rodriguez_4 out of them? :thumb:

I currently have a 55 gal. with a few fancy goldfish. I would love to go bigger and get some electric yellow but I'm in the military and don't want to start something I can't keep for a longtime. I was planning on making my own acrylic tank with stand when over back to the states.

Both the goldfish and frontosa would need a much bigger tank. Goldfish plan on a minimum of 30 gallons/fish.

There are lots of Tanganyikans and Malawi that would make a nice stock in a 55G.

Have you looked at the cookie cutter tanks in the Library?

rodriguez_4 said:

I currently have a 55 gal. with a few fancy goldfish. I would love to go bigger and get some electric yellow but I'm in the military and don't want to start something I can't keep for a longtime. I was planning on making my own acrylic tank with stand when over back to the states.

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Ditto: frontosa would need a minimum 6-foot tank.

What should the ratio be of males to female. How can you tell the difference?

rodriguez_4 said:

What should the ratio be of males to female. How can you tell the difference?

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In a 6-foot tank, I would not go with more than eight mature frontosa. I would have one big alpha male and one smaller beta male (much smaller) and the rest females. If you start with fry, I would get 12 to 15 to increase your odds of getting the desired ratio.

Erik G has a good article on this site on how to vent mature frontosa.

I no longer breed frotosa, but I do have trusted contacts, in the hobby, that have high quality F1 fry from most varients. Send me a PM and I can direct you to a trust worthy source.

Hope that helps.

Russ

I am definitly looking forward to getting my Frontosa tank started. I still have a few months left in Japan so the wife is giving me very little cooperation when I tell her I want to start a tank that size.