Hey guys,

I'm buying a fish tank with fish from a guy about an hours drive from me. It's around 140 - 160 gallons, about a metre in length. The fish are Malawi Cichlids, except for 2 of them (1 of which is a Frontosa and the other I'm going to have to research when I get it I'm afraid as I don't have any info on at the moment.) He assures me that the Frontosa will be OK in that tank. I don't want to insult the guys intelligence as he seems to know what he's talking about, but he says the Frontosa won't grow too big for the tank as it's not in the wild. Is that right?

Also, I've heard that Frontosas should be kept in groups, and there's only one on his own in this tank. Would it be worth at least getting a female for him? (that's assuming he's a male). He's about 7 - 10 cm at the moment I'd say.

I'm getting the tank regardless, so I may have to re-home some of the fish if there's any problems. I want to look after them properly. I'm just going to have to do some research on them after I've got it all set up. There seems to be about 15 fish altogether, and at least 7 different types of Malawi.

For the short term I'm content with just having the fish and learning about them, but in the future I'd like to start breeding a few of them. I think the baby Frontosas look so cute... ahem, I mean my girlfriend thinks they look so cute...

I'm just wondering if anyone's got any thoughts?

Are you sure about the tank's capacity? One of my tanks is a metre long and standard proportions and it is about 200 litres. Even if it were a corner tank I don't think it would have 3 times the volume (140-160 gallons would be more than 600 litres).

An adult frontosa should get to 10 - 12 inches depending on sex. From all that I have read (and I am keen on tanganyikan cichlids) I would say best practice is a group in a species tank, not just one in with malawis.

For transport you need to pack those fish individually i.e one per bag.

Ooops! That was a mega-typo. I meant 140 - 160 litres! Do you mean that every fish needs to be packed individually or just the Frontosa?

I'm no expert but Frontosa Cichlids need tanks larger than 140-160ltrs They're pretty big fish. 100gal is probably more suitable:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/frontosa.htm
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_front.php

How long has the guy had them for?

I'm not sure how long he's had them. The Frontosa looks about 7cm at the moment, so I'd say maybe a year? Not sure.

I will keep the Frontosa then until it gets to about 5 or 6" then I'll have to give him away :(. Shame cos I really like Frontosas. Maybe if he doesn't grow too rapidly then I'll have moved into a bigger place in a year or so, so I can get a bigger tank. How quickly do they grow?

Thanks for your help

If it was properly kept and fed a frontosa would be at least halfway to adult size in a year. Its a predator and its probably subsisting on omnivore foods, get it some carnivore pellets, fish pieces and worms and it will bomb up in size. Most frontosas probably average about 9 inches, though some do get bigger, and they are loosely social, youd have 6 of them and not much else in a tank of around 100-150 gallons. They can be fairly laid back, but they will obviously eay anything that will fit in the fairly large mouth, so potentially thats any fish up to the size of an adult platy could go down the hatch. Probably find the guy has dwarfed it a bit with the slightly small tanksize and probably the inability to feed it enough protien without the other malawis getting too much protien and getting malawi bloat (hepatic lipidosis that results in dropsy and maldigestion).

TBH if all the other malawis are the usual combination of algae browsers and opportunists the frontosas are better kept seperate from them because ensuring the frontosa gets the right foods will throw the other malawis into protien excess when they steal his food, something that will inevitably happen in community. Frontosas are often misplaced into malawi communities, mainly because they are fairly peaceful, but it doesnt suit them, they neither like the aggression from other fish, nor do well on the low protien feeding regimes,theyre better off in a tanganyikan specific setup mainly for them perhaps with a few hardwater lake compatible synodontid catfish, and in the extremely large setups with stuff like giraffe cats, and a more traditional form of large algae eater that can keep the algae off the rocks.

TBH i'd pass the frontosa on sooner rather than later, he's probably got some growth to catch up on and you'll find it very difficult to allow him to do that without risking the others health, uless he will do stuff like tong feed meaty items straight from you.

Thanks for the info! I'll see what I can do with the Frontosa. Might have to donate him to the lfs. I was wondering too about cycling. Obviously the tank will have to be emptied to transport it, but the bloke tells me he's going to leave water in the filter to keep the bacteria alive, and bring a bucket of water from the tank (maybe 5 or 10 litres worth). Will that be enough to prevent significant ammonia/nitrite spikes?

Cheers,

Mike

Depends on the transport and setup time, much over a couple of hours, probably not.

If you invest in a battery powered air pump and put the airstone into the middle of the filter, that will help.

Quote:

No, about an hour I should think. Maybe an hour and a half when you take into account emptying/refilling the tank.

Mike