# can't believe it, My dream frontosa,I'm crying inside



## rew (Aug 22, 2007)

So I had this 150 gallon tank running for a long time now with numerous fish in it. then I put Five frontosa fry in the tank wanting to make sure the tank was fine before I picked up the parents and other large frontosa from the lady I purchased the fry from.They did great and stayed in there for approx a month. SO I went and picked up my new beautiful group of 10 frontosa burundi. the lady told me they will probably sit at the bottom for the first few days atleast and that that is what they did for her when she first got them. So I get them home and put them all in the tank No problem. they look great in the tank. finally the frontosa I have wanted for years. they weren't cheap but well worth it. AND they are all swimming around even ate awesome and coloured up amazingly. it seemed to good to be true. well it was a week later I had to go away for a night. I checked on my fish room around five before I left and fed them all everyone seemed happy and health. then I come home about the same time the next day and I come home to a tank full of dead fish. I almost lost it. good thing my Five year old son was there keep me sane. Anyways does anyone have any idea. I can barely go into the fish room now. I was so excited about them have wanted them forever and finally found some I liked for a price I could afford at the time. agh don't know what went wrong well if you can think of anything please feel free to give some info on the subject please


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

are those 10 adults? Perhaps your overloaded your tank.


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## tepei22 (Dec 1, 2008)

Hey Rew,
I'm sorry to hear about that. I've had that happen to me and it's just a sick feeling inside! When I was home, it was not a problem because I was constantly doing water changes but when I left for a week and asked a friend to care of the fish, that is exactly what happened.
You mentioned that the tank already had numerous fish in it. And then you put the 10 adult frontosa in a 150. In all honesty, to just put the 10 adults in a 150 is already a very crowded tank. And you would need to change the water constantly in order to maintain decent fish keeping levels. I suspect that the tank water quality was already starting to deteriorate and unfortunately, the good bacteria could not break down the waste fast enough. With a tank that crowded, when one fish happens to die on top of high ammonia or nitrites, it pollutes the tank even more and the chain reaction is very fast from there.
I hope you don't let this discourage you from keeping frontosas in the future. They are a wonderful fish but just know that they need their space being such large fish.

tepei22


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## rew (Aug 22, 2007)

Well thanks but I took the other fish out before I got the frontosa. I just meant I had fish in it prior. And the tank I put them in might have been less gallons then the one they were in but not by that much and my tank is not very high just deep and long.(home made wood tank) plus I had been checking the water for the week that I had them and they were all good before I left. Sorry to hear of your loss as well and yeah sick feeling. well I know this won't stop me from getting more frontosa but just hard cause the first time I ordered frontosa they showed up with no water in the bags and not one made it. just hard that whole tank died in short time with no known cause.


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## clgkag (Mar 22, 2008)

I know the tank was up and running but anytime you add fish the bioload goes up and it takes time for the bacteria to catch up to it. Adding 10 large fish at once may have been more than it could handle. Sorry to hear about that, it sucks.


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## Lister (Feb 18, 2009)

Sound like an oxygen crash to me. Large Fronts need a lot of surface agitation for oxygen transfer. Are you using airstones or do you have a wet/dry filter? If not then they probably suffocated. Ammonia spiking could have done it too, but for all of them to die that quickly usually means an oxygen crash. I feel for you, I had a similar thing happen to me a few years ago when my cat got under my tank and tripped off a power strip stopping my system. Killed half my tank because of course I was out of town when it happened. I have since then split my system equipment on multiple power souces and started using child proof covers on all the plugs.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

So sorry to hear what happened. I think it sounds like a combination of both things (ammonia spike from adding in 10 adults at the same time) and maybe the oxygen levels. I usually keep my tanks a couple inches below the fullest water line so my HOB filters will dump water down into the tank, splashing creates great surface agitation and oxygen levels are always up ! Once again, sorry for the disaster.


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## mel_cp6 (Feb 3, 2009)

how long was the tank running for?
it does look like an amonia spike. if the tank hasnt been running for a very long time and you add numerous fish in it, amonia will spike. 
i always put bacteria supplement and some ammolock when i add numerous fish.
but my tank is only been running for about a month.
but everytime i stock it with 4 or 5 fish, my ammonia spikes.
sorry to hear you loss. this gets very stressful when things dont go right.

i had the same problem about 2 months ago (before i started my cichlid tank) with
my community tank. i added some amquel+ before i went to work to bring ammonia, nitrate and nitrite down. when i came home most of my freshwater fish and catfish died.
fortunately petsmart replaced all of my dead fish and even took all the stuff i bought that may have caused the problem.


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

There is probably an answer to this mystery, & I'm sure that you'll wreck your brain to figure it out, but you may need to just check everything that you know & try to make sure that you cover allof the bases in the future & understand that you may never fully know.

GET THIS: I had 6 kigoma frontosas that almost all of them I purchased back in the summer of 1989, when I first feel in love with them after seeing one in a pet store in Philly.

In 2007 my 2 year old son & I were doing our weekly water change & everything was going well & he was helping me by dumping the additives into the water.

BY THAT TIME I HAD THE 6 ADULTS IN THERE _(THAT WERE AT LEAST FOUR OF THEM AROUND 17 YEARS OLD & BESIDES MY WIFE & SON, THEY WERE THE PRIDE OF MY LIFE, ...& PEOPLE USE TO KNOCK ON THE DOOR JUST TO GET IN TO SEE THEM)_ & I had 12 fry that were recently released, but getting old enough to eat with the other fish & not hide.

Well I went to bed that night _( weekend )_ & got up the next morning before I had my contacts in & was devastated when I walked by the tank & saw one of the females dead. I screamed.

I was further beside myself when I looked around the tank and saw that ALL of my fronts were dead! LIKE YOU b/c of my son I kept it together, but in order to be alright, my wife had me live the room & I didn't come back until she had TOTALLY cleaned out the tank!

I know what you went through, & now a little over a year & 12 kitumba Zaire Blue fry later I'm not as depressed as I was , when I think of it. I'll NEVER forget it though. :fish:

Hang in there.

gjx :thumb:


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## rew (Aug 22, 2007)

thanks everyone for your posts. the tank had been running for years and I don't think the water is the problem. The lady I bought them from is going to sell me the fry she had stripped before I took them home so hope this will turn out better. Thanks again and best of luck to you all


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Very sorry to hear about your loss. That stinks.

Best of luck with the fry.


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## LlamaKuzco (Mar 15, 2009)

I purchased 4 Frontosa 6-Stripe Burundi fry's about 5 years ago. One was eaten immediatly, one took the leap of faith from my 20g because the glass didn't fully cover the water (about 2 square inches but she managed it), another took the leap of faith about a year after that. Now though, the lone survivor is the biggest fish in my tank, and absolutely beautiful. These things happen and you can't let it get you down.


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

LlamaKuzco said:


> I purchased 4 Frontosa 6-Stripe Burundi fry's about 5 years ago. One was eaten immediatly, one took the leap of faith from my 20g because the glass didn't fully cover the water (about 2 square inches but she managed it), another took the leap of faith about a year after that. Now though, the lone survivor is the biggest fish in my tank, and absolutely beautiful. These things happen and you can't let it get you down.


A 20 gallon tank?

That right there is what I would think would be your main problem.

Sorry for your loss, but with a 20 gallon tank, I can't say that I would be surprised that something went awry.

LJx


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