# Frontosa with Malawi?



## emptyhead

Can I keep Frontosa with Malawi? How many frontosa should I keep together in a 150 gallon?


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## KoenEeckhoudt

I would not recommend it, to say the least. The Fronts are very calm, and (most) malawi are very nerveous fish.

The fronts won't like it at all.


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## Charles

same reason as above.


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## emptyhead

Too late. I bought 3. They will be in the peacock/hap tank with some yellow labs. I may add some compreceps and/or calvus also.


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## Charles

comp/calvus being very calm and slow getting to food fish, it is worest to mix them with haps/peacock...


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## chapman76

That doesn't make sense that you ask a question and people respond in 5 hours telling you not to do it and you say too late, you already did it.

Why ask the question then?

I've never kept comps with haps or peacocks, but I know people who have. They were adults though. I don't think juvies would compete well for food in a tank with haps and peacocks.


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## boredatwork

I have a hard enough time feeding my juvie calvus with frontosa in the tank. They are very shy (and seem like pretty stupid) fish.


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## Sailfin

I have some peacocks, electric yellow and comps/calvus with fronts in one tank. But as stated by other members they may cause problems. I haven't had any problems yet but I am watching. That particular tank has my Mpimbwe blue breeding colony, no problems yet.


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## Lesley

I have one front that I used to keep in a tank with yellow lab, red zebra, a maingano and a convict. The front was so petrified of the other fish, he rarely came out from behind the powerhead. Someone bit the long trailing ends of his fins off, and that was that...

I moved him last spring to a tank with 2 parrot cichlids and two clown loaches, they all get along great. He's more than doubled in size.


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## houstonhimself

I keep two Burundi sub-adults and an adult calvus in my hap/peacock tank and none of the peacocks or haps really mess with them. I do have to make sure that they get some food every once in a while though because they do like to hide. But I would not mix fronts with more aggressive Malawi species like mbuna.


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## karatejo

I recently got rid of all the Malawi in my tank (hard decision) that I had with 5 sub adult Fronts....I sold the Malawi back to the local LFS in exchange for 5 baby Fronts. Anyway I only have Fronts in my tank now a silver shark (excellent for keeping sand clean by way) and a couple of Congo Tetra as dither fish....Guess what after 5 days of moving Malwai the larger sub adult Fronts have started breeding. My big female has a mouth full of eggs at the moment. So if you really are serious bout keeping Fronts..... keep them in tank on their own. For some reason they also look better in groups when there is more of them and not too much other fish about....Calvus is ok with Fronts tho but maybe just one or two......


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## emptyhead

chapman76 said:


> That doesn't make sense that you ask a question and people respond in 5 hours telling you not to do it and you say too late, you already did it.
> 
> Why ask the question then?
> 
> I've never kept comps with haps or peacocks, but I know people who have. They were adults though. I don't think juvies would compete well for food in a tank with haps and peacocks.


I asked the question for answers. I appreciate the replies. I found 3 very healthy and reasonably priced fronts and decided to go for it.

So far, they are doing well. They are more mellow than the other fish, but are doing great. There is not really any aggression in the tank (yet).

I did add a good looking male D. compressiceps as well.


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## WHITE KNIGHT

mine is with malawi acei, kingsies , red top , crimson tide, blue dolphin , pecock and a livingstonii he does fine just have to make sure he gets his share of the food, funny thing is i have a silver shark in there as well and they seem to always be together like buddies figure that out


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## kb3781

I have 3 Fronts about 3" long in a 125 gallon tank with Yellow Labs, Acei, and Demasoni. Things are just fine. I plan to move the Fronts to their own tank within the next year, but currently they are doing just fine.


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## kb3781

I have 3 Fronts about 3" long in a 125 gallon tank with Yellow Labs, Acei, and Demasoni. Things are just fine. I plan to move the Fronts to their own tank within the next year, but currently they are doing just fine.


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## GJx

B/C of my love for fronts, (_fish in general _) I'd say have tio tell anyione who asked,....NO I wouldn't recommend it.

It can be done to some extent & I know of hobbyist that keep them together, but with the radicslly different nature of the two types of fish, it's just not worth the chance of failure. when you don't have to.

:?

Hope it works well for your fish.

gjx


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## Windsor

I am sure you will be fine. It does help if the frontosas are the largest fish in the tank, but if not, they usually soon become the largest. Due to their docile nature, if they are the dominant fish in a tank, they generally will 'calm' an african community tank down.

You can mix a lot of different kinds of fish that some people will say is impossible. In other words, there's a lot of armchair fish racism that goes on around here. :wink: There is no set rule of "OMG YOU CAN'T KEEP THIS FISH WITH THAT FISH OMG!!!" Just use your head, don't go with crazy extremes and you'll find most of the time, that you'll be just fine.


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## lloyd

Windsor said:


> You can mix a lot of different kinds of fish that some people will say is impossible. In other words, there's a lot of armchair fish racism that goes on around here. :wink: There is no set rule of "OMG YOU CAN'T KEEP THIS FISH WITH THAT FISH OMG!!!" Just use your head, don't go with crazy extremes and you'll find most of the time, that you'll be just fine.


 trying...hard...to...bite...tongue....


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## becadavies

LOL @ Lloyd.....

I had to put 2 fronts in with my malawis a couple of years back and TBH they're finnage just gets mullered...slowly but surely.....it doesnt matter how big or domineering the fronts are the malawis are just too down-right quick- i watched a juv daktari take all the trailers off my fronts in 1-2 weeks...by week 3 his tail was but a rounded paddle shape  .....the fronts were big and hard enough to swallow the daktari whole- but he periodically took potshots at their tails and whizzed straight back under his rock!!

Fronts look sooooooo much better in single sp tanks anyway!!

I love my mbuna and fronts equally but i KNOW my fronts look better in all their glory WITH *all* their finnage :thumb:


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## rahim101

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... kmates.php


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## rahim101

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... kmates.php
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... corner.php


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## rahim101

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... kmates.php
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/f ... corner.php


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## rahim101

wholly triple post batman


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## emptyhead

Well, so far the 3 frontosas are doing very well and look great. Probably the best looking fish in the tank. There is not much aggression in the tank, and I have seen no aggression to the fronts except from one front to another. This tank is actually very calm, but most of the fish are young. The largest fish is an S. fryeri which does not chase anyone, just patrols the tank.

Right now the stock is:
6 malawi peacocks
21 juvie yellow labs (unless some have been eaten)
8 juvie acei
4 malawi haps
3 fronts
17 giant danios
2 bristle nose plecos


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