# Frontosas and Lelupis



## slowlips (Apr 17, 2009)

I bought burindi fronts 2inche size and 8 adult lelupis at OCA extravanza.Can I put them in one 75g tank.Are they compatible.Is NLS cichlid formula food good for them or do they need any other food.This is my first experiance with tanganyika cichlids.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

1. A 75 gallon is far too small for adult frontosa.
2. Adult frontosa will easily eat leleupi.

For now they will be ok, as long as the leleupi don't beat up the frontosa when they breed. This isn't a good long-term mix in most cases though.


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## slowlips (Apr 17, 2009)

How long does the fronts take to outgrow the 75g.Right now they are about 2inch.How much time does the fronts take to grow to 8inches.


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## letstalkfish (Dec 25, 2008)

more than likely the fronts wont eat the lelupis as long as you feed them. I have adult frontosa with a single small neo brichardi male and they havent tried. We named him lucky because of this. 75g is ok for the fronts. I have had friends who have bred fronts in a 55 gal with no problem im talking about 4 adult fronts. The idea is to have a large enough tank without them killing each other.


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## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

letstalkfish said:


> more than likely the fronts wont eat the lelupis as long as you feed them...


 i lost a 3" male lab. ceruleus because it choked on a 2" neo. leleupi, so IME, greater caution needs to be taken when mixing species than most would suspect. a regular staple of fish food has no sway in the instinctive feeding interests of an omnivore. and predators should be considered an even greater risk to all other tank mates. you named your brichardi accurately, IMHO. :lol: 
that said, a 75 gallon should be considered a decent grow tank for frontosa juvies. but fry in grow tanks should be allowed an abundance of space to respect that plan. you break the rules of logic for grow tanks once adding other species and/or more fish. it is now a mixed species community tank, and that forces experience to suggest incompatibility issues exists now, and that the tank will be deemed too small in the very near future. you will not likely see any issues as the fish acclimate, but the dynamics of the tank will change in due time, so be vigilant. HTH.


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

slowlips said:


> How long does the fronts take to outgrow the 75g.Right now they are about 2inch.How much time does the fronts take to grow to 8inches.


A 75 gallon tank (4-foot), under normal circumstances, should be OK for a frontosa growout tank (10 fry) for appox. one year (if properly aquascaped). I suggest you get a six foot tank before that time. There is a high probability that you will lose fish due to aggression if you push those limits.

Hope that helps.

Russ


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

A 4' tank is not a good setup for Frontosa - especially not Burundis that can get huge and grow quicker than some other types. You might be able to grow them out in there for a six months, but not longer, especially if they are 2" already. A 75G is a great setup for Leleupi, but 8 adult Leleupi will occupy a tank of that size easily! If you get more than one breeding pair, there will be an all out war in that tank, with Fronts or without!

NLS is great food for Fronts and Leleupi. I am keeping them together im my 240G, and they get nothing else. The Fronts might take the occasional leleupi fry, and I don't get fry from my fronts due to predation, but for me it's a show tank, not a breeding setup. Keep in mind that mine is a 8' tank!










As an aside, if you got them at the auction on Sunday, you likely got those fish for a steal. There were plenty of Fronts and Leleupi in that auction, and they sold at very attractive prices. I picked up a colony of 2" _C. moorii_ (Malawi Dolphins) for a song that are currently in a 75G, and that won't be a long term solution either :wink:


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