# Frontosa aggression



## jets07

I am having aggression issues with my frontosa's, I have one frontosa that is 5" and I just added a 4" and my 5 is not happy, he is chasing him around and stressing the new frontosa out, I also added a tawain reef hap and he is being attacked by the front also, I have a 75 gallon tank with plenty of hiding spots, the fish do not hide though, I have re arranged the tank with no success, I really do not want to set up another tank for one fish any suggestions. Thanks for your help.


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## Bertz

jets07 said:


> I am having aggression issues with my frontosa's, I have one frontosa that is 5" and I just added a 4" and my 5 is not happy, he is chasing him around and stressing the new frontosa out, I also added a tawain reef hap and he is being attacked by the front also, I have a 75 gallon tank with plenty of hiding spots, the fish do not hide though, I have re arranged the tank with no success, I really do not want to set up another tank for one fish any suggestions. Thanks for your help.


The only thing that will stop it is about another 4 Fronts.
More then likely you have 2 males, That will not work long term.
You need more of a 1 male to 6 females ratio, That said.

I have done it with a male and female together alone in a 55 for about 3 yrs with sad results i lost my male soon after they spawned.
It could of been age related they were in my care for about 14 yrs, I do have the female and the babies "getting bigger daily" in a 120 now, But soon i will either need to upgrade again or pick the best male and about 4 more females, Even at that a 120 maybe to small for long term.

It is written no tank under 6 feet, 150 gallons to raise them.
I started them all out in a 180 gallon but i had to get rid of that................I will find my way back to it though.

You may want to take any other fish out of that tank and get a couple more fronts, There will always be some sort of aggression with them thats their nature the males heard the females, But usually with no injuries.

Read through older posts you will find a wealth of info on them here.


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## 02redz28

I agree with Bertz. You likely have two males and a tank that is far too small for them. I would suggest either upgrading your tank and getting a harem of fish or choose a smaller species of critter to keep. Either way, rearranging rocks for large open water fish like Cyphotilapia is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic...


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## Fogelhund

Bottom line is that the tank is too small. If you've added another male, to a males territory, he isn't going to react well no matter the size of the tank though. As also mentioned, they do best in larger groups.


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## Razzo

75 gallon tank is too small for Cyphotilapia. You need a larger foot print with multiple cyphos to spread out aggression so that no one cypho gets picked on too much. I wouldn't automatically assume it is male to male aggression. I have seen females get pretty nasty with each other. Males will also harass females (again, many females to one or two males is ideal). I recommend more than one male also... If something happens to your one male you have just lost a key dynamic to the interaction among them. Also, there is never "no" competition among males in the wild. A little bit of competition will dramatically liven up the tank.


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## jets07

Well after a day of beating up each other I had to set up a 2nd tank to split up the 2 males, So now I have a tank in my man cave which the wife was not to thrilled about but oh well, once i removed him my front and tawain reef begin swimming around again and eating and my 75 gallon is back in peace. The other male is in a tank by himself, I am on the fence of selling him due to the fact that he is in a 30 gallon by himself and I don't want him to live like that or do you think he will be okay for awhile until he out grows the tank, if that is the case is there any little tangs i can introduce with him, I have always wanted to start a shell dweller tank but not sure if the front will eat them any suggestions...


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## Fogelhund

The front would likely eat the shelldwellers.

My recommendation, is that if you wish to keep frontosa, is to get a 6ft tank. If you don't want to get a 6ft tank, or can't, restock the tank with fish that will thrive in your 75 gallon.


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## jets07

So to recap, I have a 5 inch frontosa in my tank, I recently added another front, one began to show aggression to the recently added front to the point were he was hiding up in the corner, I took the agressor out and put it in a different tank, Today I was down watching it and began to notice she was holding eggs in her mouth, Is that possible, well i guess it is, they were only in the same tank for less then 24 hours, could this be the cause of the aggression, now I have a female that is holding, are fronts like mbuna's were it takes multiple females to one male or will they pair up with each other again in the future?


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## Bertz

jets07 said:


> So to recap, I have a 5 inch frontosa in my tank, I recently added another front, one began to show aggression to the recently added front to the point were he was hiding up in the corner, I took the agressor out and put it in a different tank, Today I was down watching it and began to notice she was holding eggs in her mouth, Is that possible, well i guess it is, they were only in the same tank for less then 24 hours, could this be the cause of the aggression, now I have a female that is holding, are fronts like mbuna's were it takes multiple females to one male or will they pair up with each other again in the future?


Is it possible the newly added front was holding when you bought her?
As for the issue with the aggression, The above posts say it all, These fish need room and at least 5 - 1 , female , male ratio.


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## jets07

No the one that is holding, I have had for 5 years and she was the aggressive one I took out of the tank.


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## Yael

Maybe what you saw wasn't aggression but mating?


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## jets07

I am pretty sure it wasn't aggression, both my tawain reef and the other front were forced to the top of the tank by the female and she would not stop picking on them. How long will the female hold before releasing the fish that is if she releases them without swallowing the eggs.


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## Floridagirl

Pictures?


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## jets07




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## jets07




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## jets07

Sorry the pics were taken from my phone, it was tough to get a pic with mouth open, you should be able to see an egg or two...


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## Floridagirl

I hope she is holding for you. She's not showing much of a bulge, but they will hold for about 28-30 days.


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## jets07

there are quite a few eggs in her mouth and I see here pushing them around, I had to turn the light back on to get a pick, it was a bad pick.


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## Floridagirl

Yay. I hope she holds! Burundi are better about not swallowing their eggs. I have Mikula Zaire, that none of the females have held past day 5 or 6. I have a female on Day 4. I'm tempted to strip.


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