# Mixing different size Fronts. What's your experience?



## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

Even though I've kept Fronts for years now, I'm a little more skiddish about this than I ever have been in the past. In the past I've added small Kigoma's & Burundi in with larger ones, but now that I have Kitumba Zaire Frontosas, I admit that loosing one or two is a lot more tragic to me.

OK,...the set-up is a _150 _gallon Tang Tank w/ _7_ Kitumbas, _2_ brichardi, ( _that I feel (from what I've heard & seen) MIGHT be more of a problem than the larger Fronts) _, & 5 orange lelupei.

The 7 Fronts were purchased in January. Four them @ 1.75 inches & 4 @ 1.5 inches & I lost one. When I compare them NOW,...6 look to be around 3 inches (_the alpha maybe a lil larger) _ & one is around 2 - 2.5 inches.

I'm planning on purchasing in this next month, 5 - 7 more Kitumbas @ around an inch or 1.5 inches.

I realize that NO ONE can definitively tell me what they (_the established Fronts & others_) might do to the new, smaller arrivals, but I would LOVE to hear what you guys think on the matter & what your experiences are ...

...AND MAYBE WHAT YOU DID TO MAKE YOUR OWN ADDITIONS AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE.

GJX
:fish:


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I had 6 established burundi in a six foot tank (alpha was 4 inches , smallest was 2 inches the rest fell in between) . I had ordered 11 mpimbwe later on. when the mpmbwe arrived they were extra small and I could not put them in with the burundi (they were less than 1 inch fry size). I grew them out then when most of them were more than one inch i put them in with the burundi in a new 265 gallon tank. They got along just fine. The larger burundi did not eat them as i had feared (but i did grow them out for several months first ). The burundi are more aggressive than the little mpimbwe but seem to just pick on themselves and ignore or leave alone the smaller mpimbwe. The mpimbwe seemed to have learned very quickly who to avoid and how to avoid them. I have not lost a single one.

when i put new fish into the tank i like to add many at once compared to just one or two. When i dump in a bunch it seems to confuse or overwhelm any aggressor that might feel territorial.

I also think its important to get some tasty snack that they really like and feed small amounts of that snack every 15 minutes for the first hour or two then after things calm down i shut off the light on the tank and leave a room light on so i can still see what is going on.

I also have found that it works best to have large single placed rocks rather than many smaller rock piles/caves. I found that the burundi were tearing each other up fighting over caves even when i had more caves than fish. By making only a single super sized cave in the center of the tank with free standing large rocks everywhere else the fish dont fight over caves, they all swim around and in the over sized cave in the center and can still hide behind the single rocks when feeling shy. Much better setup than i used to have.

I also found that for some reason the juvie fronts do like to hide in and around fake plants and driftwood, they really do like them (I just dont like them LOL) so maybe some fake plants temporary placed when you introduce the new fronts might be a good idea. It wlll also mix up the look of the decor you have to help break up territories.


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## alexrex20 (Aug 26, 2005)

do you have any pics of your frontosa tanks, cichlidgirl, that you'd like to share?!


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

Sure, i have a couple full tank shots and some close ups too.

Here is one of the over sized cave in the center :









Here is one of the single rocks next to the cave :









Here is the other corner :










Here is my full tank shot :


















See here where you can still have fake plants but buy aquatic turtle ones and place them as floating cover to help difuse the light etc. they also look very good attatched to the large rocks etc. 








Here is a link to a short video of this tank after i added in the fake plants for the juvies (I also have a couple haps and a pair of gold fish for clean up ) :
http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/...ion=view&current=frontvideohalfandhalf001.flv

Even though they have grown the smallest of the mpimbwe still like the cover provided by the fake plants :









Hope this is the kind of pics you wanted. I have other closeups of my individual fish. Let me know if you would like to see some of those as well.

CG


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## alexrex20 (Aug 26, 2005)

that tank is awesome and those are just the pics i was looking for (inspiration of my future frontosa tank). there's a local breeder with great prices on moba frontosas, so i just gotta have some!


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

please stay on the topic... You two can Pm each other or start another thread. There is no reason to hijack the OP's thread...

Anyway, 3" - 1.5", I have tried that a lot without any lost. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. I would say your chance of mixing them at night time in complete darkness would help the smaller one to survive better. It is almost always the bigger fish hunt for the smaller one when the smaller one is not familiar with the newer surrounding yet. And cover the whole tank during day time will work as well.

I would be more scare if they are 5-6"...


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I added the photos of the tank to show a example of the tank setup that helped reduce the aggression and territories when i added small fronts to established larger ones. I find this type of setup really helped to cut down on aggression on the smaller fronts since the little ones are not attatcked when they swim near countless caves etc... 

I agree that the larger the established front the more likely there will be serious problems. I have seen pics of fish with severe damage from introducing a 3 or 4 inch fish to tanks with 7 or 8 inch frontosa....


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