# Newbie Needs help



## juventino79 (May 19, 2008)

Hello everyone,

I am new to the hobby...well not actually new i have cichlids when i was younger kept them for quite a few years, anyhow i don't think i did things right then and would like to give it another try.

At the end of the summer i am looking to purchase a 90 Gallon Tank.

The main reason for this tank is because i fell in love with the frontosa.

I hope there is someone on this forum that can help me answer the following questions?

What is the best filter to buy? Canister? Brand?

How many fish can i put into a tank of 80-90 Gallons? Keep in mind i do not want to get a bigger tank later on.

Which other species will fit best with the frontosa?

What kind of substrate and how much substrate is needed?

I would like to have species of cichlids that hopefully wouldnt dig up my aquarium too much this is one of the reason i like the frontosa, because its calm and will not terrorize the other fish...this is what someone told me, hopefully that is true

if anyone can help that would be great!


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

juventino79 said:


> 1) What is the best filter to buy? Canister? Brand?
> 
> 2) How many fish can i put into a tank of 80-90 Gallons? Keep in mind i do not want to get a bigger tank later on.
> 
> ...


Welcome back to the hobby. Frontosa/Gibberosa are a beautiful & graceful fish. I'll try to help with some of your questions.

1) I currently have a Fluval FX5 and two Emperor 400s on my 125 gallon tank. The FX5 is an awesome canister and I like the Emps to supplement and provide additional surface agitation. I keep the 2nd Emp 400 as a working spare in case of Emergencies.

2) How long is your 90G? 4 to 5-foot? A 6-foot tank should be your minimum footprint for a lot of good reasons. QTY for a 90-gallon??? As a temperory grow out tank, I'd say you could put, about 10 fry in there and maybe you could get away with that tank size for one year. It all depends on the agressiveness of your dominant male.

3) To quote an often quoted phrase "the best tankmate for a frontosa is a frontosa." I don't have any other species in with my breeding group. In my juvie tank, I have some A. Calvus (Inkfin). I enjoy the Calvus.

4) Substrate: as my preference, I like black sand. I use 3M Colorquarts (T-grade). I'll try to dig up a couple pics of my sand and make another reply. A general rule of thumb would be a pound for each gallon - I use a little more than that as I like to bury my PVC/ABS.

Please keep us posted!

Russ


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

3M Colorquartz in my Adult Kapmapa tank


















Same stuff in my fry/juvie tank


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Here's a couple Calvus pics









Dirty glass, sorry


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I agree with all that was said.

I have two tanks , a six foot and a seven foot . I run a good quality canister filter and 2 larger Hobs. I personally like the tetratek 500's because they push alot of water and filter the particulates real good, but they are louder than most filters. If it was in my livingroom they might be a tad on the loud side (rushing water sounds).

I had 6 Burundi fronts in my six foot 135 gallon tank. I have since moved them in with 11 Mpimbwe juvies to a 7 foot 265 gallon tank so they can have more space to grow out in . If i need to i can always put the burundi male and his females back into the six foot tank at a later date. Usually what happens is you buy a group of babies and as they grow you remove extra males so you get one male and a harem of girlfriends for him. So you might start out with 10 fish and in the end you would have 5 or 6 fish...

If your tank is less than 6 foot long i would not go with more than 3 fronts tops. I also agree that the frontosa is best kept species only . If you have extra tanks present you can sometimes play around with attempting to introduce other species since you can easily move them out if there is trouble. If its just the one tank i would stick to only fronts.

I had white sand and now i have black sand . I like the black sand much better , the fish look better with the black sand and black background. Much bluer looking.

Hope this helps, its pretty much what Razzo said so you seem to be getting a consensus here.


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

Unless your 90 gallon is at least a 60" long tank, I would not put any frontosa in there. Frontosa does need the length of the tank to reduce aggression issue. Even with 60" long tank, you can only fit a trio or quad. in there in my opinion.

ps: and please don't start 3 threads with the same question.


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Charles said:


> ps: and please don't start 3 threads with the same question.


Why does that happen Charles? Is that because the poster hits the submit button a second time nefore their browswer has a chance to load the post?

When I do that, I call it stuttering :wink:

Russ


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I have noticed for some reason this site takes a very long time to load the posts. When it first started doing that i would hit the submit button a second time thinking i had not depressed the key all the way or it was locking up etc.. It would post two or three times LOL.


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

I see. I will let the admin. knows about this problem.


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