# Frontosa VS Cyprochromis



## Jakemonaghan90 (Nov 30, 2008)

*** never kept Fronts. Ill just throw that out there. However, I am very interested.

I had this idea, late last night, and i wanted some input. I understand that in the wild, Fronts eat cyprochromis (spelling?) by statying awake while their prey sleeps at the bottom. I was thinking it would be awesome to keep a small number of Frontosa in a large, tall tank, with cyprochomis. They swim at the top levels during the day, while the Fronts inhabit the bottom. There would be little interaction (maybe?) during the day, and obviously, dinner at night.

Could I possibly keep enough cyps in the tank, and breed them in another, to keep up with the amount eaten?

Kind of crazy idea, but if i dont get input on it now, I will obsess over it until i get another crazy idea.

On a final note, I have thick skin. If you feel that this idea is WICKED (I am a rhody) ridiculous, please tell me. No need to be gentle.


----------



## bgko (Oct 24, 2007)

You probably won't be able to breed them as fast as they get eaten. Cyprichromis are also not a cheap date so having them as food for your Frontosa would be very costly. I wouldn't recommend


----------



## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Jakemonaghan90 said:


> On a final note, I have thick skin. If you feel that this idea is WICKED (I am a rhody) ridiculous, please tell me. No need to be gentle.


I see you like straight talk. Yup, that is a wicked ridiculous idea


----------



## tirzo13 (May 26, 2004)

frontosa are opportunistic predator's, they are not chase hunters, they are not ambush hunters.
they are lazy fish, nor are they designed to be any other hunter other than an opportunistic one.

what this means is, if you keep them fed with pellet food or whatever, they won't even bother hunting.
you may lose a cyp now and then, but this is not an unusual combo when one really considers it.

now if you did not feed your frontosa anything else, well yes, you would lose all of them, and you would need quite a big cyp colony or more then one tank to keep the frontosa well fed.

I would imagine 3-4 adult cyps a week would be about what a single adult frontosa would require.


----------



## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

You're gonna get broke if you keep on feeding cyps to fronts :lol:

And if you have that many, why use them as food? You could keep them, sell them....Or send them to me, to the opposite of where you are(Probably) :lol:


----------



## ArmeyGal (Mar 24, 2004)

Yup, the guy I got mine from kept them fed with pellets and such. Even had lamp multies on one end of the 125 the fronts were in and the fronnies wouldnt even touch the multis or give them a second look! And whats bad is lamp multies stay by shells so its not like they run far..lol


----------



## Jakemonaghan90 (Nov 30, 2008)

Thanks so much for all of the replies.

I figured that this idea was a long shot. I am just really into getting my setup as natural as possible.

I guess ill go ask some mbuna guys about growing aufwuchs in my tank...

Thanks again.


----------



## gman87 (Dec 24, 2004)

I put 3 deformed cyp fry with my F1 mobas with the thought they would munch them. That was about a year ago and they are still doing fine. The Nkambe I got are a different story, if it fits in their mouth....


----------



## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

I have a frontosa with 3 cyps in my tank. I haven't lost one yet. I have another 13 in another tank that I am letting get larger before I put them in with the others. You just need to make sure that the cyps are large enough before you put them in with your fronts.


----------



## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

@nt!x said:


> I have a frontosa with 3 cyps in my tank. I haven't lost one yet. I have another 13 in another tank that I am letting get larger before I put them in with the others. You just need to make sure that the cyps are large enough before you put them in with your fronts.


I've seen a front get a pretty good sized pleco stuck in it's throat. I don't know if cyps could get big enough to not get eaten by a mature male cypho. But hey, if it works for you,... great :wink:


----------



## KATALE (Jul 25, 2008)

i keep 22 blue orchid jumbos with 9 kitumba fronts.., keep in mind that the cyps are larger than the fronts so i have no issues.. as the fronts get larger, the cyps will get there own tank.. i dont recommend putting lg fronts with smaller cyps as *** seen the cyps getting eaten rt in front of my own eyes


----------



## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

KATALE said:


> ...i dont recommend putting lg fronts with smaller cyps as I've seen the cyps getting eaten rt in front of my own eyes


I have to agree.

There is always gonna be somebody, somewhere, that has made just about any situation imaginable work. Practically speaking, it is a bad idea.


----------



## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

Take a look at this Large tank with fronts and cyps. http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic/240g/fish/

imo they go great together. Sure you might loose a fish every now and then.. But when doesn't that happen...


----------



## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

@nt!x said:


> Take a look at this Large tank with fronts and cyps. http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic/240g/fish/
> 
> imo they go great together. Sure you might loose a fish every now and then.. But when doesn't that happen...


Those frontosa don't look mature (could be just me).

Also, that doesn't happen in a species only tank :wink:


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

@nt!x said:


> Take a look at this Large tank with fronts and cyps. http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic/240g/fish/


Hey, I know that tank - it's in my living room! :lol:

The fronts are 4 years old. I understand fish never completely stop growing, but they certainly have slowed down with the growing quite a bit! The only fish I have ever witnessed the fronts trying to eat in that tank are the petricola catfish - the front couldn't get it down though, and spit it out again after a few minutes. No harm done to either fish, but not good for my blood pressure, since I wasn't treasuring the thought of a spiny catfish stuck for good in the gills of one of my fronts. AFAIK the fronts have never bothered the cyps, brevis, helianthus, marlieri and what else is in that tank. It's pretty funny seeing a brevis male facing off with a front and chasing it way from a shell. There is at least as much space in the front's mouth as in the brevis' shell!

I think the reason for this to work is that it's an 8' tank, and I introduced the fronts when they were under 1" while eg the cyps were already mature. Of course you also want to keep the fronts well fed, but at one stage I was on vacation for a week with the auto feeder not working. Even though the tank get not fed for a whole week, the fronts did not start preying on the other fish. However, when I sold some of the fronts - I started with 50, now have 10 - one male ate a huge clown loach during his first night in the buyers tank. There is some chance that one day the fronts - or just one of them - will get in a feeding frenzy and go for the other inhabitants. If that does occur, obviously I will have to make some stocking changes in a hurry. Yet I have already enjoyed the tank for four years, and it has been well worth the risk to me. Again, I would not try this in a smaller tank than this 240G.

Frank


----------



## @nt!x (Feb 9, 2009)

awesome tank Frank! One of my favorites..


----------



## Ron R. (Oct 21, 2003)

Frank, do your cyps breed in the tank? If so, do your fronts eat the fry? I know this is an expensive feeder, but I've been thinking about adding cyps to my moba tank for a long time now.....love the cyps coloring and know they are middle to top of the tank inhabitants.


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Yes, the cyps breed in the tank constantly - there are always females holding. Since I have never seen any large fry, it seems safe to assume that somebody is eating them. However, my money would be on the N. leleupi and A. compressiceps, not the frontosa, if I had to bet on who's getting the fry 

Frank


----------



## Mr Mbuna (Nov 16, 2007)

Awesome looking tank Frank, well impressed. Love the pic of the three Cyps. What is that green mossy plant covering the rocks? Its nice to see a planted front tank for a change. I am going to introduce 8 cyps to my 5' front tank within a month or so. I've always wanted to try it and I'm going to. The cyps are bred by me so not too precious and if it doesn't work, well so be it. Watch this space.


----------

