# how many frontosas in a 5ft 125gal tank?



## alexrex20 (Aug 26, 2005)

i'm building a 60Lx24Wx20H tank (125gal) and want to keep a small colony of frontosas in it, starting them from juvies (about 2in). how many _should_ i keep in a tank this size? i was thinking 10-12 might be ok?

suggestions?


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## bitterman (Mar 27, 2006)

I'd start with 10 babies and in the end ........ end up with about 1M and 3-4F in the tank. As they get older you might run into aggression problems with more then that. If your really lucky you might end up with more females.

You might be able to stock higher then that, but its more about the footprint of the tank then the gallons. I only keep 7 adult Mpimbwe in a 180 (72"x24"x24"), more I'd feel they are cramped. Remember frontosa get to be 12"+

Bruce


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I agree with those suggestions. I have a six foot and seven foot tank. I have all my fronts growing out in a 265 gallon tank right now but when they reach adult size i have plans to move the 7 burundi to the six foot tank by them selves and keep the 11 mpimbwe in the seven foot tank. I will also likely have fewer fish as well when i remove any extra males from both tanks. I likely could have all ready removed some suspected males but i am waiting to grow them out so i can ask more money for them.


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## alexrex20 (Aug 26, 2005)

looks like i need to add a few extra feet to my tank


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

at 60", my suggestion would be 1m/3f only...


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

alexrex20 said:


> looks like i need to add a few extra feet to my tank


Yup :wink:

Tank size questions are very common. I would suggest anyone wanting to do frontosa... do it right. If you sacrifice on length your chances for problems are greatly multiplied. It's not fun dealing with the kinds of trouble that will most likely result (I know, I've been there and pushed the same limits... more than once).

Hope this helps.


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## drawls07 (Jul 24, 2006)

i have 11 w/c kitumba in a 125g and have no problem with it. 4m and 7 f biggest male around 15 inch and beta 12 inches . so you could do it . the guy i bought 8 of them from were in a 75g and he never had a problem with it and they breed like crazy still


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

drawls07 said:


> ...so you could do it...


_but should you???_

I had 8 wc kapampa in a 125 and had aggression problems. My beta kept beating up all the girls, stressed them out and they got sick. I had to put the beta in jail and medicate my sick females. After some prison time I tried to reintroduce the beta in the 125 and he resorted to his old tricks and had to be jailed again. Now that they are all in the 265 I have not had any problems.

19 times out of 20, a 75 gallon tank is a very bad situation waiting to happen and it should never be recommended (other than a grow-out - IMO). My first frontosa colony, many moons ago, was a group of Mpimbwe fry and I kept them in a 75 to grow them out. I didn't get a bigger tank for them as they grew and I had aggression problems and lost fish due to my inexperience and lack of knowledge.

You will always find some rare example of someone doing Ok in a small footprint. Footprint is VERY important, Frontosa are too expensive to do them wrong.

Russ


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