# What kind of Fronts



## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

Hi,

A couple of years ago my fiance and I picked up this front from a co-worker that were basically waiting for it to die (had it in a small round fish bowl, no heat filter or air)









Then a couple of years later after not knowing if we wanted to keep the front or not we adopted this one from our LFS









at first the two didn't get a long so we believed both were males until one day the top one had something that resembled little marbles in its mouth and stopped eating. We let it hold the entire batch (in our 125g) and only two surived (now in a seperate tank)









a couple of months later we noticed that our front was holding again, we were going to let it hold but it was becoming very stressed, fins/colors not good so we took the babies from her and now have 28 little ones still doing well (also in their own tank)









i'll try to take some better pictures...i may have the oldest/crappiest digital camera out there


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

A testiment to the tenacity & sheer will to survive of Fronts & fish in general.

CONGRATZ that fate chose for you the fish that it did.


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

it is a burundi.


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

are all burundi? I guess that was my main question as I'm concerned about breeding 2 different types together.


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## chago (Mar 4, 2008)

both burundi!!! :thumb:

the first one i asume the female, by its shape, the second the male, mainly by its color and belly shape.... nice specimen by the way!!!

also, this shows the gratitude these fish will show when treated with respect and love.

super congrats!!!


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

That's a great story! You could throw three or four more female burundi in there and have a breeding colony :wink:

Thanks for sharing :thumb:


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## Razzo (Oct 17, 2007)

Are those recent pics of the adults, especially the female in the first pic? Assuming that is an older pic, have her fins improved? What tank mates do you have in there with them?


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

no the pictures are current. The top is the female and that is why we took her babies out (fins were looking bad). We currently have these two large fronts along with 2 LFS bought female fronts (2.5"-3), 5 yellow labs, a couple of clown loaches, pictus catfish, 2 acei (m/f), 3 red zebras in our 125g. We are working on w.c.'s to hopefully get the large female frontosas fins back to normal.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

Your mbuna or the male is nipping her fins. I think the mbuna cause the males look similar. They look shredded. I would pull out the mbuna (red zebra, labs etc. )Depending on your acei they might be ok, mine were peaceful. Here is a pic of how the fins are supposed to look. These fish are only 7 mo old, your adults should have tons more finnage than mine. They have clearly been nipped off:




























They are all burundi. Nice burundi. Its good they spawn for you. Breeding fronts is hard for alot of people. I would pull out the mbuna and replace them with more female burundi.


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

I am pretty sure it is the male that is nipping her fins.. The fronts are so huge compared to my yellow labs(would consider getting rid of them just for tank space even though they are really passive). The red zebras are very peaceful and maybe up to 1" compared to the 8"+ fronts so they are no competition.

Is there a way to sell the juvenille fronts that works best?... cant really keep 30 baby fronts.

I only have a 125g, 29g, and 10g(if this tank counts).

and by the way your fronts are amazing... My females fins used to be long like that after I rescued it and had it in a 55g. I then got a 125g and 2 months later I rescued the large male. It was interesting stumbling upon both of these. I had no idea what frontosas were when I rescued the female like 3+ years ago.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

You need to get him more females then and try to construct a cave out of rocks or pvc pipe used for plumbing. Make the cave so the female can fit in it but the male cant. Try to also provide visual screens (block the view, out of sight is out of mind) Use rocks, plants, driftwood etc.. One of the reasons people usually will keep one male and 5 or more females is the male can be distracted by other fish and females when he is bothering one of them. Sort of spreads the aggression around rather than one fish getting all of it. Works pretty good. I have a fairly aggrssive little alpha developing and if i only had one other front for him to pick on he would have killed it long ago. Its strange, they will ignore most other species completly but go out of their way to harrass each other . Probably to show their dominance and aggression.

If it were my fish i would get a tank divider now and start looking for some adult females and maybe a beta male for your tank. Also , i keep mbuna too, they were very peaceful at a young age, then when they got bigger they were highly aggressive, so plan on needing to put the zebra and other mbuna in their own tank soon. (took mine about 5 or 6 mo and i had to move them to their own tank). Its like a light switch was thrown and they got mean, killed each other even , mostly just the males but the females were no wimps themselves. LOL.


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

I agree with CG that the best thing that yiu could do for your female is to give her plenty of cave spaces that she can duck into when the attention gets to be too much. And make them so that the male can't easily get in with her or follow her.

Extra females might help this too & spread the natural aggression around a bit.

Nice to see that you've grown in the hobby.
GJx


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

we may have a home for the 20 some babies we have now but does anyone have an idea on how we can get rid of future batchs?


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

You can list them on craigs list and clasified ads. Contact local LFS, if you talk to breeders you can learn how to ship them and sell alot that way too. Other than that they can spit in the tank and let nature take its course but with fronts that would be a waste of good income. My local mom and pop said they want my males that i thin out in a couple months. So i would check there first. Make sure you take pics of the parents and fry with you so they can see the good color etc...Pics IMO are a big plus when trying to sell fish, especially colorful or exotic ones.


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

thought I'd update the pics ... no more bellies on the babies and they are growing oh so quickly! I'm still trying to perfect my picture taking, so please ignore the blurryness and bad flash! ha hope you enjoy 




























i think this video probably does the best job...
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kar ... I_1723.flv

cg...what type of camera do you use? Your pictures come out so clear and nice color! I'm shopping around for a new one so any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

Very nice. I liked the video best too. i just recently figured out how to upload a video to photobucket so now im posting all kinds of video allover the net LOL. Even ones i shouldnt where my glass has drips lol.


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

cichlidgirl1 said:


> Very nice. I liked the video best too. *i just recently figured out how to upload a video to photobucket so now im posting all kinds of video allover the net LOL. Even ones i shouldnt where my glass has drips lol.*


 *I* can attest to THIS everyone!! LOL

CG has become a picture posting /video posting Godess!!

And once I figure it out, I plan to follow in her foot-steps!

Just NOT the Goddess part! lol

lol 
GJx:thumb: 
:fish:


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

just found this one...this is our adult female (1st pic of this post) before we got the male...I can't wait till she gets her fins back


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

brettokok said:


> just found this one...this is our adult female (1st pic of this post) before we got the male...I can't wait till she gets her fins back


She looks nice, double up on the normal water changes and that will speed it up quite a bit.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

GJx said:


> [quote="cichlidgirl1"
> 
> *I* can attest to THIS everyone!! LOL
> 
> ...


thanks lol. Its like i found a new toy.


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## brettokok (Dec 5, 2006)

more pics to update...seriously these fish grow so much everyday! haha can you tell I'm new to this hobby? I always made fun of my boyfriend (brett...brettokok) but I'm such a proud mommy


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