My frontosa had babies

[Carol_Roberts]

picture of parents

[Carol_Roberts]

The baby is hiding underneath the tank decoration

[blaze]

congrats

[Condor]

awesome, Carol!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[sean13]

:thumbsup: Kool fish carol, I like there color.


Sean

[Discus_KC]

Good for you Carol !!!!!!!

Jack

[The Discus Shop]

Very cool. Congratulations!

[Discusgeo2]

Congratulations! Carol, man those fish look big! What size are they Carol?

[Spices]

Beautiful job done... :thumbsup:

Is this the first spawn for the parents and what became of the other frybabies?

**A**

[Barb Newell]

Very nice Carol!!!! Congratulations.

Barb :)

[jdellman]

Congrats Carol! I guess once you know everything there is to know about Discus it is time to branch out?

I recently came across Frontosas, and I am very interested in setting up a tank for them. I am debating between them and a community Cichlid tank. What are your thoughts on the Frontosas? They are very beautiful, but what about upkeep, breeding, etc?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks,

Jim

[KIWI13]

Here is some shameless advertising for our sister site SIMPLY CICHLIDS....

http://www.simplycichlids.com/forum/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=2858

Check out this article written by one of our members CHARLES on frontosa, with some of the best pictures ever taken on artificial raising of fry...

This is a MUST SEE article for anyone wanting these fish.....

HTH

Jas

Oh and heres an article on tang cichlids

http://www.simplycichlids.com/forum/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=2861

[Howie_W]

Hi Carol,


How exciting! Congratulations...the parents look beautiful. :) How many babies made it?



Howie

[Carol_Roberts]

I pulled all the other Africans out of this tank a couple of months ago. When I came back from ACA I found two babies. These are the first babies that I've seen. These guys are really easy to care for - I change water once a week (25-30% straight from the tap), give them a cube of bloodworms every night and tetrabits the rest of the time. These are pet store fish - male is about 10 inches.

Interesting article - why do they strip the females? To keep the rest of the frontosa from eating the babies?

[KIWI13]

Hey Carol, Well stripping is one way of making sure the female doesnt eat the eggs. Charles lost the first batch of eggs due to this hence he tried the artificial method. However stripping is rather traumatising for both fish and master if you ask me LOL.

You have some nice fish Carol
;)

[KD]

Awesome Carol!! Congratulations!!
Funny I was just thinking bout your frontosas yesterday.
I remember seeing pics in the past of them. If I were to get other fish I think I'd pick frontosas. They sound much easier to keep than Discus. What water parameters do you keep and what type of filter?
Yours look beautiful!

[Carol_Roberts]

I use an aqua clear 110 with a prefilter. Water is GH 12 and pH 7.8 +. I do weekly water changes of 25%. Feed tetra bits and bloodworms.

[jaydoc]

Carol,
It appears that you only have 3 adult Frontosa in a relatively bare tank. Have you had any problem with them fighting. In my limited experience, the males can get very aggressive when they want to spawn and I have even had a large 9 inch female kill a 5 inch male. I have heard some breeders keep 3 males in with 20+ females to help eliminate the fighting.
I love your Frontosa-still have your previous pics in my screensaver!

[KD]

How big is your tank and what temp. do they like? My water would be perfect.
Lots of luck with the babies!!
Keep us posted with pictures.
Karen

[Carol_Roberts]

Tank is 135, temp is 78F. They do fight a little, but avoid each other most of the time. Don't know if I have two males or two females. They used to be in a community tank filled to bursting with all types of Africans. I got rid of the rest to see if these would breed. I still have two babies in the tank with them. I keep expecting them to be eaten by the parents . . .

[KIWI13]

Hey Carol, I would say you have two females and one male however I have doubts on he fish on the top left hand side of the pic. I reckon its a female but I could be wrong. But my best bet is 2 females and 1 male

HTH

Jas ;)

[deseyered]

Hi Carol

I just saw your pictures. That's wonderful!!

If you want to keep the baby, I recommend that you remove it from the tank. Frontosa males are known for eating the fry.

Frontosa females actually tumble the eggs in their mouths for about 21-28 days. Normally we strip the female of her fry by catching her up anywhere from 2 days to 21 days. Stripping is done by holding the female over a small bucket or tank and using a toothpick or something to hold her mouth open. Some people will gently rock the female in and out of the water to get the eggs or developed fry out. You need to really look down the female's throat as they do get way down in there. Some people use a turkey baster to wash them out.

I don't recommend beefheart or bloodworms. There are some problems associated with them that a poster on cyphos.com put up. Doc has a phd and really knows his stuff. The thing with beefheart is the fat will not digest easily in this cold blooded fish. It builds up within their livers and shortens their lives. They do love mysis while young.... and shrimp. I buy my adult fronts shrimp at the grocery store and chop it up to feed them. They go nuts over it!

Congrats on the baby. Pull him out and put him in a 55 gallon and he will grow to about 6 inches the first year.

[Carol_Roberts]

You guys guessed right - 2 females and 1 male. Mid week I saw one spit out a bunch of fry and then gobble them back up. So this weekend I set up a fry tank, and transferred the 5 fry loose in the 135. I didn't know which one had the fry, so I caught them one at a time, put in a bucket and gently pried open the mouth while swishing the fish thru the bucket water. The first female coughed up three little ones - "I thought that doesn't look right", so I put her back in the main tank and caught the other one. She release 9 or 10. It was not easy getting their mouths open! I think I have 17 babies in the fry tank now. Will they make it on pellets or flakes?

[jaydoc]

Hooray Carol!
When I had Frontosa babies years back, I raised them on marine flakes that I just ground up in the palm of my hands and then when they got bigger, Tetra marine flakes and Discus bits. Do you know what variety of Frontosa you have? I raised "seven stripes" to 4.5-5 inches in about 9 months time.

You should be able to confirm sex also by looking at their vents. Males should have one large and one small vent opening and females should have two vents that are the same size. In my limited experience, this worked better in Frontosa than even Malawian cichlids and certainly better than in discus.

Those little guys of yours should be a load of fun to raise up!

Congrats!

[Carol_Roberts]

I would guess "common garden variety frontosa" LOL. I must not have gotten all the babies - I found 5 more in the main tank today . .

[Spices]

Hi Carol, they are sweeet... love 'em in bunches. :thumbsup:

[KIWI13]

Hey Carol
In regards to your feeding question, you can feed em frozen brine shrimp or frozen mysis shrimp there is also New Life spectrum in 1mm sinking pellets. when they get bigger around 3-4 inches I would try and keep em off pellets and feed em a variety of frozen food including krill, blood worms. try and include spirulina in their diet in either flake or pellet form.

On another note, holy cow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! those babies look awesome. You got a nice little batch there and they are already lookin pretty big. Well start feedin them up.

Good luck with them Carol, i am sure they are gonna keep you entertained.........

Jas ;)