Mpimbwe frontosa

[kelbaker79]

I'm getting a breeding pair tonight!!! Can't wait!! The male is 8" and the female is 6". They are WILD CAUGHT! I'll post some photos later tonight when they get here

 

[Fishfanatic16]

Congratulations I hope you will enjoy your new pair of fish

 

[kelbaker79]

Thanks!!! I'm excited

 

[Jmedic25]

pics !!!!!!

 

[kelbaker79]

Here's a quick pic of the male

 

[garfy]

He's a good looking boy

 

[kelbaker79]

He's a good looking boy

He's like a little puppy dog, when I reach in the tank he comes up and kind of curls up in my hand...lol...strange.

 

[Ukdans1k]

Hi I'm sure you know this but they don't do well as just a pair!!!
What can happen is the female will be holding and the male continue to bully the female to breed again. resulting in either eaten eggs/fry and or dead female. I suggest purchasing at least two more females this will take the pressure off!!!

The only way round this is to separate the female as soon as she starts holding and re- introduce once the fry are free swimming. However there is no guarantee he won't bully the **** out of here and possibly kill her when reintroduce as she won't be ready to breed again for a while.

Depending on the experience of the female she may not hold successfully until her 3 or 4 batch, but I would advice against stripping her for the eggs not only does this create learned behaviour so she may never hold successfully again but it's easy to dislocate the jaw and kill her.

I keep a group of 9 burundi frontosa, one dominate 12 inches and one sub dominate male 10 inches 5 females 2 are 8 inches and 3 are 5 inches and two unsexed juveniles . My frontosa are my pride and joy . I did a lot of research and spoke to several keepers and breeder for months before I brought mine to give them the best conditions possible.

Your frontosa look great and I wish you all the best breeding them, just thought I would offer some advice. Hope it helps . Any questions just ask

Dan

 

[kelbaker79]

Hi I'm sure you know this but they don't do well as just a pair!!!
What can happen is the female will be holding and the male continue to bully the female to breed again. resulting in either eaten eggs/fry and or dead female. I suggest purchasing at least two more females this will take the pressure off!!!

The only way round this is to separate the female as soon as she starts holding and re- introduce once the fry are free swimming. However there is no guarantee he won't bully the **** out of here and possibly kill her when reintroduce as she won't be ready to breed again for a while.

Depending on the experience of the female she may not hold successfully until her 3 or 4 batch, but I would advice against stripping her for the eggs not only does this create learned behaviour so she may never hold successfully again but it's easy to dislocate the jaw and kill her.

I keep a group of 9 burundi frontosa, one dominate 12 inches and one sub dominate male 10 inches 5 females 2 are 8 inches and 3 are 5 inches and two unsexed juveniles . My frontosa are my pride and joy . I did a lot of research and spoke to several keepers and breeder for months before I brought mine to give them the best conditions possible.

Your frontosa look great and I wish you all the best breeding them, just thought I would offer some advice. Hope it helps . Any questions just ask

Dan

Thank you for the info!! They are in separate tanks

 

[Ukdans1k]

Apologies if it seemed I was ranting, just frontosa are my favourite fish I get excited when I see someone else how has them and like to share my experience and info.

 

[kelbaker79]

Apologies if it seemed I was ranting, just frontosa are my favourite fish I get excited when I see someone else how has them and like to share my experience and info.

Oh my gosh, no, I appreciate the information! Thank you! I have 10 Juvies, but these are my first adults. I was aware of the "abuse" that can occur, which is why they're in separate tanks for right now, but I really do aaoreciate your info! When I have questions in the future, which I'm sure I might, I know who to ask!!

 

[Ukdans1k]

Please do ask anything, if I don't know the answer then someone I know will. Lol

How are they settling in? Are they feeding?
Something's to maybe look up if you haven't come across it yet is a condition called Float.

I'm getting excited here as one of my newer females is starting to look rounder in the belly so fingers crossed she might breed!!!.

What are you feeding? I feed mine small frozen fish, live ghost shrimp, cockle meat, muddle meat, mysis and live daphnia. But they can be fussy buggers. Lol took a while after getting my big male before he would eat. About 2 weeks in total.

 

[kdpuffer]

Nice fish, love frontosas. I have a dozen juveniles I'm growing out hoping to breed. Good luck!!!

 

[Lady_Alia]

Hi I'm sure you know this but they don't do well as just a pair!!!
What can happen is the female will be holding and the male continue to bully the female to breed again. resulting in either eaten eggs/fry and or dead female. I suggest purchasing at least two more females this will take the pressure off!!!

The only way round this is to separate the female as soon as she starts holding and re- introduce once the fry are free swimming. However there is no guarantee he won't bully the **** out of here and possibly kill her when reintroduce as she won't be ready to breed again for a while.

Depending on the experience of the female she may not hold successfully until her 3 or 4 batch, but I would advice against stripping her for the eggs not only does this create learned behaviour so she may never hold successfully again but it's easy to dislocate the jaw and kill her.

I keep a group of 9 burundi frontosa, one dominate 12 inches and one sub dominate male 10 inches 5 females 2 are 8 inches and 3 are 5 inches and two unsexed juveniles . My frontosa are my pride and joy . I did a lot of research and spoke to several keepers and breeder for months before I brought mine to give them the best conditions possible.

Your frontosa look great and I wish you all the best breeding them, just thought I would offer some advice. Hope it helps . Any questions just ask

Dan

If you don't mind my asking, why do you keep a sub male?
I have 11 of them and was planning on thinning them out to 1 male and 3-4 females.
What purpose does the sub have?

 

[Ukdans1k]

I keep a sub male, to keep the dominate male pro forming , as a back up as they are hard to find in my area and hopefully create so unrelated strains, for another breeding group in the future. That's the plan anyway.

 

[Lady_Alia]

I keep a sub male, to keep the dominate male pro forming , as a back up as they are hard to find in my area and hopefully create so unrelated strains, for another breeding group in the future. That's the plan anyway.

Is the sub close to the Dom male size? I guess what I'm asking is if I do the same thing should I keep a sub male that's the same size as the dom or the smallest male I've got in the tank?

 

[Ukdans1k]

Hi there is a an inch maybe inch and half difference in length between my males. As I said before I only keep two as to increase the chances of breeding and to have unrelated stock options. If you do the same as long as the male is of a breed able size then it's fine. I might even say its worth getting a smaller male as it would be able to hide in smaller caves, pipes or whatever, should it need to.

How many frontosa do you currently have and in what size tank? Also how big are they. ???

 

[Lady_Alia]

Hi there is a an inch maybe inch and half difference in length between my males. As I said before I only keep two as to increase the chances of breeding and to have unrelated stock options. If you do the same as long as the male is of a breed able size then it's fine. I might even say its worth getting a smaller male as it would be able to hide in smaller caves, pipes or whatever, should it need to.

How many frontosa do you currently have and in what size tank? Also how big are they. ???

I have 11 of them in a 55g tank. My smallest is probably 2" and my largest male is about 5".

Like I said, I plan on thinning them out once they are big enough to sex. And lemme tell ya, I'm dreading trying to sex them! lol

They're probably about a year old now. And I love love love my frontosas!!! I've got pics in my album if you wanna take a looksie

What size is your tank?

 

[Ukdans1k]

One of the best ways to sex them is just to remove the know male either sell or separate tank. A few weeks later another male will come forward, sell or separate . And repeat this till no show signs of being a male, then you know what's left is female. Then you can re- introduce your males if you kept them separate, or buy a replacement male if not. (or was that what you meant by thinking out)

They are extremely hard sex otherwise . Unless you able to vent sex them.

 

[Lady_Alia]

One of the best ways to sex them is just to remove the know male either sell or separate tank. A few weeks later another male will come forward, sell or separate . And repeat this till no show signs of being a male, then you know what's left is female. Then you can re- introduce your males if you kept them separate, or buy a replacement male if not. (or was that what you meant by thinking out)

They are extremely hard sex otherwise . Unless you able to vent sex them.

Actually, I was gonna try to vent them. Since they're so fast I was gonna take everything out of the tank, then drain it, then partition them to one side of the tank and start catching them...that's the "plan" anyway LOL

I had thought about taking out the male and seeing which one takes over but I didn't want to draw out the process. Wouldn't venting them all at once be less stressful?

Do you have a frontosa only tank? What size tank are they in? What other fish/tanks do you have?