my frontosa does fine with my others and eats the same stuff africans are vegetarians and can get bloat or other things if the eat to much meat
Okay... Read the following paragraphs please, and point out where it says they are algae grazers... I cut and pasted this from a cichlid forum, author is Marc Ellison.
"
Frontosa is a lethargic and slow-moving fish. Even in the lake they don't expend much energy in hunting down their food. Nature has endowed them with a unique trait which gives them an advantage over their prey - Fronts are nocturnal feeders and don't require much light to wake up.
Fish make up the majority of their diet,
Cyprichromis species being their primary target. Cyps spend the day in large schools (numbering in tens of thousands) in the upper water column, but at dusk, they descend to the bottom where they hug the substratum. Fronts, still awake and alert, easily scoop the unsuspecting Cyps up by the mouthful. Because of the ease with which they are able to feast upon the Cyps,
frontosa don't have to spend much energy chasing their food, a chase they would certainly lose to the agile Cyps during the day.
In the tank, this cichlid can be fed small feeder fish (live or frozen), mysis, shrimp, krill, and worms. Pellets are also a good food, but flakes should be avoided after they reach 4 or 5 inches in total length. Flakes will either go ignored or get too messy and are not adequate to bring them into breeding condition."
With all of that being said, you probably CAN keep them together, many people probably do, BUT I am a hobbyist who strives to keep my aquariums as close as possible to an environment per the inhabitants I keep... I am not about to try and put in tank dividers several times a day to keep my mbuna from eating the meaty pellets given to the Fronts when they should be eating their spirulina flake... That's all I am saying.
Maybe your mbuna will spawn and provide a live snack for the Fronts?
