advice for a newbie with africans?

[Harlow]

Well, it's finally happening. I'm getting my first ever group of African cichlids. I've kept plenty of south/central Americans for over a year now, and have never had much interest in africans until i saw a full grown 12 inch frontosa in a LFS. he was 125 bucks so needless to say i left him there, but I've wanted one ever since. I've finally found a decent deal on a group of frontosa fry and I'm off to go pick them up tomorrow. I'm very excited! this will be my first experience with fry, as well as my first experience with africans, so if anyone has any words of advice that may help me keep these little guys alive I welcome all you've got. the fry are .75 inches, I've got a small 10 gallon tank set up for them that will house them until they are ready for my 30, then 55 gallon and so on. the water is a little on the hard side, ph is about 7.6-7.8. Got any further input to help me keep these guys happy? any suggested tank mates? I've been looking forward to getting a group of these guys for quite a while now.

 

[mikem691]

I would start them out in the 55 and at about 6" move them to at least a 125. High PH is good for them. once they hit about 10" you will need a 180 at least. They max out at about 15" and should be in a group so a large tank is a necessity.

 

[lovepercs]

Frontosa are very slow growers so you will have to be patient with them, from my experience with them they don't like a lot of flow and are pretty shy at a young age. Fronts are beautiful cichlids though one of my favorites to keep, also there are a lot of different types of frontosa's so you should do some research on the types if you don't want to be ripped off haha. Best of luck!