210 gallon Frontosa build

[Caperguy99]

From this view, they’re still looking pretty small!

Quick question - I notice there seems to be some “mooning” on one of the fish. You can see it on the top of one of the stripes of the fish on the right. I assumed that as F1s they wouldn’t have much of that feature - as inbreeding would be less likely along WC fish. Was I wrong on this?

 

[Milingu]

This split in the top of the middle bar also occurs in wild fish. It may appear more often in breed strains, but it's occurrance itself has nothing to do with inbreeding.

 

[Caperguy99]

The start of some diatom algae on the rockwork, it looks like -

Having only ever kept planted tanks before, is there any way of avoiding algae on my hardscape in an African Cichlid setup? My lights are only on for an hour per day already - so I don’t know whether I should reduce more?

I guess my next step is to check my phosphate levels and so on.

Any suggestions for heading off the algae before it gets too bad?

 

[Milingu]

Typical algea for Tanganyika tanks. All my Tanganyika tanks went through different algae phases. Including some more or less nasty diatom algea. It took at least 8 month for each tank to become stable. But I didn't do anything besides cleaning the glass. I just waited it out.

 

[Caperguy99]

A bit of a scare this morning -

I came downstairs to feed the tank and realized only 5 of the frontosa were coming out for breakfast. Very unusual. I gave it a few minutes, and they were all clamouring at the top except for one.

I had realized that one of my smaller ones had been digging a tunnel under the only stone that I sat on top of the sand (pictured below). All the others are placed directly on the glass, with substrate added after. I wondered if the fish had gotten stuck under the stone during the night, if it happened to shift.

At first I tried to reach down to the bottom of the tank, but couldn’t without getting soaked. So I grabbed the python extension and flipped the rock over - and lo and behold, the fish scooted out! It had gotten stuck between the stone and the sand.

He looked a bit shocked - colour was off of him - and from what I can see there might be a bit of a scrape on his side from where I moved the stone. He doesn’t look too worse for wear though. I’ll be removing that stone tonight.

Goes to show the importance of stacking right from the glass!

The stone is in the first picture, the second is the fish that was stuck on the side that looks like it might have a bit of a scrape.

 

[DJRansome]

Lucky fellow!

 

[Caperguy99]

End of the month update:

All’s well that ends well. Some tussling going on between my two largest around the rock work - especially after water changes. I got a nice video of this the other day, but don’t know how to post it.

The fellow with the scraped sides seems to be healing nicely.

People say c. gibberosa grow slowly, but I find it hard to believe how much they’ve grown already compared to August 1. It’s most notable in the long trailers that all of them are starting to develop. No humps on the head yet, though.

At this size, one of the main distinctions between c. gibberosa and c. frontosa has become visible: the three rows of scales between the top and bottom lateral lines. On c. frontosa, there are only two rows.

I’ve posted a few update photos. The closeup is Homer, who has kept his nominal position as the “tank boss” as he continued to be the largest. He’s also the one who has staked

 

[danotaylor]

Looking good mate. Another distinction between fronts and Gibbs is the bar they the eye. Fronts is a straight bar and Gibbs is more of a hood. It’s my favorite distinction between the 2 cypho varieties!

 

[Caperguy99]

Looking good mate. Another distinction between fronts and Gibbs is the bar they the eye. Fronts is a straight bar and Gibbs is more of a hood. It’s my favorite distinction between the 2 cypho varieties!

Cool! I never knew that one - all of mine have a pretty faded bar across the eyes. I’m sure they’ll darken up there over time.

 

[danotaylor]

Cool! I never knew that one - all of mine have a pretty faded bar across the eyes. I’m sure they’ll darken up there over time.

They will mate, for sure. The bars on yours would be darker, and the hood more apparent if you had darker substrate or environment. If you have a programmable light try reducing the brightness and seeing if the blacks & blues darkens up & pops some more.
Apart from the deep purply blues, the hood is my favorite distinction. This is the clearest pic I have of my lone mikula's hood. This pic was taken in 2021 when he was about 4-5"