210 gallon Frontosa build

[danotaylor]

I was wrong on the number my friend had, but here’s a video of 14 adult Mikula in a 6’ 220gal tank for reference. Some may consider it overstocked, but DANG, it looks bloody awesome if you ask me. He had this group for almost 10yrs with a handful of losses to float & some additions over that period.
For clarity, the ratio of the group is critical to harmony. There’s 2 x 12-14” adult males, a couple of betas and 10 females.
Enjoy!

 

[ken31cay]

I was wrong on the number my friend had, but here’s a video of 14 adult Mikula in a 6’ 220gal tank for reference. Some may consider it overstocked, but DANG, it looks bloody awesome if you ask me. He had this group for almost 10yrs with a handful of losses to float & some additions over that period.
For clarity, the ratio of the group is critical to harmony. There’s 2 x 12-14” adult males, a couple of betas and 10 females.
Enjoy!

Beautiful fish and overall the tank looks great.

With the 16 Moba coming that'll make 41 Moba total in my tank. The ratio for all is supposed to be 1M/3F and if that is even close to correct I could end up with some extra males which I would need to rehome. Might possibly have a hyper aggressive female along the way that will have to go. I'll give my tank some more thought but right now I think I might just put the 16 Moba in the tank and take it from there.

 

[troublesum]

I was wrong on the number my friend had, but here’s a video of 14 adult Mikula in a 6’ 220gal tank for reference. Some may consider it overstocked, but DANG, it looks bloody awesome if you ask me. He had this group for almost 10yrs with a handful of losses to float & some additions over that period.
For clarity, the ratio of the group is critical to harmony. There’s 2 x 12-14” adult males, a couple of betas and 10 females.
Enjoy!

That is a beautiful tank and beautiful fish. I dabbled for a bit with Fronts being that they are a colony fish i believe its ok to overstock a little bit as long as you keep your male to female ratio good and stay on top of WC

 

[DJRansome]

Looks too crowded to me.

 

[danotaylor]

They are a schooling fish in the wild, often seen in large groups.
Each to his own as far as stock density in glass cages goes for sure.
My purpose in posting my friends group was to show the potential of heavier stocking than often thought doable with the right balance of M&F, and temperament of the individual fish in the group. It is noteworthy to point out than in his group there is beautiful long trailers in every fish and no ripped or torn fins. The ultimate proof of a harmonious group.
@ken31cay I do believe 41 moba in your massive tank will look stunning and not overcrowded. As you said, if you remove aggressive males or females I think you’ll arrive at a large group that looks sensational!

 

[danotaylor]

I love this video. Mpimbwe fronts in the wild. Poor quality video but a great example of their schooling behavior in the wild!

 

[ken31cay]

I love this video. Mpimbwe fronts in the wild. Poor quality video but a great example of their schooling behavior in the wild!

I've had Frontosa in each of my tanks over the years and I'll say the behavior of 20+ Frontosa in a 10' tank is much different than that of 6 Frontosa in a 6' tank. They apparently feel more comfortable and act more natural in greater numbers and more space.

 

[troublesum]

I love this video. Mpimbwe fronts in the wild. Poor quality video but a great example of their schooling behavior in the wild!

Its hard to scale but i would say all those Fronts are between 10-14in and they are so much more active also i didn't see any tore or ripped fins

 

[Caperguy99]

A few photos before the weekend -

The first is my boy Homer. As robust as ever, I’ve had him for 5 1/2 months now and if you forced me to make an educated guess I’d have to say he’s around 4 inches at the moment. Quite a bit bigger from when he arrived at my door after 48 hours in transit.

The second photo is a smattering of my three smallest. The littlest one, which I asked about, is in the foreground. Notice a little bit of fraying on the tail fin, which I suppose hints at a bit of bullying. What I don’t understand is that he seems to hang around the fish next to him in the picture, which seems to be the prime bullying suspect - at least, he’s the only one I’ve seen pushing around the little one with his nose and paying him any attention. But I don’t see why the little one doesn’t just swim away - there’s a whole tank to escape to. While he does hang out in the corner and in a small cave, he does come out in the open now and shoal with the other fish.

Maybe they’re just working out the pecking order?

 

[ken31cay]

Do you still have six in total? I've never had six small Moba in a six foot tank. I have had five large moba in my 180gal and there was the normal very minimal aggression in the tank.

But a previous situation of mine that may have some similarity is when I had four 5" Moba in my 750 gallon for two months before recieving my next shipment. These four were what was left of my first shipment of 18 Moba I received just after the tank was newly cycled. But apparently the tank wasn't quite ready yet and most died. In any case, one Moba constantly harassed the other three and kept them pinned to spots in the upper levels of the tank. As soon as I put in my next shipment of 15 Moba the aggression ceased.

In the above situation I concluded that too few Moba in too large a space (relatively speaking) resulted in the high level of aggression. Your situation may or may not share a similarity so use the information as you will. Continued good luck with the group.