Frontosa - Cichlids from Lake Tanganyika

Frontosa characteristic lies in her zebra-print black and white with vertical lines or a combination of dark blue, silver, and yellow. These colors make the cyphotilapia frontosa be varied. Another characteristic is at the head of frontosa that similar with lou han fish, which it has a lump on his face.

Frontosa fish usually have a fat body shape and looks sturdy. however, cyphotilapia frontosa has a graceful carriage because including the slow-moving ornamental fish type, which is happy to swim slowly. For an ornamental fish, frontosa favored because of the kind of peaceful, benign, and not fierce so the owner can freely do appear or feeding frontosa without fear of being hit.

African cichlids Frontosa lives at great depths (bottom dweller) in Lake Tanganyika and often suffers from swim bladders problems for wild caught fishes. They are mostly restricted to the rocky areas in the wild. They are rather intolerant of poor water condition and demand regular, frequent water but small water changes.

Frontosa Fish Profiles :
Distribution : Lake Tanganyika (Endemic)
Size : Up to 14 inches for Male, smaller for female. Growth rate appear to be slow under captivity.
PH : 8.6 to 9.5
Temperature : 22 to 29 0 C (higher temperature for breeding).
Hardness : Hard to very hard, alkaline water.
Diet : Piscivore. Flake, freeze fried & frozen and pellet food. Live food such as prawns and earthworms. Not advisable to give them floating food.
Breeding : Open polygamous, mouth brooder.
Sexual Difference : Males are much larger with longer flowing fins and well developed nuchal hump (not always accurate).

It's best to keep frontosa in groups from small as the males are very intolerant of each other. Growing them up together has the advantage of establishing the "pecking" order early to prevent over-aggressiveness to establish dominance in the tank.