craig

hi guys, no fronts yet,still saving,i figured i may as well get what i have always wanted zaires and mimpwe's so will take awhile. have been having some fun with the local fauna though,we have some bearded lizards,my son has a pair and i found a sick little feller called him alfy,got some mealworms and crickets breeding and now alfy is well on the mend,and yes did go get my permit.they are so cool have some sharp teeth got to keep some detol handy for if they bite,they have a nasty bacteria. well at least i have a great food source for my fronts when i get them,i now have more mealworms than i know what to do with,my rockcod loves them. you guy's fronts sound like they are all doing very well.keep up the great work guy's. shell

justin is quite right, i didn't word that to well, those box air filters are great. spray-bars and fronts don't work,they put in access tiny airbubbles,makes fronts itch,still keep spray-bars just make sure they arenot above the water-line. can't wait to see a pic with all the rocks in,the fish will love it.

yeah!!!! please post some pic's :bounce: :bounce:

hi mekhaela, 5 males, man i thought i picked better than that. don't count on it, i thought i had three males in my breeding tank until the day the third male had a mouthful of eggs. she was just as big as the male and had good head. even the smallest front in my tank i thought was a male that had been stunted(from what i heard that's what happens)--crap!!!! that little MALE held 54 eggs in HER mouth, and a fantastic mum. they can surprise ya :lol:

way cheaper than a UV,and really cool to watch it graze all day. they are like cow's.try and feed away from him especially if feeding tetra-bits(colourbits) as it will bloat your duboisi while they are little,doesn't seem to bother them as they get older,might have something to do with their intestinal tract,i think from memory they have 2 tummies or is it an xtra long tummy :lol: oh well must be getting old can't remember :lol:

if ya want to have success with these fish, you need to arrange tank to their needs not your visual pleasure. what rocks did you put in?? a tank full of light coloured limestone or dolomite will not make fish go dark. i never had a dark front yet. these fish live 30metres down---- everywhere is rock, fronts aren't fussed on having bright lighting neither. nor fast-flowing water and hate spray-bar's put to much oxygen through water. frontosa's are low oxygen takers,due to the depths they come from, yes these are captive breed---but that doesn't change the way they are internally built. well that's all i can think of to try and help ya out. end of the day ya need more rocks(the right rocks) and do the tank to their needs not yours, and then walk away and leave it to settle for a fornight,feed lightly, then 20% waterchange and leave for another fortnight etc,etc. good luck.

while fronts are small, duboisi's,comp's,lelepi's are great companions for frontosa,(fronts)as they get to breeding age you will prolly have to do what i did---just keep fronts as the other fish are great at forcing mum fronts to spit their eggs,free feed!!!! duboisi's are great for that algae you get on the rocks and glass,they will survive on that alone. i had 1 duboisi which kept my 6ft spotless.

hi guy's, i'd recommend not pissing around with tank so much, better off doing a 20% waterchange every fornight(providing you don't over-feed). and get more rocks in the tank,he looks like he is saying get out of my turf. put the other pot down another end of tank and get more rocks in there or a variety of other pots.if he is the alpha male he will want to be away from the others. got to get a good balance in your tank,won't get that by mucking around with water all the time. more rocks/pots and give him his own turf by moving other pot away(opposite end of tank). let us know how you get on.

you guys should start offering them cut up prawns and feed by hand,won't take long before they become so tame they will sit in your hand. they only need a couple of bits each.(not every day,maybe twice a week as a treat). to the guy with the dark front,keep close eye,dark front is not a happy front,could be getting bullied. shell

Hi tidan, I am working on it, have asked for prices on zaires,mimpwe's and ikola, just waiting for a reply. shell

Hi alan, i add burundi coz they look like burundi, but yes as i have said C.Frontosa. and thanks. i am still in oz, haven't left craig overthere and come home yet, i got some frontosa's to buy overhere,hell that's what i came over the ditch for, abit prizie thou gotta save pennies. how's all ya fish going, any new killies? shell.

hi cameron, yes i would call them C.Frontosa Burundi, bloody nice fronts :lol: shell.

thanks heaps cameron, they look great. shell

would love to see your fronts cameron, i'll have to change my email address on the forums. and thanks for the thanks, you are more than welcome. you do have an ID on them C.Frontosa, that was the documented name on import, the most widely sold front was burundi back then. and the cheapest for importing. good luck with them and send us a pic or two as they grow. shell

back again, just to settle this, the adults have six stripes and are C.Frontosa. and yes a couple of babies out of a few hundred had seven stripes and yes that makes those babies" look" like kigamo,but they are C.Frontosa. I am disgusted with a few of the comments on here. i only wanted to get as many fronts outthere as possible so that MAF and Urma might add them to the nz standard.if i thought for a moment that i would have to be standing up for their authentisaty,sorry not spelt right) i would have kept them to myself,like i did for the first 4-5 yrs-----as i took a huge risk advertiseing their babies for sale(illegal).not on the standard.could have lost my adults,they did get a visit :lol: but was settled nicely. when i first ever ask for frontosa(7-8+yrs back) i was told NO by every importer in nz. getting them was a fluke, and now some of you want to pull them to bits.they are all nz has to offer untill the standard changes. stop pulling them to bits and just enjoy them like i did. they are C.Frontosa. shell

Hi Justin, If i was selling them as kigoma they wouldn't have been $50 each,think about it they would have been $150-200 each :lol: they were sold as frontosa babies. shell.

hi justin, seven-bar "frontosa". just that! in my time of breeding the frontosa i only had two babies out of 100's that had seven-lines. "nice straight lines" :lol: shell

cheers guys and i will be looking up brad shortly,setting up house and kids and hubby came first this time :lol: craigs working hard so won't be long before i is a front owner again. shell

frontosa adults of the babies in nz,came in as frontosa. burundi and kigamo have yellow in the top fin----- all frontosa can throw seven stripers. most fish experts seem to think that all the frontosa varients steem from the burundi,so does that make zaires and mimpwe's HYBRIDS, it is a big lake :lol: who knows,are cardinals hybrids of the neon :lol: anyways my big guy's came from the biggest exporter of tropical fish worldwide, so the idea of them selling hybrids wouldn't do their rep very good. frontosa babies in nz are as good as you can get,good lines, nice colour and a strong fish, hopefully the laws will change and new frontosa blood will be able to come in, the frontosa situation in nz lies with all those babies out there,look after them and enjoy this beautiful fish. frontosa's are the bomb. You's are lucky i don't own any at present not even a tank as YET. shell

hi guys, i'm back, nice to hear about all the front babies doing really well. hybrids my butt. shell

alan we are going 4rs north of brisbane to bundaberg,and i will be seeing brad and hopefully justin. gotta get my fronts from somewhere. going to give another varient of the fronts a go. some ziaires would be nice,but they are pretty exspensive from what i heard,might have to be a smaller colony, I'm sure if i could fit some in a thermo, someone overhere would want them :lol: noxious pest hahaha better not be. zebra's i'll keep that in mind alan. :lol: shell.

Hi Guy's, The TB has done it's usual and gone on a remish,craig has left work,so hopefully problem solved.blood tests are looking good,those horrible pills we don't have to take no more.(cure worse than the problem). I am guessing it will show back up again at a later date,but fingers crossed we canned it this time round. Anyways off to oz a week today,thankgod pills are finished,can't go in the sun with them. A quick note for ya's fish to watch out for with TB:neons bigtime,white markings at the base of the tail,usually swollen,easy to see in a community tank,hard to spot in a quarinteen tank with 250-500 little buggers swimming around,cardinals the same.dwarf gourami's,pink kissers. Double check all fish for that swollen white mark it will eventually rupture. Best way of keeping it out of your tanks is a very careful eye when buying new fish. If ya have it in a tank,dump ALL fish,throw out ALL plants.leave substrate in and filter going and chlorinate tank(strong dose)leave it for a few days,empty then dry everything out totally,leave it to dry filter everything, once chlorine is dry it is not toxic anymore. Then start a fresh. Well that's about it. See ya guy's will catch up laters once settled in oz and when i get my fishie thing going overthere.FRONTOSA'S here i come. :bounce: :bounce:

Need to becareful on what is said on forum's and trade-me, as MAF,Bio Security, Urma are always's watching. Had a visit only 3wks back,they came all the way from Auckland to check if my asain had sities permit's. so word of caution!!!!! cheers shell.

just an update on TB.problem. partner has been of sick now for 2 wks, x-rays,doctor visits,blood tests all not good. TB might have gone to the spine. so please take sores on your hands very seriously. me: it's been 2yrs now still take 2-6 panadol a day for headaches. watch out for joint pain in knees/ankles/headaches/back and the lump that just won't go away after the sore has closed-up. shell.

calcite works like argonite,keeps ph up and hardness. magnesium content that does all the work.same as for limestone and dolomite rock. can't write it down in words,you have to be a chemist/scientist to understand it all,in chemical breakdown. if ya set tank up right,calcite/argonite.limestone/dolomite you can't go wrong. always remembering that alkaline water is dangerous water,to much food and waste leads to ammonia spikes. ph buffers can be very dangerous,if relied on totally to keep water right,once again there is a chemical compound in sodium bicarb that doesn't break down,and eventually hits toxic overload,may take 6mths or 12mths but it will happen.better to do it naturally, soft water-peat/wood etc. hard water--shell/calcite/argonite/limestone/dolomite. african's best kept 7.5-8.4. hardness 18-21. shell.