Hi, It's been a while!

[colley614 101]

Hi All,

Not been here in ages. I haven't had any goldfish in about 5 years now. I currently keep frontosa, discus and pea puffers. I'm moving house soon and I'm dying to build a fish house and pond and stock with Ranchu.

[Arctic Mama 3,636]

Welcome back!  You know you can’t just tell us about your tank and not show off your fish, right?  😘

I LOVE puffers, never did well in keeping them fed though.  How big are your frontosas now?

[colley614 101]

My Frontosa are about 18 months old. They range in size massively as the dominant male is probably about 6-7 inches and they all range in size down to about 4 inches. I've read they are incredibly slow growing but the ones I assume are male seem to grow much faster than the others.

With my pea puffers I started by feeding live bloodworm. Then every other feeding I would feed a quarter of a cube of frozen. Eventually they got the idea. 

The top picture is of my Frontosa, though the picture doesn't do them justice and the bottom is my walstad method tank with pea puffers. I've had nothing but trouble with the pea puffer tank. But I think perseverance is key. Eventually it will balance itself.

 

[koko 14,357]

Wow the first photo of fish are stunning. I love the way the look. Are they hard to keep?

I never had good luck with puffers. 😶

[colley614 101]

Frontosa are similar to goldfish except they need a heater and aren't suppose to eat bloodworm.

[koko 14,357]

On 3/22/2020 at 5:16 PM, colley614 said:

Frontosa are similar to goldfish except they need a heater and aren't suppose to eat bloodworm.

Why not blood worms?

[colley614 101]

24 minutes ago, koko said:

Why not blood worms?

There is a lot of advice given out that says bloodworm causes problems in a Frontosa's gut. I can't find any evidence to support or refute this theory so I just avoid. I feed raw frozen prawn/shrimp as a protein source. The Frontosa love them.

[koko 14,357]

6 minutes ago, colley614 said:

There is a lot of advice given out that says bloodworm causes problems in a Frontosa's gut. I can't find any evidence to support or refute this theory so I just avoid. I feed raw frozen prawn/shrimp as a protein source. The Frontosa love them.

Wow interesting, I guess it's like the same with goldfish and not feed them things like beef hearts and such.

They are neat fish reminds me of convict chichlids.

[colley614 101]

39 minutes ago, koko said:

Wow interesting, I guess it's like the same with goldfish and not feed them things like beef hearts and such.

They are neat fish reminds me of convict chichlids.

I wanted to try my hand at cichlids as everyone was telling me they are cool. Within a couple of months I had a tank full of fry I gave to the LFS because nobody wanted them. The one cichlid I was drawn to was the Frontosa, I love the idea of them growing slowly over many years and ending up as massive fish. I have 9 but I intend on reducing down to 2 males and 4 females.

[koko 14,357]

2 hours ago, colley614 said:

I wanted to try my hand at cichlids as everyone was telling me they are cool. Within a couple of months I had a tank full of fry I gave to the LFS because nobody wanted them. The one cichlid I was drawn to was the Frontosa, I love the idea of them growing slowly over many years and ending up as massive fish. I have 9 but I intend on reducing down to 2 males and 4 females.

I had the same problem. They breed like guppies lol. 😅

[colley614 101]

On 3/26/2020 at 8:01 PM, koko said:

I had the same problem. They breed like guppies lol. 😅

It drove me mad. I gave mine to the lfs a year ago and I'm still find fish in the overflow

[Arctic Mama 3,636]

I don’t think I realized they breed that prolifically!  I’ve been thinking when my goldfish finally pass on I may do a tank with South American cichlids and some tetra and catfish species, but I don’t want things getting out of control frisky in there 😁

[colley614 101]

On 4/2/2020 at 9:28 PM, Arctic Mama said:

I don’t think I realized they breed that prolifically!  I’ve been thinking when my goldfish finally pass on I may do a tank with South American cichlids and some tetra and catfish species, but I don’t want things getting out of control frisky in there 😁

Oh yeah, I decided to go with lake Tanganyika Cichlids and try for the 'freshwater reef' with shell dwellers, rock dwellers and open water swimmers. Erm, they all bred within 3 weeks of setting up the tank. I had 3 little clouds of fry, about 50 in each cloud. Then a month later they all bred again, then again and again. At first I thought it was epic, 12 fish had turned into 150. But then all hell broke loose and the parents were causing murder swimming into other territories and they were all fighting. So they all went to live at the LFS.    

[koko 14,357]

On 4/10/2020 at 9:03 PM, colley614 said:

Oh yeah, I decided to go with lake Tanganyika Cichlids and try for the 'freshwater reef' with shell dwellers, rock dwellers and open water swimmers. Erm, they all bred within 3 weeks of setting up the tank. I had 3 little clouds of fry, about 50 in each cloud. Then a month later they all bred again, then again and again. At first I thought it was epic, 12 fish had turned into 150. But then all hell broke loose and the parents were causing murder swimming into other territories and they were all fighting. So they all went to live at the LFS.    

Oh NO! what the horror it must of been watching. I remember when I had my first tropical tank. It was like that at the end. I had red tipped shark, angel fish and Convict Cichlids and I do think I had for a short bit 2 baby oscars. I messed that tank to no end.  

[colley614 101]

1 hour ago, koko said:

Oh NO! what the horror it must of been watching. I remember when I had my first tropical tank. It was like that at the end. I had red tipped shark, angel fish and Convict Cichlids and I do think I had for a short bit 2 baby oscars. I messed that tank to no end.  

I do miss those fish. I was just disappointed that I couldn't even give the fry away. 

[koko 14,357]

20 hours ago, colley614 said:

I do miss those fish. I was just disappointed that I couldn't even give the fry away. 

I was having that problem too. The LFS didn't want mine after the third time they breed  

[colley614 101]

On 4/21/2020 at 7:21 PM, koko said:

I was having that problem too. The LFS didn't want mine after the third time they breed  

I think that problem is after you've bred a few times you flood the local market with your stock. That's my theory anyway. Either that or they don't want hobbyists making a profit.

[koko 14,357]

2 minutes ago, colley614 said:

I think that problem is after you've bred a few times you flood the local market with your stock. That's my theory anyway. Either that or they don't want hobbyists making a profit.

I think you nailed it. You flood the market with the same fish  

[dahling8 97]

Glad you are enjoying your fronts, they are gorgeous!  If I had a large enough tank for them, I would have kept a school of fronts.

I enjoyed my tanganyikan cichlids when I had them, but the market here is so bad.  It could be our very soft water, so SA cichlids are very popular.  The people that do want them have to buy them online.  It sounds like there isn't much demand for L. Tanganyikan cichlids in the UK?

[colley614 101]

On 4/23/2020 at 7:12 PM, dahling8 said:

Glad you are enjoying your fronts, they are gorgeous!  If I had a large enough tank for them, I would have kept a school of fronts.

I enjoyed my tanganyikan cichlids when I had them, but the market here is so bad.  It could be our very soft water, so SA cichlids are very popular.  The people that do want them have to buy them online.  It sounds like there isn't much demand for L. Tanganyikan cichlids in the UK?

Sorry for the delayed reply. I think the market in the UK is just pushing planted aquariums. Before that it was sps reef aquariums. 

[dahling8 97]

On 9/12/2020 at 12:32 AM, colley614 said:

Sorry for the delayed reply. I think the market in the UK is just pushing planted aquariums. Before that it was sps reef aquariums. 

No worries.  I don't have any  L. Tanganyikan fish now, but if I did have to set up another tank, it likely will be a colony of multies and a rock dweller like a calvus, eretmodus or something.  Dwarf Sumbus would be really cool too.  But our market is the same as yours, except all tanks are more nano now due to space limitations for newer hobbyists.  Planted, shrimp or fowler and some sps reef.

[colley614 101]

7 hours ago, dahling8 said:

No worries.  I don't have any  L. Tanganyikan fish now, but if I did have to set up another tank, it likely will be a colony of multies and a rock dweller like a calvus, eretmodus or something.  Dwarf Sumbus would be really cool too.  But our market is the same as yours, except all tanks are more nano now due to space limitations for newer hobbyists.  Planted, shrimp or fowler and some sps reef.

That's what our market is like. In stores they just sell tanks as 'complete' systems with lights and filtration and they are all nano sized.

It devastates me when people have a dollar per gallon sales. In the UK you're looking at 30 pound per gallon with most aquariums.