New Frontosa

Just got a new female Frontosa tonight. Ned wasn't sure what type it was, but he was guessing a Kavala but his forum lists a 5" female Karalani for sale a couple months ago. So it's either one of the two. At any rate, I'm going to use this post as sort of a week by week comparison using NLS (New Life Spectrum) for her food. That way I personally and anyone else who wants to fallow can see the changes. I've noticed huge differences with my other cichs, so we'll see what happens with her.

So this is Day 1...first bought her and put her in the tank, Brightened up significantly from her stress colors in the small tank she was in / bag before being put into my tank.

 

the one thing that's throwing me off for it being a burundi is that it's dorsal fin is yellowish where as burundi's dorsal is supposedly all blue.

 

huh, so a burundi it is lol ok, these pics aren't of the frontosa, but I was wondering if anyone can tell me what type of cichlid this is? I bought it as a pair of afra cobue, but this one...supposedly the female (the male is my avatar), ended up taking over as dominant fish in the tank. I showed ned a pic of it, and he thinks that it definitely isn't a female cobue, but is some other form of male afra. any ideas?

 

yup, just looked up Cynotilapia afra Metangula and that also led me to afra white top which looks exactly the same (just different names maybe? It says the white top is from Metangula, Mozambique) and that's definitely the fish. Thank you!

 

Week 1: There doesn't seem to be dramatic changes in her coloration. I noticed in a comparison of the pics from last week that 1. Her fins have been nipped by scuffles with the afra "white top" (thinking of getting rid of this fish. He's way to aggressive even for a cichlid.) and 2. She's not as dull looking as she was before. There's almost a shiny look to her coloration.

 

new life spectrum. someone on here suggested it to me and I love the stuff. It's a little pricey but it enhances coloration, and is made of all high quality foods. Basically according to the website, the way it's made, when they eat it it's more like eating what they would in nature, hence you get coloration as if they were in the wild. Now supposedly according to people on other forums (I did some searches on google), you can feed it to 100% herbivores such as tropheus because even though they are only eating algae, they are also eating micro animals and small shrimp that live in the algae, also getting their animal proteins. A lot of the posts I've read have said that not only does it color them up, but even fish that they've had trouble getting to spawn seem to spawn with no problems once they switched to NLS. I was looking at old pics of my christmas fulu, and then comparing them to new pics, and the change is incredible with him. I'll have to post a side by side comparison of him.

 

Week 3: I've noticed a huge difference in a side by side comparison in this pic with the first week pic. Her coloration is getting much darker/brighter. In person, I've also noticed a more yellowish tint to her tail. There is a little change with the tank as you'll notice. She was hiding all the time in the african tank and stopped eating. I took her out of there and put her in my 55 for the time being keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't eat my other fish in there. The next day after putting her in there, she started eating like a pig. I'm thinking the Afra "white top" is the main cause of her stress, and I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of this fish. I'll probably just bring him back to ned's. He's way to aggressive even for a cichlid. Once I do that I'm going to put her back in the african tank and see if she acts like she does in the 55. If not, I'm going to have to bring her back as well. I know she can't stay in a 55 and I'd rather have her happy in a new home rather than always stressed in mine. She's way to beautiful a fish to stress her out completely and eventually kill her. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the "white top" removal will work.

 

here's a new pic of her from tonight with my new camera (canon g11). Still a lot to learn with this camera.

 

I'm gonna just post pics of her as I get good shots now.