Unidentifiable frontosa

[fish sauce]

Hello all,

I"m Phil, and I'm new to this forum and the hobby. I bought a frontosa two weeks ago, and to this date I cannot say 100 percent for sure which variant it is. Not even the lady at the fish store I bought from knew. So, I was hoping if you guys can help me out. Thanks. Here are the pics.

Also, I've been referring to this frontosa variant map and according to the coloration I think my frontosa is a zaire, but the thing is my frontosa looks very purple-ish. It's a 4 inch male if that helps.

The tank I have him in is a 30 gallon. Temperature is at 75 degrees fahrenheit. I feed it NLS pellets. The light I have it under is white fluorescent.

[CichlidFan]

I'm just going to guess, and say it could be a mpimbwe....beautiful specimen whatever varient it is...thanks for posting and welcome to the box.

CF

[cichlid1409]

i vote for burundi

[gotticgs]

i vote for burundi

+1

[mark razmandi]

+1

+2

[Gene D]

Welcome to the box

[mgarrido]

+2

+3 ... burundi

[supadave]

+4 Burundi

[russ]

one of the northern variants is my guess,but not zaire.
are you going to give him a bigger home when he gets bigger?

[Zulaab]

I dont know which variant it is, but I want to let you know that the Front will need some more space when he / she grows up.
when you can, to keep one, you really need to get a 90 gallon tank as a minimum and if you want to keep a small colony of like 6-8 you want to move up to a 125g 6ft tank.
Fronts are nocturnal fish and they dont like bright lights. You want to keep the lighting subdued. You need to raise your temp to 78-80 if you can.

[russ]

i kept my moba colony at 76-78 degrees,and got mega fry from them!
they are from deep waters and cooler water.

[russ]

some pics of my mobas!

female holding



group shot!

[fish sauce]

Thanks for all the interesting replies. I guess the reason I thought it was a zaire was because my front was so dark looking. But what can you make out from my frontosa that led you to believe it's the burundi variant?

Also, the reason why I have my temperature at 75 degrees is because the fish shop I bought my frontosa from kept it at that temperature.

[russ]

Thanks for all the interesting replies. I guess the reason I thought it was a zaire was because my front was so dark looking. But what can you make out from my frontosa that led you to believe it's the burundi variant?

Also, the reason why I have my temperature at 75 degrees is because the fish shop I bought my frontosa from kept it at that temperature.

75 is not a bad temp!you can bump it up a hair if you want.i'd drop the temp in my moba tank down to 70 when doing a water change and let the heater bring it back up.this would trigger a spawn on occasion.
try getting some better pics of the face stripe and see if we can identify your front easier!
oh, the reason your front is so dark could be from the rocks being blue.

[cichlid1409]

Thanks for all the interesting replies. I guess the reason I thought it was a zaire was because my front was so dark looking. But what can you make out from my frontosa that led you to believe it's the burundi variant?

if it was a zaire it would be covered in blue. i used to keep a colony of burundi's for years, they looked just like your fish, same head shape and stripes

Also, the reason why I have my temperature at 75 degrees is because the fish shop I bought my frontosa from kept it at that temperature.

i always kept my temp about 80. not saying you cant keep it at 75. i just always tried to keep it that way for breeding.