Hello all,

Quick question on adding fronts, On the weekend I visted my LFS and there was a female burundi (well I think its a female) there about 6 inches looking awful sad stuck in a small tank with a load of malawi, So I had her lol. I then went down to the other LFS and seen a really lovely looking Male Burundi about 7inches, I didn't pick him up as I aint sure if he would bully/kill some of my existing colony as they are still juvi's? The biggest male ( I think its a male) I have at the moment is about 4 1/2inch and the smallest in there is probably a female of about 2 1/2inch. (she dont seem to grow lol)

Cant see the male being a problem, as the others are smaller and not a threat as such to him taking the alpha role.

If you plan on adding to you colony I would take all fish out and rearange the tank. Then put the new fish and all your existing fish into the tank. If you are just adding females then its not a problem, but when adding males you challange the existing alpha with a new alpha. All because you put a bigger fish in the tank doesn't make him an alpha male, he's got to earn that title. The problem is the existing alpha might fight to the death to protect his tank. If you take them out and rearange the tank it's no longer the smaller males tank and he should back down from the larger male.

I guess age would make some difference and Lee might be right and it could work without any problems but I only add males to colony's the way I said. One time I put a much larger male in a existing colony and the smaller male started beating up the larger one, After about several hours later the larger male wasn't looking to good and I had to pull him. It took weeks for him to get back to norm from the stress and I think that smaller male would have killed the bigger one. I really think it just depends on the group and you have to watch them to see how the play together.

Hiya joe, cheers mate

I dont think an alpha male has been established yet, the reason why I think this is I have giant cichlids in there that are alot bigger than the fronts so I think they are the rulers, I could be wrong mind.
I can tell which one is going to be the alpha and it isn't the biggest male I have at the moment (I bought the bigger one seperate) as he is alot bigger than the rest of the colony that I bought at about 1 1/2inch and they haven't started the I am the boss business yet as I think their a bit young, agian I could be wrong though.

lee wrote (View Post): › Cant see the male being a problem, as the others are smaller and not a threat as such to him taking the alpha role.

I will pop down and have a chat to see what deal I can sort out, see if they dont want to much for him.

The female I had was touch and go mind bless her, they stuck her in a bucket in the LFS with about 4 other fish which were for my cousin and we then went to the other LFS for a look, got her home and she was belly up (they hadn't put enough water in there) Panic stations, I got some water in there from my tank and then the air stones and held her uprite for about 30mins, till she was strong enough to hold herself up, I then left her an extra 30mins in the buck with lid on and air stones going, on checking she looked a little better so took the chance and got her in my tank.
She sank to the bottom like a brick and just sat there, then my giant cichlid thought they would use her for food she swam away though and hid, an hour later she came out looking on top of the world and chasing the other fronts around an even giving a bit of sh*t back to the giants happy days lol.

joesfish wrote (View Post): › If you plan on adding to you colony I would take all fish out and rearange the tank. Then put the new fish and all your existing fish into the tank. If you are just adding females then its not a problem, but when adding males you challange the existing alpha with a new alpha. All because you put a bigger fish in the tank doesn't make him an alpha male, he's got to earn that title. The problem is the existing alpha might fight to the death to protect his tank. If you take them out and rearange the tank it's no longer the smaller males tank and he should back down from the larger male.

The tank needs a change around mind and I got bigger terracota pipes to go in aswell so will do it all in one go if I decide to have him.

I rang them up and apparently the front there is sold but they aint picked him up yet but told me they got a 14inch male coming in the begining of the week, I dont think I will go for him as he is just to big for my current colony and would probably eat them lol, plus they want to much for him.