Frontosa compatibility?

Hello Booki. As it turns out I am looking to put a pair of Frontosa in a 50 I just set up, and am a member of the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, where we have Lou Graffagnino, THE Frontosa expert. Some tips from him this past Friday:

If you want your Frontosa to live in exact Lake Tangangika conditions, you can go broke on expensive buffers. He doesn't use any. He starts with a teaspoon of baking soda per gallon, checks pH with a good kit, adjusts it as necessary, cycles the tank and in go the Frontosa. He assures people they can't tell baking soda from Seachem buffer, although the buffer may keep the water slightly harder. As far as pH, he maintains no Frontosa needs 8.8 ph, they do fine at 8 or even 7.8 as long as you acclimate them slowly. if you are puchaching at a store find out their pH or test their pH. If it is much higher then yours, use the drip method to slowly mix your water with what it had been in before. If all you would have do do is raise your tank's pH by 0.1-0.2 points a Frontosa should do well and as long as it's a small pH change, If your fish are at 7.7 or 7.8 now, before you get the Frontosa try to raise the pH by0.2 points as gradually as time for, with a fraction of a spoon of baking soda. I asked him can you make a small hole in the plastic bag of the new fish and let your tank water seep in, and he said if there was not a great difference in pH that would work, but he is conservative and still prefers the drip method.

When water evaporates just dechlorinated water. When you do a scheduled change, know exactly how much you have taken out so you can add baking soda to your new water.

He strongly recommends that their be a suitable cave for each Frontosa

As far as agggression (these are my experiences) Frontosas make decent community fish when small as they hit 5 inches, much like flowerhorns, the aggression increases, particularly in males and they might not be good match for the Angelfish. Of course this lis less likely to happen if you don't have a pair of Frontosa.

Try to contact Graffagnino at he Brooklyn Aquarium Society website.