Tanganyikan African Cichlid – Frontosa Red Cichlid

Description

Frontosa Cichlid – Tanganyikan African Red Frontosa Cichlid

Cyphotilapia frontosa var. Red

This special line-bred was from Taiwan. Base on structure and stripes, this frontosa was line-bred from Cyphotilapia frontosa from Burundi or Cyphotilapia frontosa species “North”. Un-organization of phenotype in DNA caused this frontosa has reddish brown stripes instead of black stripes.

Frontosas can grow to 33 cm (1.1 ft) in length in the wild. Even captive specimens potentially grow to this size. It has distinct markings with five to seven vertical bars adorning a white or blue body and head and trailing fins with a distinct blue hue. The species also develops a nuchal hump that is more pronounced in older specimens. C. frontosa is a sexually monomorphic species, although the hump is occasionally more pronounced in males. These fish can live over 25 years!

Frontosa cichlids are found in Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and is widespread in the northern half of the lake, whereas the closely related C. gibberosa inhabits the southern half of the lake. The species generally resides at greater depths (30–50 m subsurface) than most other cichlids, and rises to shallow waters in the early morning to feed on shoaling fish such as Cyprichromis species., isolation of distinct breeding colonies has resulted in several different color variants evolving to this day in the wild.

size at shipping: about 1″ Small good genetics