CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

I just got 2 baby Frontosa's last week. They are about 2 inches.

I don't know their sexes, but tonight one of them dug a big nesting hole in the one corner of my tank. I thought it was too young for this.

When can they start to breed? And any ideas how to sex them?

Hi amy,
to my knowledge and understanding fronts do not spawn untill they are mature adults, however all cichlids dig the substrate, and in the past I have recognised some of my Fronts behaving as if they were getting ready to have babies however they were not! But I could be wrong, and some fish just have a persnallity of thier own and do things that others dont! Guess this post isnt helpfull at all lol.

Sorry...........

Thanks. I thought they were too small to be having babies, but I've never had one before, so! They are expensive, and I got 2 in my towns annual fish auction for $9. 

They become mature enough to breed after a couple of years or so (probably once they attain 5"-7", which is also when gender may become apparent, at 2" it's practically impossible).

What size tank do you have? You may want to consider getting several more as they do better in colonies, a pair of frontosa's might not be successful in the long term (the dominant one might kill the other). This might not seem apparent now because they're still small, but when they get larger you'll see what I mean.

55 gallon right now. I am soon upgrading to a 100+ gallon. I just haven't bought it yet. lol. As soon as I find one!

I have a red devil and a convict and between the 2 of them, there are no rocks at all underneath any of the caves in the tank.  In the middle of the night I hear them digging them up and then they spit them in the corner.  It's annoying to hear the pinking of them hitting the glass but if it makes them happy!!