What are good tankmates for gibberosa? I am getting in a colony of 12 Gibberosa and would like to ensure that they have a good tank to live in. Currently, I have some peacocks (not very aggressive), gallireya reef, chailosi, and red zebra in my 150 Gallon Tank. If it is not a good idea to keep them in together with the mbuna, I will probably sell all the mbuna to make way for the gibberosa. The gibberosa will all be between 3-4" long.

What kind of Gibbs are you getting? I've been breeding fronts and I found that they are not compatible with lots of Africans...Mbunas will nip their fins, and they'll eat the smaller more calm Tanganyikans. If you don't care about nipped fins, breeding them in the future then they can be put in a mixed tank. They'll never be happy though. Also a minimum 6 footer (125g) is needed for these to thrive well, They can achive 4-6" easily a year in captivity.

I am getting some Gibberosa Ikola. I guess I will start selling all of the mbunas and peacocks to make way for the Gibberosa.

Tanzanian! Cool! Okay I did not read 3-4" in size.
That 150g is a perfect tank for 10...Weed out the Males or get Wild caught males to replace yours with and keep the females. I can help you vent them when they are 4-5 inches.

lets share some pics when you get them in your tank!!

Jojo, what is the reason why we want to get rid of the F1 Males? Is it because the colors are not as bright as the WC?

I know I can find this on Cyphos (but I'm lazy),what was the reasoning that they split the Cyphotilapia family into Frontosas and Gibberosas

Yes those Japanese dudes reclassified them into Gibbs and Fronts. Counted the scales along the lateral lines and concluded that they should be separated into 2 sub-species. Frontosa are 7 stripe Kigoma and Burundi type. Gibbs are Tanzanian, Zambian and Zaire.

Can't find the article online anymore, but here are some excerpts from that article:

" In 2003 Tetsumi Takahashi and Kazuhiro Nakayaa classified a second species of Cyphotilapia...Gibberosa, which is restricted to the southern half of the lake. It is likely that future species will be classied, beginning with a new northern species. Gibberosa differs from Frontosa in the following ways...
Tetsumi Takahashi's and Kazuhiro Nakayaa's Abstract (Details differences between Gibberosa and Frontosa)

Difference between Frontosa and Gibberosa
A second species of Cyphotilapia (Cichlidae) is described from Lake Tanganyika. The new species is clearly distinct from Cyphotilapia frontosa in having three scale rows between the upper and lower lateral lines at center of body (vs two rows in C. frontosa). Furthermore, a greater number of scales on the longitudinal line (34–36 vs 33–35), fewer outer teeth on the upper jaw (31–52 vs 39–62), higher body (43.3–51.2% SL vs 38.2–46.5%), longer predorsal (37.5–44.9% SL vs 37.1–42.7% SL), longer dorsal-fin base (57.1–64.6% SL vs 53.8–60.9% SL) and longer pectoral fin (36.0–47.2% SL vs 31.3–41.7%) also distinguish the former species. The distribution of the new species is restricted to the southern half of Lake Tanganyika, whereas C. frontosa is allopatrically distributed in the northern half of the lake."



But I think there is an article out there as well that says forget what the two Japs did for now and call them all Frontosa


Alex if they are F1 from the same brood then you might want to get another male WC or F1 to diversify your gene pool

Thanks Jo, surprised they didn't call it C. Takahashi (or some other japanese name)

What do you get when you have F1 mom and WC dad? F2 fry? Or some other designation?

dang i would have called it a F01

Benthochromis