Please Email to for any further help.
Zaire-Purple.co.uk
MAR
14th
The Wonderful Tanzania
A Beautiful Gibberosa with an "affordable" price tag
![]()
The stability and general good commercial business opportunities over a long period of time has given to all of us truly spectacular cichlids in hundreds of different types. The convenience of having nearby holding facilities for most of the collectors near Dar es Salaam International airport has made it possible, to export this variant relatively easily. A couple of years ago there was a large amount of Mpimbwe frontosa offered for sale in Europe . It was clear that the diving operation set up at Frontosa Bank stayed longer than was the usually expected term, it could have been that it was it bit easier to camp there or it could have been frontosas were there in large numbers, reports vary. Added to the fact, it is no coincidence why it is called "Frontosa Bank." There are at least two dozen named frontosas coming out of Tanzania, at the time of writing, but be aware that these are just named after the location at which they are caught. There are frontosas caught at Kigoma of which the ones that are seven stripe can clearly be seen to be different. There is a somewhat shorter seven stripe fish than the Kigoma variety, but there is some confusion as to whether it is wild-caught or a cross bred fish. It seems that fish caught opposite Kapampa, i.e. Kipili and thereabouts does have the same gorgeous blue colouration of the Zaire blues, but these have been in limited numbers. Again frontosas called Samazi, some of which have the same light metallic blue as most good Zambians, is no doubt due to the fact it's location being so close, in relative terms, to Zambia. Some dedicated frontosa keepers can be fiercely loyal to a particular fish caught on the Tanzania side, from a particular location, this is the fascination and charm that keeps the debate going as to what is the better looking frontosa. There are many individual reports and letters on the internet of which the owners are so proud of they are well worth looking at, and some have well taken photos which should give you an idea as to what frontosas, from which location, you may want to have in your aquariums. A frontosa keeper that wants to keep three or four groups of differently named fish is best advised to chose from locations as far apart as possible so the difference between the groups can be clearly seen.
These are some of the named frontosas caught at the Tanzania "coast": Kigoma; Maswa; Halembe; Karilani yellow dorsal; Mabilibili; Ikola; Mpimbwe; Kipili; Mtosi; Kala Island; Samazi; Kantalamba; Cape Kabago;.
Guide to Sexing Frontosa's
Many people say they have a reliable way of sexing Frontosas - be it by shape, size of there hump etc everyone has the same chance of being right 50% there is only one sure way of sexing your frontosa and thats venting ..................
Picture gallery of my Cyphotilapia
Please feel free to browse my Gibberosa/Frontosa picture gallery, All the picture's are the property of Zaire-purple.co.uk.
My Links
links I use for Forum's, Advice,Buying & selling fish & Equipment. These sites I have had no problems with and would reccommend