Mesonauta mirificus

A couple of my M. mirificus about 4-4.5 inches TL. Very cool striations when the mood strikes them. I love festivum more people should keep these fish.

neutrino said:

Nice. Also nice to see them with angelfish, which is how I used to keep them, with angels, discus, laetacara, etc. (Other than water quality, I didn't baby discus when I kept them the way a lot of people think you have to, and I always did well with them.) Been years since I've had Mesonauta, though. Basically all were called festivum back then, so no idea what species I actually had. (yeah, I know technically "festivus" is correct, but back then everyone called them festivum)

Anyway, I liked them when I had them. How many in the group?

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I'm old school and also refer to them as festivum. I have them with some wild scalare Rio Nanay and Chocolates. There are five of the and they breed about every five weeks or so. I love festivum great fish in a big community tank.

jaws7777 said:

Nice pics whats the growth rate like

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Thanks, they don't grow too fast I got these at about 2" a couple of years ago and they are averaging about 4" but will most likely top out at around 6.

Woefulrelic said:

I've considered them, there were a couple nice ones floating around a couple months ago. I was worried about comm'ing them with my severum, most fish with streamers can be easy targets.

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I keep them with some good sized chocolates and wild angels and they all just keep to themselves. I don't have single fish so other than some territorial chasing each species just interacts with themselves. I would think you should have no issue keeping Festivum and severum together.

Mahlerfan said:

Those are really nice! I also haven't kept any species of Mesonauta in years (actually decades), but your M. mirificus is tempting me to try some again.

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Angelfish, chocolates and festivum are among my favorite fish. Festivum have always reminded me of proto-Pterophyllum, the jurassic angelfish. I love watching them.

Pharaoh said:

Nice lookers. I have a pair in my 180.


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Thanks Bobby.

Jdreal21 said:

nice i have a group of 7 wild mesaonauta acora from rapps in my 220 i love this fish View attachment 1066775

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My previous group were M.acora. very nice fish they would also breed often.

My large male and one of the females paired off today and started breeding on the Mag-Float. For a size that's about a 4" Mag-Float.