Festae Help

[rich_one]

I have a male in a 210 community, and no aggression issues so far. He's about 7 inches or so.

-Rich

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[Mythic Figment]

Of course a lot of it will depend on the individual personalities of the tankmates you want to add. My friend's Pearsei was left alone in a 300 with a breeding pair of festae and it wasn't much larger than the male festae. The male was unfortunately killed by a combination of the female and a Vieja argentae.


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[Freshwaterpredators]

I have yet to see pics of male Festae at 18"!! Haven't seen any bigger than 16". And that is few years old, they don't grow that fast. Yes individual personality says a lot about what you can keep with Festae, but IMO trimacs are a very bad idea. They are usually too belligerent to keep with Festae. And it's always best to raise fish together from smaller sizes.


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[viejafish]

Yes, there is individual variation in personality, but within certain range. You will not find a super aggressive chocolate cichlid, nor will you find a super tame Trimac. The size of the tank and the environment make a bigger difference than variation of individual personality. A Pearsei in a 300 with a breeding pair of Festae will be left alone, but put him in a 125 gal and he won't last long.

 

[Mythic Figment]

Yes, there is individual variation in personality, but within certain range. You will not find a super aggressive chocolate cichlid, nor will you find a super tame Trimac. The size of the tank and the environment make a bigger difference than variation of individual personality. A Pearsei in a 300 with a breeding pair of Festae will be left alone, but put him in a 125 gal and he won't last long.

Of course not. That would just be irresponsible fish keeping. Everything you said is true, and it just goes to show how many variables there are that can alter any cichlid's behavior from their "norm". But a natural swing in that range of behavior can still play a very large part. Andinoacara rivulatus "green terrors" are an excellent example of this. It's a species that a very large number of people have kept or are at least familiar with on a written level. There are reports of very calm, peaceful saums that are not aggressive (predatory or otherwise) to fish small enough to fit in their mouths. There are reports of murderous, psychotic saums. And there are reports of the "policeman" type saums that display no outward aggression, but don't back down when challenged (the peace keepers). Now of course there are more of the later that the two former, but those wide swings in standard behavior for each individual is a huge difference. It gives reason to believe that the range of behavior is a wide one and it's equally as important as environment.



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[viejafish]

I have been keeping GT continuously over the last 30 years, and have never experienced any of them that are overly aggressive. Mine can get aggressive towards conspecific, and mature male have killed one another, but never experienced a psycho GT that is indiscriminately murderous towards other fish. I have read a few posts on aggressive GT, but likely they are kept in too small a tank or they are wild strain. Sure, there is variation in individual temperament, but within the bell curve of the species. This is very different from Festas which are known to be spouse killer and I have never come across a post that described Festae as a gentle giant.

 

[Jc1119]

Yes, there is individual variation in personality, but within certain range. You will not find a super aggressive chocolate cichlid, nor will you find a super tame Trimac. The size of the tank and the environment make a bigger difference than variation of individual personality. A Pearsei in a 300 with a breeding pair of Festae will be left alone, but put him in a 125 gal and he won't last long.

Not in our 300. Pearsei def had to be removed.

Even in an 8' tank, without a divider our pair spawned for a year and then we lost the male. Homicidal males are common but females of size can be an issue as well.


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