Breeding Festae

[RMW1999]

My male 4" festae is digging near his pot and is coloured up really nice. But I was wondering if that ment he might be willing to breed? None of the red terrors fight and tank is peaceful.

The Livestock In The Tank
- 2 Oscars 4"
- 4 True Red Terrors 3"-4"
- 1 Indonesian Tigerfish 4"
- 1 Texas 1"
- 2 Dovii/Red Terror Hybrids 1"-3"
- 1 Electric Blue Jack Dempsey

and the tank size is a 130 gallon and would that be enough for a breeding pair of festae?

 

[cichla81]

In my opinion the 130 is enough for the breeding pair but you will eventually have to reduce that stock significantly. You've got some bruisers with a blue jack and dat, not a good mix. They might be fine right now, but when they put on a couple inches you will have major problems.

 

[cichla81]

Also, digging is natural to cichlids so that doesn't necessarily indicate spawning behavior

 

[RealCrix220]

I've waited a good year for my male to outgrow my female as the female will not in my knowledge breed with a smaller male as he won't be able to protect the fry.
My male has just outgrown my female and they have been haveing a little fight here and there and they have cleared a hole out together so I'm hoping I've cracked it but only time will tell.

I'm not sure if they can at that size either they might need to grow a little more.
Photo of my large male

 

[MP_cichlid]

They can spawn at that size for sure, it's natural for a male to color at that size when there is a group. He is reaching sexually maturity and is most likely gonna attempt to court a female. For know the tank is fine. A 130 is perfectly fine for a single festae pair but once they put on some size, if they spawn it'll be a blood bath. The only thing that will be able to hold its own in that stock against a breeding festae pair would be the hybrids. But even then it will still be a constant fight in that size tank.

 

[RampageRR]

To second MP_cichlid 's reply - when I originally had a tank of 4 males I raised from 1", my largest male was completely colored up and green in the face, even when it was an all male tank. Once I moved the largest male out, the next dominant one started to color up as well.

Also seconding the fact that a breeding pair of festae will take out most other tankmates, if not all of them. They may not do it when you're watching, but be prepared to wake up to dead tankmates from whatever havoc they wreak overnight. They're sneaky killers in my experience.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Regardless of the festae pair, that stock is already not going to work in the long run when the fish are all full size. If you have other large tanks to move fish around to, and are prepared for that, then that's okay. The 130 would be sufficient for just the pair of festae alone. But with all those other fish, no way. I would recommend re-thinking the stocking and re-homing any fish you don't have the room for.

 

[Predator07]

They can spawn at that size for sure, it's natural for a male to color at that size when there is a group. He is reaching sexually maturity and is most likely gonna attempt to court a female. For know the tank is fine. A 130 is perfectly fine for a single festae pair but once they put on some size, if they spawn it'll be a blood bath. The only thing that will be able to hold its own in that stock against a breeding festae pair would be the hybrids. But even then it will still be a constant fight in that size tank.

With your experience could i keep single festae cichlid in community with other american cichlids?

 

[stiker]

With your experience could i keep single festae cichlid in community with other american cichlids?

This is a old thread (over 2.5 years old) is recommend starting your own. However, I wouldn’t recommend putting Festae in a community unless you have a very large tank. Generally they are very territorial, and will attack the other fish in the tank. I have attempted to keep one in a community before and it needed to be removed.

 

[RealCrix220]

I kept my female in community to start with but did have a 7 foot tank