Additions

[Zanzag]

So recently I upgraded my 55 to a 90 and figured I had a little more room so I happened upon these guys at my Lfs. Now that they're out of qt here we go


Full stock is
2 blue acara(pair)
1 female convict
3 geo. Brasiliensis (hoping for a pair)
2 festivum(no clue what type?)
14 red blue columbian tetra
1 clown place
1 oscillated syno


So far so good. Few missing scales on the geos and festivum as they sort out who's who

 

[fishhead0103666]

Nice, I’ve always loved festivums since I first heard of them. I’m also rather fond of the scaping you have, nice and simple.

 

[PhishMon84]

Festivum are great old school cichlids, not as available as they should be!
tank looks great
You may need to separate the brasiliensis as they grow. . They get large and are pushy, I usually keep them with CA cichlids in 6ft tanks

 

[Zanzag]

So far the festivum are awesome, first time I'd actually ever seen them in store.
The brasiliensis are definantly pushy I was hoping for a pair to form and just keep them but I'll settle for just 1 male.
A d thank you both for the kind words on the tank and scape

 

[mrrobxc]

Nice setup and stock!

 

[Zanzag]

Got some halfway decent pictures today

 

[Zanzag]

Got a new chunk of driftwood and some replanting needed to be done.

 

[neutrino]

Don't mean to be pedantic and you may already know this, but if I don't say this someone else will...
--festivum is to Mesonauta as severum is to Heros, it's a common name for Mesonatua species, but not technically correct.

I've seen lists with 6 or 7 Mesonauta species, depending on source. There's probably more on the way. They're hard to tell apart in photos. A distinguishing character of certain species is a net-like pattern of scales above the black lateral (flag) mark vs. the bar pattern in yours. I believe insginis is one with the net pattern, so if I have it right, yours aren't insignis (or mirificus, which is similar).

But to distinguish some of the other very similar species you'd have to do scale counts, etc. not something you can tell from a photo. Some species are smaller, some larger, but how much does this hold true for tank raised vs. wild? Then there's the problem that they've been around a long time and domestic bred have probably been mixed up for years, etc. etc.

 

[Zanzag]

Oh I totally agree. Especially when the lfs tag said flag cichlid and someone wrote festivum on the glass. Partially why I said no clue on what type. And as much as I can tell the bigger one shows colors most like M. Festivus. Yellows and some blues.

 

[Zanzag]

Some new shots today