Are Festivum groups needed?
- Thread starter Pile_O_Rocks
- Start date
Liberifer, notatus, appendiculatus, and some golds and super reds. The Mesonauta bothered them all. I have no idea what species of Mesonauta. The first group was bought as acora, the second group as festivus, and yet when I posted pictures online I had cichlid folks guess literally every species. Mesonauta are almost impossible to ID, IMO. For instance, in both groups I had some fish that turned yellow and some that stayed silver, yet people will tell you only certain species get the yellow color. Perhaps they were mixed both times. It wouldn’t surprise me if big fish exporters in Brazil just lumped multiple catch locations of Mesonauta together because they all look the same at 2”.
Yes, a problem with catch locations in some fish, not just new worlds, either. Not to mention misidentified photos, etc. Not to mention as yet unidentified, and therefore cryptic, species...
Agree with this, its only been recently that exporters, and importers have realized the importance that different locations may contain different species, not only in S America but world wide.
Back when I kept Heros and festiv.....in the 60s, they were all just called Severums and Festivums, so many were inadvertently hybridized.
Take Paratilipia from Madagascar, when they first arrived most were considered simply Polleni, and often bred.
We now recogonize at least half dozen species, so those spawned during first 10 years could easily have progeny that could be aquarium strain hybrids of one or another, and are still being sold as one or another in LFSs. So for Heros, who knows how long (could be decades) many were hybridized until, species realization occured. (Not to mention line bred morphs).
Unless you have ordered certain species with known locations, its a crapp shoot.
I’ve kept them in heavily planted tanks with soft leaves plants and never had a problem. I’ve never had any Heros species eat plants either for that matter.
I too have seen heavy aggression from Mesonauta. That’s why I don’t keep them anymore when/if I have discus or angels.
I too have seen heavy aggression from Mesonauta. That’s why I don’t keep them anymore when/if I have discus or angels.
Wild or captive bred? Any sp. or location in particular? Yours and Ryan's agreement on this has me wondering what the difference is with those I had without aggression issues-- not as a debate, but in the interest of getting a clear picture.
My thought is that if you give them a large enough tank and a large enough shoal to feel really comfortable, they easily become the dominant group of fish in a tank. Mine patrolled it like they owned it. I see a lot of people keeping them as singles or in smaller groups, and in smaller tanks. I always did mine in groups of 6 - 8 in 6’ tanks
I also read on Facebook recently that there are species that stay smaller, but again that hasn’t been my experience. Both my wild groups, whatever they are, had 8” males. Females stayed 4 - 5”. Mike Tucc claimed on Facebook that one of the species had males who topped out around 5” in the wild. If that’s the case, I’d be interested to try whatever those are. I’d personally never heard of any of the species showing that level of variation in adult size.
I also read on Facebook recently that there are species that stay smaller, but again that hasn’t been my experience. Both my wild groups, whatever they are, had 8” males. Females stayed 4 - 5”. Mike Tucc claimed on Facebook that one of the species had males who topped out around 5” in the wild. If that’s the case, I’d be interested to try whatever those are. I’d personally never heard of any of the species showing that level of variation in adult size.
I tried to keep 1 festivum in a 80 gallon planted tank with large Angel's and rummy nose tetras. The Angels were no problem but the 3" festivum hit a rummy head on within minutes after he entered the tank. 12 Rummy went down to half within a week and back he went to the store to stop the carnage
