Are there 2 varieties of festaes?

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quattroatl

quattroatl

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2005
115
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54
Atlanta, GA
I have heard people mention festaes being from Ecuador or of a Columbian variety. What is the difference? I have 2 females growing out and was curious.

Also, how hard is it to pair festaes up? I have one gorgeous female in a 125 with 2 juvie jags. The other female had to be removed because it was going to be killed. Even at only 3.5", the female festae is stunning. Her gillplate is greenish/blue with red fins right now. The color changes depending on mood swing is amazing.

Another thing I have noticed is that my one female is a digger! She has dug to the bottom of the aquarium on all 4 corners of my tank. Every time I do a water change I swear she gets pissed that I undo her hard work.

It took me 2 years before finding festaes in the Atlanta are, and boy am I glad to finally enjoy these fish! Now I just have to find a male! :grinno:
 
Yeah there are to variants. The one form ecuador is the more common one. The columbian one is rarer and is a much more intense red color. Both are still stunnig fish though.
 
I have seen pics of a blue bar and a black bar variety of "A"festae. The geographic range for this species is from Northen Peru in the Rio Tumbes up to Northern Ecuador. It is replaced in Northern Ecuador to Central Columbia by it's close relative "A" ornatum. I haven't heard of any reports of fesate being found in Columbia.

This is a link to the species summary in fishbase. http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=12308
 
Excellent I always wondered why my red terrors never looked like Jeff Rapps.
 
Like most cichlids, these fish have different races depending on what location they are collected. I see wild caughts for sale all the time and they tend to vary in appearance.
Cool looking fish, but remember this. They get big (18" males) and they can be nasty.
 
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