I was wondering what the Festae owners can tell me about these gorgeous cichlids.What kind of tank mates can a festae be with?What tank size?What is their temperament like?
Curious about a Festae
- Thread starter burzumaske20
- Start date
Well, since I am not too familiar with them, wouldn't a female be much brighter in colors?Also a single would be fine, since I like to mix up the tank with variety of cichlids.
Females are the ones you see in the pics with fiery yellow/red/orange coloration and black bars. Males are good looking too but not nearly as much.
They're big, grow extremely slow (.5" per month if you're lucky), hate their own kind... Not particularly aggressive to other species unless breeding imo. You'll read about them being in the same category as Umbee, Dovii, RD, Midas, Beani, etc as far as aggression goes but ime they're not even close to that. They can be put in communities with other big cichlids that can stand their own.
As juveniles mine were very personable, begging for food all day and following me around during maintenance. The adult female I have now spends most of her time swimming around, banging the heater, driftwood and snails against the glass and moving rocks. She mostly ignores me... neither hides nor pays attention to what I'm doing. Overall a very nice and interesting fish to watch.
They're big, grow extremely slow (.5" per month if you're lucky), hate their own kind... Not particularly aggressive to other species unless breeding imo. You'll read about them being in the same category as Umbee, Dovii, RD, Midas, Beani, etc as far as aggression goes but ime they're not even close to that. They can be put in communities with other big cichlids that can stand their own.
As juveniles mine were very personable, begging for food all day and following me around during maintenance. The adult female I have now spends most of her time swimming around, banging the heater, driftwood and snails against the glass and moving rocks. She mostly ignores me... neither hides nor pays attention to what I'm doing. Overall a very nice and interesting fish to watch.
Well, most of the cichlids I have in my set up is a Oscar,Jack Dempsey,Cuban,Vieja bifasciatus,Severum,Convict,Salvini,Firemouth,Texas,and Blood Parrot.Most of my Cichlids are female and maybe a couple of males.Reason I ask this,is because I spotted looks to be a female Festae for 22 dollars.I just don't wan to risk putting her in the tank if I am consider overcrowded in the 125 gallon.The only large cichlids I have is the Oscar,Jack Dempsey,and Bifasciatus.This would be the one I have looked at for 22 dollars.
^ thats a mayan (exCichlasoma urophthalmus)...and are you kidding? There are 8 gazillion threads on MFK on festae. USE the search and youll find out everything you want to know. 
That's not a festae. I'm not even sure what that is... it doesn't look Mayan either...
This is my new female festae (non breeding color) for comparison
Notice the "Y" bar and the "eye" in the caudal fin only covers the top part.
Mayan don't have the Y bar and the eye spot in the tail is bigger and centered
This is my new female festae (non breeding color) for comparison
Notice the "Y" bar and the "eye" in the caudal fin only covers the top part.
Mayan don't have the Y bar and the eye spot in the tail is bigger and centered
That's a really prominent bump on the back of your festae. I'm just curious as one of my young grow outs is showing a bump too. Is this an indication of being female or is this just a genetic thing? All my other grow outs have a smooth back.
It's no indication of being male or female, just their shape.
I was told they become increasingly deep bodied as they grow. She's 6 years old and very big. She also has a sunken belly (I guess previous owner took horrible care of her) that makes her back look more curved than it is.