Festae Breeding Advice

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cichlidsickness

cichlidsickness

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 25, 2011
371
96
46
Ceres, CA
So I guess I finally have a pair of festae that like each other! A little over two weeks ago I bought a male and female from fellow MFKer Calihawk. The male that I got from him seems to like the female I bought a few months back and vice versa. She started laying eggs about 9 hours ago and she is on full time alert protecting her eggs. The male was side by side when she first started dropping but now he seems to keep his distance a bit. He's was in the corner by her and is breathing a little more heavily than normal, I dunno if she has traumatized him or what but he's now in the middle of the tank behind a rock. He still has his color but seems spooked. I don't really know what happened in this 7 hours or so because I had to leave. Is this normal for him to be doing this? Is she still going to lay more eggs? I am completely new to breeding first hand, although I have read about it on other threads in the past. I put a couple videos up, one from when she first dropped and one from right now. I also attached a couple pics of the two. He's 6 inches, she's about 5 to 5 and a half inches. I thought I'd get this thread up for some advice and meanwhile go read up on some breeding threads. Thanks guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-TOaondoQY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atIogg9r-eE

2012-05-16 00.03.15-1.jpg

2012-05-17 01.34.55.jpg
 
cichlidsickness said:
You know I just realized that maybe I should have put this in the breeding section. If a mod would like to move this, please do.
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With a species like festae, your going to get better advice from people who have first hand experience with this species here in this section, I don't think a lot of our cichlid members make it over to the breeding section much.

Congrats on the spawn. If you male is breathing heavy, your in Cali, I can only assume it's hot right now so I would add an air pump to the tank. O2 levels drop considerably when they temp rises. The male just put out a bit of effort courting and spawning and if the female is a tough one he could just be taking a rest from her. When my pair spawned last, the male took a bit of a beating while there were eggs. Once the eggs hatch into fry he snapped and gave her the boot (I had to divide them at this point so keep a close eye out for aggression). If the eggs hatch into fry, watch his colors come out and you will be surprised it's the same fish. This species is by par one of the most color "morphing" cichlids I've owned. Every pattern they display tells you something about their mood, the tank perams, stress etc.. It's actually nice having a fish that can indicate when there is an issue for them IMO.
 
JK47 said:
With a species like festae, your going to get better advice from people who have first hand experience with this species here in this section, I don't think a lot of our cichlid members make it over to the breeding section much.

Congrats on the spawn. If you male is breathing heavy, your in Cali, I can only assume it's hot right now so I would add an air pump to the tank. O2 levels drop considerably when they temp rises. The male just put out a bit of effort courting and spawning and if the female is a tough one he could just be taking a rest from her. When my pair spawned last, the male took a bit of a beating while there were eggs. Once the eggs hatch into fry he snapped and gave her the boot (I had to divide them at this point so keep a close eye out for aggression). If the eggs hatch into fry, watch his colors come out and you will be surprised it's the same fish. This species is by par one of the most color "morphing" cichlids I've owned. Every pattern they display tells you something about their mood, the tank perams, stress etc.. It's actually nice having a fish that can indicate when there is an issue for them IMO.
Click to expand...

I increased the air on my powerhead so they now have some extra O2. The tank stays at 82 degrees right now. I did a lot of reading last night through the different forum threads and there were a few that were specifically aimed towards festae breeding. These threads had a lot of info and helped a lot. Now that I've been watching the pair I notice that he goes to her and sees how shes doing every now and then. She was nudging him a bit too but nothing too rough. I also have a divider in handy in case I need to separate them but my concern now is all the other cichlids I have in the tank with them. They've been keeping their distance for the most part but I'm not sure how this spawn is going to work with 3 other festae, 2 mayan cichlids and 3 small convicts. I don't have another tank to house them in right now so I'm wondering if I should divide them away from the breeding pair or just leave them and see how it goes.
 
cichlidsickness said:
I increased the air on my powerhead so they now have some extra O2. The tank stays at 82 degrees right now. I did a lot of reading last night through the different forum threads and there were a few that were specifically aimed towards festae breeding. These threads had a lot of info and helped a lot. Now that I've been watching the pair I notice that he goes to her and sees how shes doing every now and then. She was nudging him a bit too but nothing too rough. I also have a divider in handy in case I need to separate them but my concern now is all the other cichlids I have in the tank with them. They've been keeping their distance for the most part but I'm not sure how this spawn is going to work with 3 other festae, 2 mayan cichlids and 3 small convicts. I don't have another tank to house them in right now so I'm wondering if I should divide them away from the breeding pair or just leave them and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

You are smart to keep the divider handy. It's really up to you if you want to divide them from the other fish right now or not. If it were me, I would leave the other fish as something to keep the pair focused on instead of beating on one another (basically dithers). Save the divider for separating mom and dad if you need to. I don't know the size of the tank though and that plays a big part in how all this will end. Keep in mind that festae at best are unpredictable and you should be watching them closely and ready to intervene at any time if you need to. Keep us posted.
 
JK47 said:
You are smart to keep the divider handy. It's really up to you if you want to divide them from the other fish right now or not. If it were me, I would leave the other fish as something to keep the pair focused on instead of beating on one another (basically dithers). Save the divider for separating mom and dad if you need to. I don't know the size of the tank though and that plays a big part in how all this will end. Keep in mind that festae at best are unpredictable and you should be watching them closely and ready to intervene at any time if you need to. Keep us posted.
Click to expand...

It's a 135 gallon and it has a good amount of space for all the fish since the smallest one is roughly 2 inches (convict) and the largest is 6 inches (breeding male festae). I plan to house the pair long term in this tank and get rid of the others, but I thought they'd be good for dithers, as you mentioned, since they're still small. I've heard sometimes the first couple spawns don't yield much fry if any at all so I'm hoping the eggs got fertilized. I will keep everyone posted.
 
Well, the eggs are still the same color, haven't seen any darkening up at all. I'm not sure how long it takes for them to darken up but I assume they would already have changed color a bit. The male seems to stay in the corner of the tank by where she has her eggs, but he doesn't come out much and he faces the corner of the tank rather than the other side where the other cichlids are. I haven't seen him chase 1 other fish yet, she's the only one doing the chasing. He is loyal enough to stick on her side of the tank though. I put some food in and she ate but he didn't, although he came out of the corner like he was going to eat. Just a small update if any really at all lol. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears, or eyes I suppose. ;)
 
Got some wigglers today! Female is moving them behind the rock. I'll probably discontinue this thread and make one in the media lounge when I can get good pics of them. Thanks for your help JK47, I appreciate it!
 
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