Festae breeding time

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twhittle

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Feb 8, 2007
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Clarkston, Wa
My festae are acting like they are getting ready to breed. I have them alone in the 125. I have an egg crate divider ready and some sponge covers for the filter intakes.
Any other advice for this to be successful? When should I place the fry in a grow out? What should I feed them? Thanks!

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Your female is beautiful!
There are a few ways you can handle it.

Let nature take its course. They might eat the first batch or two, maybe even three. But eventually raise the fry without much work on your end. At that point I’d take them out at around 1/2” to feed them more and change their water more often. Just giving them a good start growth wise.

You could also remove the eggs as soon as they are done spawning. Place them in a waiting cycled tank with an air stone close enough to keep them free of debris.
Then it’s just waiting for them to hatch.

Another way is to leave the eggs with mom and dad till they are wigglers. They are really easy to syphon up with a turkey baster at that stage. It’s just working around mom and dad that’s hard;)

It all depends on how much work you want to put in and if you don’t mind waiting to let the parents get things right on their own.

Food wise you have options too. You can raise brine shrimp for live feeding. Make food paste/gel. Or my favorite is to just crush up a mixture of foods that I feed the parents. Simple, doesn’t go bad, hardly considered extra work, and is always available at a moments notice.

Mostly just have fun:) Soon you’ll have so many fry you won’t know what to do with them all. Haha.
 
Usually what I do is let the fry hatch and when the parents move them in a little pile just before they start to free swim I use a piece of tubing and siphon out about half and leave half for the parents to raise.

All the advice above is spot on and will work.
 
I've actually left the fry with the parents for about 2 months and fed baby brine before I removed them from the tank. You will have to monitor and watch the parents though as they may try to spawn again before the 2 months and begin to eat the fry as they will see them as a threat.
 
Did anyone have trouble with aggression from the male after the babies were born?
 
Yes, I actually did. He was fine with the female for a few days. I would remove him from the tank. Then add him back in when I was ready for them to spawn again.

I wonder if my egg crate divider will suffice?
 
I wonder if my egg crate divider will suffice?

It may be fine. You could try it out and see how it goes. I noticed when I had my pair the first spawn wasn't that great. Once they got to their third spawn they were a lot better parents. Like I mentioned though I did separate the male.
 
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