I've heard alot of mix reviews about festae in community tank and would like someone thoughts and experience on this type of cichlid ??
Festae Cichlid - Community tank
- Thread starter Predator07
- Start date
nope.. not in a community tank... unless the community tank is 1 festae, a few sd's and maybe an armored cat or 2.. anything else is *at best* a lottery..
Really hard long term. When they want to breed, they shred the opposite sex cichlid, no matter the species, to test their compatibility, even in a 8 foot tank. My female shredded and killed larger males, except for a male jag who was 3x the length, width, and girdth. But, one time he pissed her off, and she pinned him to a corner for 1 day.
Generally, no. There are exceptions, and you will have to be willing to deal with shredded/dead fish until you find the right one. A bigger tank helps, having tank mates at least double in size helps. Any tankmate that is almost as big (by 75%) or just a little bit bigger (by 25%) have a high chance of getting picked on by the festae. Generally fish that are not the same body type are left more alone because they are not perceived as direct competition.
If the tank is 300 gallons or more, it could work, especially if all cichlids have grown up together from juvies handworked out a territorial solution among themselve. But .......Any smaller tanks, is usually only a temporary situation.
The 6 ft tank above lasted about a year before complete chaos ensued.
A friend had a 220 gal with a pair of festae, and about a dozen blue mbuna, and it worked well.
I believe it only worked, because the mbuna were so dissimilar in appearance, whereas any new world cichlids because of similar ancestry would see each other as competitors.
The 6 ft tank above lasted about a year before complete chaos ensued.
A friend had a 220 gal with a pair of festae, and about a dozen blue mbuna, and it worked well.
I believe it only worked, because the mbuna were so dissimilar in appearance, whereas any new world cichlids because of similar ancestry would see each other as competitors.
My plan was to purchase one juvenile festae add him/her in American cichlids community tank - 125gallon growout tank.. eventually moving all the cichlids to my 350gallon tank
My experience with festae was basically identical to the above posts, which is unfortunate because they are such a good looking fish. Tried a female in an agressive CA community with a male jag, female freddy, JD, etc. This tank had only worked previously because each fish was raised from fry together and had their own caves they defended fiercely but wouldn't chase beyond the entrance. The festae chased relentlessly and destroyed the balance that had taken years and several deaths to achieve.
Tried growing out a group of 5 at 2" in a 100g... By 4" the dominant female had killed the other 2 females and males in quick succession. She wouldn't tolerate any of the same size male or female RTMs I tried but eventually let me keep a big old male FH with her until he passed of old age. I wouldn't recommend keeping any similar looking cichlids with a festae.
Tried growing out a group of 5 at 2" in a 100g... By 4" the dominant female had killed the other 2 females and males in quick succession. She wouldn't tolerate any of the same size male or female RTMs I tried but eventually let me keep a big old male FH with her until he passed of old age. I wouldn't recommend keeping any similar looking cichlids with a festae.
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I’ve got a pair of festae that are about a year old in a 150 gallon with a very large Oscar, A 6-7” Texas Cichlid, 6” Gold Severum, and a Pleco for at least 6 months now with no issues some chasing in and around their territories but nothing to serious so far
