Festae cichlid tankmates

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castro1212

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2012
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metairie louisiana
im not sure if this is in the right place its only my second time posting a thread on MFK soif its not sorry

i was wondering though what could possibly be kept in a 125 gallon aquarium with one or two festae of the same sex? they are 1 inch at the moment in a 50 gallon with 2 inch gt and all will be moved into a 125 in a few months. what could i put with two festaes and a gt in a 125 gallon tank (oscar maybe?)? they are all still small also how fast do festaes grow averagely?
 
Male festae can grow to a maximum of 16 inches and females get a bit smaller. I have a female at 6 inches and she is very aggressive already. These fish don't grow very fast but as they grow they'll get more aggressive and more territorial. I don't really see you putting much else in there with them. Maybe a red devil or something like that. Whatever you choose, it has to be able to hold it's own against the festae.
 
In my personal experience, black gravel ang great lighting brings out the best colors. The lighter their surroundings, the more "washed out" the fish will begin to look. I also painted the back and sides of my aquarium black. But the color of the fish will also depend on many other factors including water quality and level of stress.
 
Thanks and what color sand would bring out the festaes colors the best? Thanks again

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I've used both black and natural and colors are much brighter over a lighter substrate IME. Not too bright lighting either. My female darkened alot over black substrate

this is her over light sand with ABOUT 3/4 watt per gallon
 
Silver dollars would work. I don't recommend Red Devils or Midas. I had 2 female festae (7"), a black belt cichlid(8"), and a midas(8") in a 220 gallon and it was awful the Midas was so aggressive the BB was quarantined to a corner, if it moved out of that 20 gallon section the Midas would attack it...


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