Festae Color questions

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 20, 2011
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I know many members here keep festae pairs. I've been reading a lot lately since I finally got my juvies and some people say the females only color up when breeding... but I don't know if it's true.

Here you can see a female that is not breeding and still shows the striking red color with black bands:

Can they be as colorful when kept by themselves?

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they can still show excellent colors when alone (either gender) especially if they are the dominant fish in the tank, their breeding colors are just that much more vibrant, but yes they can still be gorgeous fish when kept alone
 
By 'alone', do you mean without a male? If kept with other cichlids, IME they stay colorful most of the time. When kept completely alone they often stay very dull in color.
 
Right now I have no idea what I'll end up doing but my original plan was to keep the single most colorful female in a community setup with other cichlids such as salvini (she would be the biggest, dominant fish), which would be pointless if she won't color up at all.

I don't think I have the time to have a breeding pair of festae murdering everything and each other.... but I might set up a tank just for them if I really like them as they grow up. I just wanted to make sure that I could keep a single female and have her color up, like the beauty in that video.
 
You misunderstood. If a female is kept in a community tank with other cichlids, even without a male Festae, she should stay colored up most of the time. At least that's been my experience.
 
Yeah I understood I was just explaining the reason for my question... that sounds good! Can't wait
 
and yeah when i said alone, i meant not in a pair but still in a community set-up, like stated festae kept totally alone with no other fish tend to not be comfortable and not color up that well (i personally have not kept festae by themselves in a tank but have seen them not color up as nicely from pics of other people's tanks who have tried this)
 
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