Festae disappointment

[dent20]

So I spent the last three weeks looking up info about Festae/Red Terrors and thought I knew all the ins and outs of buying one. I went to a store about 90 minutes away where I knew they had them and found some that were about an inch long. I asked the store owner (this is a mom and pop) for a female and he said they were too small to tell the sex. Truth is I don't think he knew much about the fish. I also tried to look at the markings to be sure I wasn't getting a Mayan and thought the striping looked right from what I read.

I get the fish home and move everything in my 29 to other tanks so the little (girl I was hoping) has room and the safety to grow out. I then get back on the Internet to continue my research to be sure I have the right fish and right sex (thought I was prepared going into the buy, but clearly wasn't). During my web surfing I find a site that says a festae's tail fin spot will only come half way down, while the Mayan's spot will go all the way. Of course my new fish's spot covers the entire tail fin. I'm bummed. I'll post pics when I get my camera charged.

Anyway, I'm now looking for an online source where I can order a female festae and be sure I'm getting the real thing and the right sex. Any suggestions on a store I might try?

 

[dent20]

Has anyone ordered from livefishdirect before? It seems they have both festae and the calvus I've been wanting.

 

[nyinfamous2k2]

I have ordered from this vendor - http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=1855 hes was very knowledgable and shipped very fast. hit him up he usually has alot of great stuff.
Id like to see those pics too, and sorry that happened sounds like my luck lol my LFS recently got a whole batch of young festae in so my friend bought 2 for him and 2 for me. but two days later they all died.

good luck

 

[young_rico]

try snookn or fish farm

 

[Otherone]

Sometimes as juvi's red terrors will show a double eye like figure 8 just before the tail fin, the y shaped barring over and behind the gill is a better way of determining true red terrors to false.

 

[FSM]

I seem to remember reading a lot of bad things about livefishdirect.

 

[fishluvr12]

If You want quality Festae I reccomend,tangledupincichlids.com,Jeff Rapps has great Festae

Here's what His look like.Female is 2yrs and 7.5",Male is 3yrs and 11.5.They are awesome when they are in breeding dress

 

[]v[onster_Terror]

mine has a full tail spot as well... she is the one on the avatar.. I dont think the tail spont IMO is a good way to tell from the true or "false"

 

[dent20]

Took some pictures with my wife's new camera, but can't get it to cooperate with my computer. I'm now waiting on my old camera to charge. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pics of the fish shortly.

Thanks for sharing those pictures. Very beautiful fish.

 

[teqvet]

Has anyone ordered from livefishdirect before? It seems they have both festae and the calvus I've been wanting.

Do not order from them. I asked for 12 female african msobo's and he sent me 12 males. I was freaking pissed. They never answered calls or emails. What makes me even more pissed about the situation was he and she both guaranteed that they would be 12 females as the fellow has supposedly been doing it for years. That was over 100$ down the drain not to mention the war I ended up having with the other msobo's I'd already had in the tank.


My experience is stay the hell away.