Sorry, but I strongly disagree with most of the comments regarding this pair. The O/P's pair are deformed and very low grade. Better food, water quality, different gravel, stress or lack thereof are not going to fix an arched/deformed spine and Cloroxed color. And contrary to one respondent, females color up when they pair up, which can be as early as 3.5-4", not after laying their 1st egg. But if allowed to reach a length 6"+ prior to pairing/breeding, they tend to develop richer coloration.
There is no amount of stress that would cause a quality bred festae to bleach out under any conditions. When stressed, Festae base color goes kinda neutral, their finnage fade somewhat sometimes to an almost opaque appearance-last 2 pics below, and their bars become more distinct. This is demonstrated in the attached pics.
All these are photos of Festae in various stressful states, except the divided pair. The male in the top 2 pics are the same fish, 1st in a stressed state then in a relaxed state. The last 3 photos are the same female, 1st in a semi stressed state, then in a very stressed state after being moved to a new environment-last 2 pics. Notice the shade of the tail/fins in the 1st pic as opposed to the last 2 pics.
There is a severe shortage of high grade festae in the hobby today causing many inexperienced and somewhat experienced hobby breeders to assume that what has mostly been seen in circulation in the past 3 years or so is the standard.
If you don't care whether you buy/breed high quality or not, then my comments do not apply to you and yours are irrevelent to me, so keep them to yourselves. If it does matter to you and you are looking to supply the hobby with HQ specimens then chime in.
These are some of the features you will "almost" never see in HQ festae:
1. Bleached out base color
2. Severely acute snouts
3. Severely arched spines
4. Drab brown/tan base at med-large sizes
5. Little to no barring in mature specimens particularly females
6. Muzzles which more or less resemble BEAKS.
Between 1-3" you should have seen barring at some point though it comes and goes in juvies. When a festae is approached by a more dominant fish they typically angle slightly sideways and exhibit strong barring as a sign of submission. If your prized specimen lacks the ability to strongly bar up under stress or submission, it will not do so when relaxed either. Rest assured you have a dud. And if someone attempts to sell you one which lacks barring claiming it to be F0, he/she is either a scammer or has been scammed is about to pin his/her loss on you.
Now indeed, there have been many photos popping up with nice coloring and sadly, people assume good color makes a HQ festae. Nothing could be further from the truth. To only focus on color and disregard structure and the standards set forth by/in nature, is amateurish, IMHO.
Obviously a small percentage of defects can occur even in HQ Festae such as underdevelopment in smaller, weaker fry, but either nature or stronger fry typically eliminate these lesser ones, ensuring only the stronger, more viable individuals survive and propagate.
