Festae help??

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
C

Chago09

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2006
587
1
0
Ontario
I have been reading around although have been getting different results everywhere I look.

How big does a male get???

are they a in your face type fish??? or do they hide??

Do they grow fast???

Are they really hybrids or is it easy to find a pure festae?? like would big als have pure ones or no??

how can you know if its pure???

What are a good way to sex them at a small size??
 
Males get large, over 18" is possible.

I have a young breeding pair and both fish are not very outgoing, but now that the male is around 8-9", he's starting to become more personable. I would say that it really depends on the fish. As for growth rate, definitely not as fast as a managuense or midas. I would imagine mine would be close to 12" by now if he hadn't started breeding at 5-6" and he's only 18-20 months old.

Have no idea on what Big Al's stocks, mine were purchased from Rapps as F1 fish. Pretty easy to tell the difference between a true festae and a uro. I probably wouldn't try to accurately sex them until they are 2-3" and even then, it's not 100% reliable. My female was the one that grew the fastest and had the speckling that is usually associated with males, but had the black front half of her dorsal fin that indicated female. Wasn't until she was closer to 3.5" that I knew she was female. Some of the others in the batch were easy to sex, but my lone male was not.
 
I have never seen a captive male over 16 inches, but I suppose it's possible. They are fairly slow growers. My female in the avatar was much more aggressive than the male I have.
 
Big Al's Mississauga sometimes has them but they're not very good stock and sometimes come with internal parasite problems.

I kept a male to about 5-6". He was outgoing in a community tank but very skittish when kept by himself.

He grew slowly compared to my midas & jags

Here's the one I had from BA's
RedTerror_04.jpg
 
I got six 1" F1 fry from Jeff Rapps in November 2006 and only have 1 female remaining. It took her a year and 3 months to go from 1" to 6" but keep in mind that I bred her twice during that time. She's a psycho brute towards other Festae but gets along fine with other species. She killed at least 5 males that I tried to breed her with until I finally got one much larger than her.

Rapps has some 1" F1's in stock right now but you might be looking for some larger ones?

Here's some then and now pics. I've posted these before but in case you missed them.

Festae facing off.jpg

FESTAE 1.jpg
 
In answer to your questions.

How big does a male get??? As already said 16", possibly a bit more. female 12".

are they an in your face type fish??? or do they hide?? When small mine was shy, now at 12" he is pretty bold, he is most confident when he is around other bold fish.

Do they grow fast??? It depends on the fish as well as whether or not they are breeding. My male grew from 3" to 12" in less than a year. Judging by what others on here have said I think that is about as quick as they can possibly grow so I wouldnt expect quite that fast.

Are they really hybrids or is it easy to find a pure festae?? like would big als have pure ones or no?? I bought mine at big als and it is a true festae but they dont get them often up here, they always label true festae as "Amphilophus Feastae" on the tank, if they are labeled as "Red Terror" they are not true festae. At least that is how they do it at my local store, I would ask the manager if you are worried about it.

how can you know if its pure??? Look at balton777s picture, the 2 stripes behind the head that Y together identify true festae.

What are a good way to sex them at a small size?? If you want a male get the biggest fish in the brood, thats a good bet. They are hard to sex if they are real small but look for the black on the front of the dorsal fin on the females as they grow.
 
I have had problems sexing my festae. Everyone here thought I had a male when I posted its pic. Only at 4" did she show her black dorsal fin, and she still has blue spots all over. At smaller sizes all bets are off. Thread "festae male?"
I've never seen a hybrid festae! only all pure. Uros are the ones to watch out for. they are mixed in all the time.
My festae are fish killers at 4". before that they got along with others. They do hide from me though, even now. And yes, mine grow slow too. keep the temp around 80F, do large water changes atleast every week, and feed twice a day high protein. If it grows slow after you do that, atleast you know its not your fault.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom