Festae making friends!

[Veil-o's]

Grow them out, feed them good and you will get 1 that looks like mine! Good luck!

They are fed twice a day. Freeze dried blood worms and Hikari gold small pellets. Their fins have awesome pearling, their heads look like they are filling in with black, and their fins are getting black on the tips as well as the beginning of the dorsal. Don't really know if that means anything.

Isee the smaller one has taken a little beating.

It has. The tail fin is the only thing tattered on it. When the silver dollars went in aggression was immediately directed towards them and the festae started corralling them to investigate. I have read about other people's fish completely leaving silver dollars and other dithers completely alone... not mine of course. I turned off the lights after the pic was taken and since the tank is by my computer I could see silver flashes. I witnessed the smaller festae sneak up behind a silver and rip its eye out. This continued until all but one this morning was eyeless. They are really living up to their name.

Any suggestions on how to keep them in an undivided show tank would be great. My 100G thread will be started soon. I already have the Novus polish and just need sand paper and an electric polisher. The stand needs to be built and I have to figure out if I will keep my bottom drains or if I will drill the back.

Speaking of that. Does anyone know where I can pick up an overflow insert online?

 

[oscar79]

Been having the same problem introducing my Festaes, although the male is much larger than my female. I've setup a cave for the female that the male can't get into and I've also added six white convicts into the tank. So far the male has only been able to catch one of them and it seems to have taken a bit of his attention away from the female. Only problem is the female spends alot of time in her cave. Hope that she will start to come out more when she gets a bit more size on her.

 

[Calihawk]

Thanks Cali, all thanks to you bud. How are yours doin'?

Great, except I sold almost all but 1, My project is on hold too, I just acquired 14 Gold Form Jags to possibly pair with Festaes to make MANACONDA. I'm just glad someone else from Fresno was smart enough to get F1 Festaes.

 

[Veil-o's]

I thought about cons. I have a couple of shy male jewels that I originally had taken out of the tank and put into a smaller tank that I could reintroduce. Never had an issue with the jewels even when I had them with my africans. I was afraid at first just because I had spent some coin on getting the festae and I know how rare they are, but now I am considering it seeing as how aggressive they are and how they can hold their own.

I think tonight I am going to redo my rock work and stack my rocks to one side and create an open water environment on the left side of the tank...

The benefit of this whole experiment is I got to see the juvies color up really nice when the dollars were added. Bright yellow with full black bars. I was excited to see the Y bar as clear as day.

 

[Veil-o's]

Great, except I sold almost all but 1, My project is on hold too, I just acquired 14 Gold Form Jags to possibly pair with Festaes to make MANACONDA. I'm just glad someone else from Fresno was smart enough to get F1 Festaes.

If I knew you were going to sell more I would have bought them. A couple days ago I saw a CL posting for F1's and thought they might have been from your batch.

Good luck with the Jags, my rents used to have one when I was little. Amazingly the poor guy survived with a UGF in a 90 gallon hex. He succumbed to a weed whacker falling through in his transport tank on the way from San Jose to Fresno.

 

[youngxpockus]

Another casualty. They like they eyes... If they are this aggressive now, I can't wait till later.

Any suggestions on tank mates that can stand up to them that won't outgrow them too fast? I feel like I just paid for feeders.

jewels cichlids grow slow and ever1 i ever own had a cool personality

 

[discuskent]

i had to put a divider in my tank to save one

 

[Gruff Master]

Thanks Freebyrd for your suggestions.

Update:

Well last night was a tragedy... 4 out of the 5 Silver Dollars are gone, they just ripped the eyes of them out and left them to die. I feel bad for even trying the poor things, but all that I have read pointed me in the direction of them. I guess mine are just highly territorial. Good news is the larger one isn't picking on the smaller one as much.

So far I have tried:

Steady feedings twice a day. 8AM and 6PM
Silver Dollars

I am almost thinking of a smaller cichlid that can stand up for themselves. Moving to the bigger tank should allow for both festae to claim their own territories.

Both festae leave my common pleco completely alone, of course he is 2x the size of them, so that could be it. Maybe a rearrange of their tank and introducing other dithers. I'm at a loss really.

Anyone else try anything?

I'm not really surprised. Like I said, my 6 growouts took out everything that I attempted to keep with them. Giant Danios, Convicts, Tin Foil barbs...they all were slaughtered within days or hours. I did have one female Convict that managed to survive with them for several months without any problems. Then one day I woke up to her scaled and floating around the tank. I think your best bet is to get a large school of much larger fish that will not be harassed so much. The bad thing about adding Convicts is that they may be too hard on small Festae and possibly kill them. I would hate to lose beautiful and expensive fish to some that are a dime a dozen in most places.

 

[Peacock Rey]

great looking setup....and beautiful festaes !

 

[Veil-o's]

I'm not really surprised. Like I said, my 6 growouts took out everything that I attempted to keep with them. Giant Danios, Convicts, Tin Foil barbs...they all were slaughtered within days or hours. I did have one female Convict that managed to survive with them for several months without any problems. Then one day I woke up to her scaled and floating around the tank. I think your best bet is to get a large school of much larger fish that will not be harassed so much. The bad thing about adding Convicts is that they may be too hard on small Festae and possibly kill them. I would hate to lose beautiful and expensive fish to some that are a dime a dozen in most places.

This is my biggest fear at this point. I have added two jewels to the mix (both male) and everyone seems to be holding their own. Both festae have tested the jewels and so far no real aggression between anyone except the two jewels.

I redid my rock work to allow for more hiding. I think doing that took away already claimed territories and now they have something new to play with.

If I see any aggression towards the festae it will be back to the drawing board... watching closely.