Festae?? Need some experts..

[Gatorxxx420]

This is the very best way....study pics of juvenile festae and mayan...once you study the pics long enough it's fairly easy to tell the difference. This is the only way really to arm yourself for these types of situations. Once you do, you may find that you go into a store selling red devils that are really festae or something like that. I've been to lfs several times and have seen juvie festae in the tanks with no label, or maybe a label that says "assorted south americans". One LFS I went to recently had a juvie festae come in with other fish and the guy working there asked me what it was...and I told him it was a juvie festae.

What you really have to understand is that a lot of times, the lfs owners and employees don't know the difference. They usually aren't as well read and studied on cichlids as members here are so they're pretty much just going by what their distributor tells them. That same lfs I mentioned above also one time had a ~4" fish they were selling as a zonatus because that's what the distributor told them it was. However I told them it was clearly a fenestratus.

Bottom line is that the odds of you going to any lfs where the employees can identify juvenile cichlids is extremely low. They're simply going by what they were told by the distributors. And in that right the distributors often are going by what they were told when they purchased the fish from farms or whever they got them from.

I understand that not all fish store employees are really knowledgeable, but this particular store the owners are hobbyists and well known for breeding pleco's. People like Cam probably know just by that which store I'm speaking of. The guy that was working this particular night I made the comment told me "they're Red Terrors, just not Festae they're Urophthalmus".

Gator, study how these Festae look at a couple of inches so next time you see some at your LFS, you can better determine if they're the real deal or not. The Ocellus is an easy way to tell, it's clearly defined and at the upper portion of the tail even at this young age.

Thanks, but I'm done buying fish. I'm gonna probably keep some of the ones I have, but as they die off I'm not replacing them and when they're gone, I'll be done. Too many snakes in the hobby for me and it has soured me to fishkeeping. The only tank and fish I'll keep for sure and maintain is the tank for my nephews.

 

[Gruff Master]

Maybe it's best for you to leave the hobby for a while. If you feel this angry and upset about this situation, keeping fish will not be fun anymore. It will be more of a chore instead. Take a little break. Some time away may be a good thing. Good luck.

 

[Gatorxxx420]

Maybe it's best for you to leave the hobby for a while. If you feel this angry and upset about this situation, keeping fish will not be fun anymore. It will be more of a chore instead. Take a little break. Some time away may be a good thing. Good luck.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fish I have right now with the exception of a few. I would never see keeping them as a chore. A lot of nights they entertain me more than the TV ever could. I just wont be buying more, may get rid of the few I don't like... but I'll be keeping most of what I have, especially my Dempsey's after raising them from fry.

 

[Branch]

Well they were ordered from TFD!! Son of a *****....I called and the main staff was not there. I'll have to call pete tomorrow from 9-5..

Haha ... another sad storie from TFD !
I can't understand how they can stay in business !
Poor fish quality, the worst after sale service possible
Man, I like Spencer Jack in Winnipeg, but unfortunately for you, it is in Canada