Anyone with larger festae please chime in. I have a male around 6" and the female is around 7" they have been in the same tank since I've had them about 6 months. They show no interest in each other is there anything I can do? How long does it take to pair?
festae pairing question
- Thread starter freebyrd
- Start date
It took me 3 yrs and 6 different females to find one my male would spawn with and not murder out of the blue.
Then, after being with "the 1" and spawning multiple times, he killed her.
Good luck.
Then, after being with "the 1" and spawning multiple times, he killed her.
Good luck.
I have searched the web for info on festaes ....and what I found about pairing festaes is that they are really picky on pairing up with a mate. And bigger fishes are even harder to pair up. The best way to get a pair is to get a group of small young festaes and grow them out and let them pair up by them self.
check this out....
KEEPING AND BREEDING EX-CICHLASOMA FESTAE
check this out....
KEEPING AND BREEDING EX-CICHLASOMA FESTAE
My experience is the opposite of VRWC's. On my first attempt at pairing Festae, my female actually killed four different males I put in the tank with her. I was starting to lose hope when I saw TUIC had large wild caught Festae for sale. I ordered a 9"er and when I put that big boy in the tank it was love at first site. They immediately paired up and spawned many times.
Here they were...F0 male and F1 female both from Jeff Rapps. Look at the difference in body shape from the wild caught male in the picture compared to the F0 x F1 male in my avatar. That was his mother and father btw.
Here they were...F0 male and F1 female both from Jeff Rapps. Look at the difference in body shape from the wild caught male in the picture compared to the F0 x F1 male in my avatar. That was his mother and father btw.
Yeah I see. Maybe time will tell. Im very attached to my female she is quite the feisty attraction, my male is a sneaky chicken lol they mean alot to me tho I wish they would pair up we have been thru alot together. First they wouldn't eat...then would only eat krill or worms and I've got them pellet trained now. I've also gotten them thru a nasty internal parasite. So I hope they pair off...
Yep, my male & 4 females came from Jeff (TUIC), the other 2 females (casualties) came from John (snook21)...all in different orders. I bet I paid more in shipping than I did for the tank/stand/sump that housed them.
I was determined though.Unlike farm-raised cichlids, a lot of wild cichlids can actually be tough to breed. Wild cichlids a lot of times choose their mates. I've had females kill males to prevent them from fertilizing her eggs, because these males were "unacceptable" to the female.
Marina Parha and George J Reclos said:
This quote from the link is what I was talking about in post #4.
I agree with all of the above. Since you have had them in the same tank now for some time try removing the smaller festae for a 2-4 weeks and re-introduce, or divide them. IME dividing or removing fish has been very successful for me in pairing and breeding. In fact I've been growing out 10-12 together in same tank for about 6 months also. They're all 3-4.5" now, in actually thinking about taking the 9 largest and doing 3-way dividers in three 6' tanks. This IME has worked to allow the sub and dominant fish grow faster, healthier and gives them more confidence in which I achieve pairs faster. And this way its not as hard for me to switch around males and females with each other to see which one likes which better.
Either way good luck with yours, and you may have to allow your male to outgrow the female before she excepts him
Either way good luck with yours, and you may have to allow your male to outgrow the female before she excepts him