Bingo. At the end of the day the only thing that any vendor can rely on is what they are being told by the people that do the exporting, who in turn rely on those that are doing the collecting.
There is no way that anyone will ever know if those 1" festae are tank raised F1's, or caught in a barrel trap in the Rio Tumbes, except those who are bagging the fish. I have already expressed my personal opinion on that subject.
There are commercial fish farmers in South America, including Ecuador, and some of those commercial farmers deal in festae. I don't speak the lingo so I have no idea what this farmer is saying in the following video, but he's definitely breeding some of his tropical fish on his farm, and his festae are far from being fry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gth1HXTkgYM
Here's a link to his website.
http://www.tropicalivefishecuador.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=1&Itemid=2
So that pretty much brings us full circle on this discussion. Bottom line, buy the fish with the attributes that you personally are looking for, because you will most likely never know exactly where they were collected, or if they were captive bred & raised in a vat. The fact that they were imported from Ecuador, or Peru, does not always equate to being wild caught.

Unless you have intimate knowledge of your supplier and his operation, as well as confidantes residing in Ecuador to corroborate authenticity.![]()


Unless you have intimate knowledge of your supplier and his operation, as well as confidantes residing in Ecuador to corroborate authenticity
Maybe that's because all you've been conditioned to focus on is color. Great Festae are not built on color alone. Lighting and a Festae's mood plus substrate has plenty to do with what color they'll display. Also keep in mind that you haven't seen him in person. Nor have you seen him in his courtship coloring, so to make a blanket statement based on one glimpse is pointless.
For example, observe Archie in both of the attached photos.
View attachment 771171View attachment 771172
He's also capable of turning gold with his spangling being less visible or yellow with bold barring.
First off all i am entitled to my opinion,if i dont like a certain fish than i dont like it.
Truth be told i dont like any of my males that much,the only reason i kept them is that i respected the fact that they came from Jason.(but that can change)
I guess just because i didnt jump on here and praise it like you guys are some type of festae gods than my opinion is pointless(haha thats funny)I have plenty of fish that i think is beautiful but if someone doesnt like them than you will never here me say their opinion is pointless(everybody will not like every thing)
You can check evry thread i have posted with picrtures and i have never bashed anyone for not liking my fish.
Just because Jason and a few others put you on a shelf about festae dont mean that i have too.
I will not post on this thread anymore(although interesting it comes off to me as if your festae is not from us than yours is thrash)then i will just remain a thrash man then.
Hell when i look at the second picture the first think comes to mind is umbee(not sure why but)just does
But i guess that opinion is pointless too after the secound and third glimpse.
Jason dont get me wrong i think you are an exceptional fish keeper but that doesnt mean i have to agree with you on everyfish.
i like several other festae that was posted on here i just dont like this one,bomillyiam trying to make me like something i dont like is pointless,festae are your favorite fish so you like what you like it is not my favorite so i look at them differently than you do.