Festae Question

[mrfest]

Hi Guys

New to this forum seen and heard lots about it so thought give it a go also struggling for a bit of advice on my festae.

Basically i have some festae and i am looking to breed them all are wild caught i currently have 6 in total 3 male and 3 female. 3 females and male from a group i purchased all at 5 inch or above from a reliable importer here in uk he got them from cichlids of the america and the same with the other males from another group i had. I did have larger no.s but sold some on as needed space in my tanks.

I currently have one male and female together with other fish present few cats a few plecs some of which are being sold there in a 6x2x2 now they seem happy enough he is fully barred up she showing some bars but hes chasing her back and fourth she then hides for a bit comes back but they also flare up and tail slap now and then bits of shaking but then hes on the chase again and im just worried will they breed with the others present?

The second tank has 3 festae one male at 8 inch and two female roughly 6 inch in a tank space of 6ftx2.5x2.5 with some small plecs which are being moved to my 330 litre which i collect this week. This tank the two females seem to tryin engage with the male he shows small interest but just seems to boss them both digs a few pits now and then been doing that for at least 6-8 wks now shud i remove the plecs change decor at all i do have large bogwood and caved areas for the female to hide alond with large peices of slate

the other festae i have is a small 4 inch male who is in my communty 4ft with a few plecs

Thanks in Advance

 

[Jexnell]

A good way to help induce breeding is to simulate the normal spring time flooding. To do this raise the tanks temps 5deg or so, also do massive water changes every day for a week maybe more or till you get some breeding action. Also change the feeding routine offering them a lot more worms, bugs and such.
The combo of these three changes will simulate spring time conditions and should help to stimulate thier breeding instincts.

 

[Rocksor]

My female festae would do the dance and lay eggs for my male jag within a few days of doing a cold water change, where the overall tank temperature dropped close to 5 degrees. She would lay eggs again roughly 3-4 months later after a cold water change.

I never bothered with raising the tank temperature (especially since it takes 1 hour to raise a 240g tank by one degree), and then allowing it to drop. A cold water change was enough.

 

[mrfest]

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies. Since reading these I checked my temps and my heaters have not been working my tank temp was 22 on my large tank with the two females and male I have since swapped the heaters and allowing the temp to get back up to my usual 26-27 range. Keep close on the behaviour and then go with the cold water change as I have success with other cichlids doing this. The other tank however is at 26 at the moment there is a lot more activity in there between the pair but I’m just thinking are the catfish and plecs stalling it as some are a good size? I have found a home for the ocellifer catfish as he’s a bruiser and also the pictus. Just cannot part with my megalodoras irwini as he’s still only 10” and I have a 2000 litre tank lined up for him.

 

[BIG-G]

Just keep the water clean and feed well with a good quality food. It will happen
I always had luck producing a spawn by feed live worms for a few days.