The planets lined up for a change. Thanks to aclockworkorange, I now have a 12" male Festae as a potential mate for my 2 year old female. I bought her about 18 months ago and she has lived most of it in our 300 gallon alongside quite a few different tank mates. Currently the tank houses....
12" Festae (M)
12" Managuense
12" Argentea
9" Pearsei
7" Festae (F)
4" SD's x6
12" common
7" L75's x2
The male had a pretty long trip from Cali to Florida, but he showed up in great shape and pretty much started feeding the day after he arrived. He spent about 2 weeks in qt to get him trained on the menu and acclimated to the surroundings (water conditions, family, dogs etc) and he went into the big tank one week ago today. For this introduction I decided to pull all scape from the tank and add the male at the fill point of a water change. No wood, plants, fittings.....sand water and fish.......
After about an hour of pretty much all peaceful interactions, I started adding back in the scape a piece at a time until all wood was in, but all in totally different places......no old territories. The male and the jag locked up once over the far left hand side of the tank, but things have been suprisingly peaceful ever since. He's pretty much the Alpha at this point and the female lit up like a christmas tree once she sized him up. They seemed to have claimed the far left hand side of the tank and have been mostly inseparable since they were introduced. Only time will tell if it means anything, but they seem to be on their way.....
I have 2 dividers built. One solid, one with openings only large enough for her. For the time being we are seeing how it goes with lots of cover and pvc fittings sized for her to have some hides. Theoretically, being in a community with other large tank mates could help them bond and so far it seems to be the case. Never a sure thing but so far they seem to be headed in the right direction.....
My daughter named him Triton lol. Her name is Scarlet. Thanks for looking and please feel free to share any and all experiences with Festae, especially in community settings.
12" Festae (M)
12" Managuense
12" Argentea
9" Pearsei
7" Festae (F)
4" SD's x6
12" common
7" L75's x2
The male had a pretty long trip from Cali to Florida, but he showed up in great shape and pretty much started feeding the day after he arrived. He spent about 2 weeks in qt to get him trained on the menu and acclimated to the surroundings (water conditions, family, dogs etc) and he went into the big tank one week ago today. For this introduction I decided to pull all scape from the tank and add the male at the fill point of a water change. No wood, plants, fittings.....sand water and fish.......
After about an hour of pretty much all peaceful interactions, I started adding back in the scape a piece at a time until all wood was in, but all in totally different places......no old territories. The male and the jag locked up once over the far left hand side of the tank, but things have been suprisingly peaceful ever since. He's pretty much the Alpha at this point and the female lit up like a christmas tree once she sized him up. They seemed to have claimed the far left hand side of the tank and have been mostly inseparable since they were introduced. Only time will tell if it means anything, but they seem to be on their way.....
I have 2 dividers built. One solid, one with openings only large enough for her. For the time being we are seeing how it goes with lots of cover and pvc fittings sized for her to have some hides. Theoretically, being in a community with other large tank mates could help them bond and so far it seems to be the case. Never a sure thing but so far they seem to be headed in the right direction.....
My daughter named him Triton lol. Her name is Scarlet. Thanks for looking and please feel free to share any and all experiences with Festae, especially in community settings.
JK
