Festivums Growth Rate
- Thread starter GS1981
- Start date
You have to waite for them to breed, like Angelfish and Discus. Other than fish of equal age the males are usually larger but that's not 100% so they are very diffacult to sex.
Festivums are one of my all time favorites but definitely underrated. I maintain Mesonauta insignis and 'festivus'. My 'insignis' which max out for me at about 6" for males and 4" for females, show a lot of gold in the chest area. I find them rather slow growing. The 'festivus' on the other hand grew faster and much larger, the male reaching a good 8" and the female about 6". Here are some pics of them.
Mesonauta festivus (male and female)
Mesonauta insignis (male and female)
Mesonauta festivus (male and female)
Mesonauta insignis (male and female)
Mine looks like your Festivus, same colouring, I had insignis juvis years ago and they never really grew, they were pale white with a bit of yellow, lost them both to Ich brought in by a Red Spotted Sev (they are nightmares for it...as bad as Ebjds when they are new)
My males always grew about twice the size of the females. I've kept three species and the females always topped out between 3.5" and 5". Most of the males ended up 7 - 8" or better, easily matching the length of my adult severums.
Color is not a reliable way of identifying them. You have to go by a combination of vertical bars, black markings, and scales. There is a great article in French somewhere but you'll have to either speak great French or translate it.
http://www.francecichlid.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=234&Itemid=43
Color is not a reliable way of identifying them. You have to go by a combination of vertical bars, black markings, and scales. There is a great article in French somewhere but you'll have to either speak great French or translate it.
http://www.francecichlid.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=234&Itemid=43
