Festivums???

[Cichla dude]

I have some spare money that I have decided to spend on fish. One of my lfs has some festivums in stock. I am trying to decide wheter to get a few festiums or frontosa. Anyway I can't seem to find info on festiviums. Does any one know what size these guys reach? What their diet is. I am going to feed flakes, pellets, and shrimp. Also will he be ok with 2 fei fengs, 3 silverdollars, 1 geo jurapari, and cats?
Can you guys provide pics of adult specimans and yours that you kept/keep.

 

[ryansmith83]

I kept two different groups of wild festivums. Both groups got fairly pushy when they hit sexual maturity and I had to get rid of them. They were splitting the fins on my severums almost constantly.

The males in each group reached about 6". I've heard they can get up to 8" but I haven't seen that myself. Females stayed a lot smaller, maybe around 4". They are a shoaling fish and do best in groups. They will eat pretty much anything but be sure to provide veggies of some kind. Mine loved to shred up romaine lettuce.

Search for the scientific name, Mesonauta, here or on Google. You may find more information that way. There are several species of festivum but they mostly look and act the same.

 

[Cichla dude]

I kept two different groups of wild festivums. Both groups got fairly pushy when they hit sexual maturity and I had to get rid of them. They were splitting the fins on my severums almost constantly.

The males in each group reached about 6". I've heard they can get up to 8" but I haven't seen that myself. Females stayed a lot smaller, maybe around 4". They are a shoaling fish and do best in groups. They will eat pretty much anything but be sure to provide veggies of some kind. Mine loved to shred up romaine lettuce.

Search for the scientific name, Mesonauta, here or on Google. You may find more information that way. There are several species of festivum but they mostly look and act the same.

Thanks, for your info! It was very helpful! I am going to do some research. I think I am going to get a few of them then. I like the looks of them. If they do breed, my jurupari can handle himself. Is $8.99 a good price for a 2-3''??? Lovely fish in your photos, I think the lfs has different species. I will post pics if I do get festivums.

 

[Burto]

I've owned a festivum for about a year now, I think he's either a very small growing species/subspecies of Mesonauta or he's stunted. He's about 2.5" long, though that's at least double what he was when I got him. I accidentally got him addicted to blackworms once, maybe that has something to do with it. Since then he's refused to eat pellets but will eat flake food, frozen and live, and he'll also eat a fair bit of green hair algae I occasionally drop into his tank from a pond outside, and he was just chewing on the roots of a Hygrophyla polysperma.
He's one of my favourite fish, always alert to me dropping things in the tank and he jumps very accurately for food. Here's a video of him with a cockroach from a couple months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3UUgvKDtms

I saw some adult Mesonauta in a shop's display tank once and they were a good 6" and quite solid, I thought they were archer fish when I first looked at them.

 

[HiImSean]

i've got a group of 4, they're really cool fish. i've had them almost a year. i think they grow slowly. i bought one large adult and a group of smaller ones from peter. they've done great with sevs, psittacus and pikes.

 

[3dees]

I have 4 wild festivum in my 120 gal with my wild discus. they are about 3 1/2 " and growing fast. so far they don't bother the discus. mine look a bit different than cichla dude's fish with a stripe instead of spots.

 

[Dan F]

I have two wild Mesonauta mirificus (I believe) from Peru. They are really cool fish, mine get along fine with my Eartheaters and other cichlids.

 

[Cichla dude]

I think I am going to purchase atleast 1-2 of them. How would they be able to coexist with 1 geo juruapri, 1 severum, 2 flagtails, 3 silverdollars, and 1-2 Leopard ctenopoma. This is a 55 gallon, but soon to be upgraded to a 90 gallon. don't have the ctenopoma yet.

 

[Aquanero]

These are one of my favorite fish and IMO not kept by enough hobbiest anymore. Treat them like a cross between Angels and Severums. They are better off kept in groups rather than a single specimen and can be very aggressive at times. They are very cool fish in a species tank and a group in a planted 125 is beautiful dispaly.

 

[ryansmith83]

I will agree that they are best kept in groups. You may want to upgrade your tank before you get them. I'd do no less than 4.