Flowerpower's Festaelog

[Nemesis]

Looking good Ed. I'm looking forward to seeing them come along.

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

Wow, cool project Ed. Good luck! Nice job tracking them down from so many different sources. Question since I am doing the same thing. Are hyou planning on keeping the first pair that forms? I ask because I don't plan on keeping the most dominant pair, I am going to sell those off and try and keep the sub-dominant pair. Better chance of a tolerant male being the thought process I am going with. I'm curious on your plans.

It could go either way as far as which pair could be more dominant. I usually see that when i remove the dominant pairs or males that the second in line ends up more aggressive. i would choose the pair that has the best personality

 

[flowerpower]

Beautiful festae! I agree with Jason on both the male (bingo) and potential female (not too sure). Good luck with growing them out and developing some pairs.

Thanks! And I appreciate the feedback on the sex of the smaller fish. Ima need a lot of help with this over the next several months.

Man those are gourgous. I am going to have to break down and buy some eventually. Without a doubt one of the most gourgous species in the cichlid world.

Hey, some fish are popular for a reason. You know this better than most.

Great thread, you have some super nice fish. GL with your project.

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I'll get a xerox copy of your pair one day. We all have pipe dreams and high hopes, don't we?

Wow, cool project Ed. Good luck! Nice job tracking them down from so many different sources. Question since I am doing the same thing. Are hyou planning on keeping the first pair that forms? I ask because I don't plan on keeping the most dominant pair, I am going to sell those off and try and keep the sub-dominant pair. Better chance of a tolerant male being the thought process I am going with. I'm curious on your plans.

When(if) I get a pair out of the younger group, I'm keeping it! If I get lucky with the older ones, I'm keeping them! 2 pairs would be nice too but right now I have no pairs so the plan is to keep them alive, healthy and growing. I hear what you're saying about the aggression issues though. We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. Dividers will be involved most likely.

It could go either way as far as which pair could be more dominant. I usually see that when i remove the dominant pairs or males that the second in line ends up more aggressive. i would choose the pair that has the best personality

I agree. I've also come across many cases where the second or third male in line surpasses the dominant fish in color and overall aggression but only after than dominant fish has been removed. These are festae though and the quality of the female plays a larger role in determining the which way I would go in a situation like that. One of the reasons why this species is unique and so worth the time to grow them out.

 

[LOPAKA]

don't remind me Ed.......... good to see you back with the festae again, keep the updates coming.

 

[flowerpower]

A lot has gone down with these little festae over the past 2 weeks....
Some good news, and some terrible news.

Bad news 1st:
Out of the 18 from peru I've had significant losses.... I'd say about half of the group went down due to carelessness on my part. The 110 that they are in was home to my midas pair. I sold the pair in anticipation of the festae. The tank was empty for a bit before the festae arrived and I suppose the addition of 20+ fry cause an ammonia spike after a few days. I goofed.
I did a major waterchange, cleaned out the canister and cloned a bacteria colony from another tank. Now, the survivors (a dozen or so) are doing great and don't seem to have missed a beat. Knock on wood......
Here they are:

Not many pics, I know. I'm a bit discouraged with these guys after losing so many. Just biding my time at this point and trying not to get too hyped over them until they're solid adolescents.
It's easier to shrug off my failures that way....
More to come on these......

 

[flowerpower]

Now the good news:
The Ecuadorian festae are amazing!!!
The male is just a beast, full of color and personality. He runs the 180.
The female is no slouch either. She's revealing her gender more and more each day and, to top it off, the two spend a lot of time on each others coat tails.
LOTS of pics to share (all taken yesterday 9/20) Enjoy!


The male (2 weeks later):

This is a perspective shot of him in the 180. He's grown bigtime for such a short time span!

The female:

As you can see, I'm both excited and optomistic about these fish.
Thanks for looking.

 

[mingkeeh]

Very nice festaes!!! Keep us updated on them....

 

[fishman09]

makes me want festae. keep up the updates. i love to see fish that look so nice at such a small size

 

[flowerpower]

Thanks guys!!! I'm extremely pleased with all of them. So glad I decided to revisit this species.

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

Im glad you decided to pick up the Ecuadors from Ira, those guys are the last of their bloodline. And its really nice to see my babies... well your babies now, grow out they are looking really good ED. Good luck on getting a pair That male reminds me alot of his father, very tall bodied, nice profile, and a beast right out the gate Also good luck with your smaller guys, they look to have nice potential.