My Festae Growout Thread (WITH PICTURES!)

[Deep Blue Sea]

About a month ago, I received three baby Festae's each a little under 1" in the mail. Since then they have grown so much and I've become incredibly attached to them as if they were my children So I'm starting up this thread to document their growth and change in behavior!

Currently they are all different sizes with the smallest about 1.4" and the beast of the group around 1.8" and fat! I feed them a mixed diet at 12pm and 9pm each day composed of freeze-dried bloodworms, crushed up Cichlid Bio-Gold+ and NLS therma-A 1mm. with a small snack of bloodworms usually around 4-5.

They still tend to school together but have become a bit more independent, there seems to be a hierarchy going on during feeding time where the largest (I call him Backburner) must eat first before the other two. If Backburner doesn't get the first bite he'll chase down the other two and teach them a lesson. Other than that not much change in behavior other than becoming less timid and actually coming up to the glass during feeding.

Now for the pics!

Heres from when I first got them:









And here's from today! The first picture is of Backburner you can really see how big he is compared to the other two









More to come as they progress

 

[bomillyiam]

Where did you score those?

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

Got these babies from Live Fish Direct

 

[fish042099]

You named one back burner?

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

Yes I did as kind of an irony, because I treat them like gods haha

 

[RoadRage]

Awesome dude I'll post some pics of mine later today. Love that you got some clowns in there.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[RoadRage]

Sorry pics aren't very good their still pretty small in my 90 gal

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

Looking nice Starting to show some nice red in their fins, next comes the belly haha

 

[RoadRage]

Yours are looking great, better than mine what's your secret...LOL

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

Im not 100% sure but I think it could be a mixture of the water current I have in their tank which makes them get more exercise, I feel like that might be helping their growth.
As for color it might be the food mixture I give them:

what I do is take an arrowhead bottle cap, and fill it up 1/3rd of the way with crushed up cichlid bio-gold+. Then I mix in a pinch of bloodworms and then about 1/4th a bottle cap of NLS Therma-A and then dump it in front of the water output for the filter and they just scarf it all down.
I do this twice a day with a bloodworm snack in the middle of the day and I think thats whats enhancing their color the most.
I'm trying to wean them off the bloodworms but if I dont mix them into the food they won't eat anything so it's a slow process haha