Its about 6" now and the only time I saw it with bars is when I first put it in the tank and when it had ich. Otherwise it never shows its bars. Its absolutely beautiful. My question is I have seen alot of pics of mating pairs that look almost identical with both the male and female showing bars. My question is are there different color phases of male Festaes or will mine show its bars when it courts my female? I have seen some dull green colored males posted, ones that could almost be mistaken for females accept for the black dorsal fin, and ones like mine that are all gold with blue dots which leads me to ask if there are 3 different color phases of Festaes. Is it because these fish are from different locations? This is the color phase I wanted and am excited to get but wanted to do some research on the subject. By the way the fish is an F0 and I picked up two more males with it and one female. The other two males are different looking. One is bigger and shows its bars more and is greenish in appearance and so dose the littler male. The bigger one started fadding out its bars today looking kind of like my gold male and then went back to its dull green with black bars. The other thing I have noticed is my gold colored male's dorsal fin is longer and comes to a point having a trailer where the others I have the fins are more rounded off. Its fins just seem more impressive and better shaped than the others.
My male Festae is all gold without bars
- Thread starter Piranhanut
- Start date
All males loose their verticle bars as they age. You'll only see them when they're under some stress. Whether that's from being placed in new surroundings, as you mentioned. From the stress that comes with guarding fry and other various reasons.
The colour of males will vary, from the almost metallic gold colour, to a forest green type colouration. That is not uncommon and i don't think it comes from being a different variant. Although i have heard of a Columbian variant, i don't know what the difference is between the normal and Columbian variant in males, but a the females red colouration is much more vibrant in the Columbian variant.
HTH.
Post some pics.
The colour of males will vary, from the almost metallic gold colour, to a forest green type colouration. That is not uncommon and i don't think it comes from being a different variant. Although i have heard of a Columbian variant, i don't know what the difference is between the normal and Columbian variant in males, but a the females red colouration is much more vibrant in the Columbian variant.
HTH.
Post some pics.
I've seen young male festae color up like a duller version of the female when spawning. As they get older, their colors become more set and they are less likely to change.