My Male Festae Progression Thread-From Egg to Today

[balton777]

It all started with his mother. I got her in a group of six F1's purchased from the great Jeff Rapps. This was back in October of 2006 and they were my first Festae ever.



So anyway, I ended up with just one female out of that group. She didn't like others of her own kind and killed them all. Oddly she never really bothered other species though.

 

[balton777]

She grew into a gorgeous young female but was still extremely aggressive to her own kind. She killed four males I tried to pair her with. This is May of '07 and what a beauty.



I was giving up hope of ever pairing her when I got this wild caught male specimen from Rapps.

 

[balton777]

My persistence (along with lots of dollars) paid off. Finally! By July of '07 I have eggs.



August of '07. Great job, now we have fry.

 

[balton777]

October 2007-I removed some of the fry from the parents.



January 2008-The fry are getting bigger.



By March of '08, the fry are coloring up nicely.

 

[balton777]

April 2008-Here's a couple of the siblings I kept.

 

[balton777]

By July of 2008-I have a definite favorite.

 

[cichlidfish]

Amazing festae you have there. Cool thread idea too.

 

[balton777]

September 2008-I don't know wtf I was thinking but decided it was ok to put my Festae in with a Dovii. Somehow it worked out ok for a while.



My two Festae siblings in the former 265g Dovii tank. Soon I'll have to pick which one I want to keep. Which of these would you have kept???

 

[balton777]

Around the beginning of January 2009, I rescued this poor female Festae from my LFS. I later found out the guy who traded it said he got it from TUIC...who's to know for sure though. I had to heal her wound.



Let's jump to February 2009. I had been healing up the female and then introduced her to my male in a 156g tank.



He thought it was weird at first...as if he couldn't make heads or tails of his new tankmate.



But soon they were in perfect harmony with one another.

 

[balton777]

April 2009-Couple of months update. He's growing nicely.