Will a single Festae female thrive?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

s9601694

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 25, 2011
66
0
36
Conroe, TX
Due to a move i have had to get rid of my beloved 12" Oscar Gus. I just didn't think he was going to survive the move unharmed. I gave him away to a kind gentleman and his son who had a 125G setup with another (healthy looking) similar sized O. Anyway, I can't wait until we're fully moved and settled in here in Texas so that I can restart my 90 gallon. I loved having just the single Oscar in the tank in the living room. He had a ball and looked awesome. I want to continue with the 'one large well taken care of' cichlid in the 90 G streak but am not sure if i want an Oscar again. I love Oscars, great fish, but recently saw a female Festae at a LFS and fell in love! I am thinking of putting a single female Festae in my tank, at around 4"-4.5". At that point i'll probably throw a school of zebra danio's of neons or something like that in the tank too, just to keep the bioload up a little more. If the Festae is anything like my Oscar, any other living being will be eliminated over time. My Oscar killed my Polenni which was the same size as the Oscar at the time.

My questions are: Will a single female Festae thrive in a 90 G tank with hiding spaces? Will she color up nicely or does that only happen when there are other Festae's around? Will she be shy or outgoing? The tank is outfitted with 2 Fluval 405's and i do weekly 30 - 50% water changes. I like clean clean water. So the technical part won't be an issue.

Thanks!

For pictures of my tank see another thread I started: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?514240-My-Oscar-Tank-90G
 
She'll be fine as long as you provide dithers. They do grow much slower than an oscar. As for color it depends on genetics and water condition. How's her color at the LFS?
 
The one at the LFS is not my primary target because it was in Colorado! :)

I'll need to find a place that has them here in Texas. I saw a guy on Facebook that breeds and ships them. Maybe I'll go that route.

What kind of dithers? Would Convict work? i love convicts and wouldn't mind having a pair of those in the tank. Would she tolerate them when mature?
 
I would not use a convict or even a pair of convicts as dithers. My 2 festae hate the marbled convict that I have as much as they hate each other. All 3 are continually hitting each other throughout the day.

I would pick giant danios or the more colorful boesemani rainbows as dithers. The festaes I have stay more in the middle to bottom area of the tank.
 
bare in mind few fish have the character of an oscar, oscars are true wet pets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom