Festae pair 'Rio Tumbes'

This is my wild caught pair of rio tumbes festae. The females barring is washed out right now since they are still settling.. The bond between these two is like nothing I have seen aside from my dovii pair. Sorry for the dirty acrylic, they are in my 125g growout. What do you think?

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They look great !! that female is gonna have some killer coloring once she's settled in.

They look really nice. No offense to your male, but she would look awesome with my male.

There great.... nice pick up, where did ya get em?

hbluehunter wrote:They look great !! that female is gonna have some killer coloring once she's settled in.

Thanks Mike! Yeah she is still a little stressed but she is going to be a stunner once they settle in. This is day on in the tank.

madness wrote:They look really nice. No offense to your male, but she would look awesome with my male.

Thanks Shawn! Haha she may but I think she'll be sticking around here for a while

fish_n_vw wrote:There great.... nice pick up, where did ya get em?

A freind on MFK set me up. They paired up for him out of a group he picked up a while back. He managed to track down an F0 Ecuadorian pair so he sold these two to me. They just got in from Alaska this morning.

JK47 wrote:

A freind on MFK set me up. They paired up for him out of a group he picked up a while back. He managed to track down an F0 Ecuadorian pair so he sold these two to me. They just got in from Alaska this morning.

Those Jason's old pair? I dont remember his female looking that nice.

madness wrote:

JK47 wrote:

A freind on MFK set me up. They paired up for him out of a group he picked up a while back. He managed to track down an F0 Ecuadorian pair so he sold these two to me. They just got in from Alaska this morning.

Those Jason's old pair? I dont remember his female looking that nice.

Yeah it's Jason's old pair. If you haven't bought fish from him before on a side note, do it. Some of the best packaging I have seen. Way better than Rapps preps for shipping. They are loving this tank though. They are in there with my Hericthys carpintis 'escondido' pair. That male is looking amazing BTW.. This tank = WIN! I can't wait to see how they do in the 300g.

Ya, I have bought some of his RTM and Umbee fry. The RTM fry was so small, I think my fry may have eaten them. I will have to look again in the a.m.

theyre awesome. congrats and im sure theyre gonna look amazing and get beastly inj the 300. makes me excited for my 2 little 1"ers i just got that are doing awesome

fishman09 wrote: theyre awesome. congrats and im sure theyre gonna look amazing and get beastly inj the 300. makes me excited for my 2 little 1"ers i just got that are doing awesome

Thanks! I am hoping they put on some pretty decent growth rates being in a much larger tank (before it's needed). Same concept I am using with my dovii pair. The way I see it if the dovii don't need a divider and the female can get away from the male in that tank quickly, the female festae should be able to do the same when they move to that tank. I just ordered my chlorine/chloramine filter a minute ago for the drip system. I'm really excited!!!

a drip system is something id love to do next year. for now i just change a mass amount of water lol

yeah same here but I want to know what kind of impact large tanks and uber clean water will have on these species. It can't be bad so no matter what it's win/win for the fish in my place.

yeah in my 240 im getting some pretty great growth rates from everyone with 3 50% changes a week but id really like to not have to stress the fish that much 3 times a week and change more with the drip system.

I'm on a twice weekly 50% WC schedule. Once I have the tank at the house, I'll have the dovii in a 600g, the festae in a 300g plumbed together on drip with a 50g per day drip. That will only leave me two tanks (excluding fry tanks and my work tank) to do manual water changes on.

the lady in red is a beauty! Love to see it in person when the opportunity arises. and the drip system you speak of, that I need to learn how to do. I love to plum 2 big tanks the way you have described.

sonnys503 wrote:the lady in red is a beauty! Love to see it in person when the opportunity arises. and the drip system you speak of, that I need to learn how to do. I love to plum 2 big tanks the way you have described.

Thanks Sonny. Looking forward to you heading over again soon it was good to see you. As far as the drip system goes its SUPER easy. Stop by after xmas and I'll show you. The wife is getting me the chrlorine/chloramine filter and a new SLR for xmas so I'll put it together first week of January.

Isent it funny whe you say you want something fish related for christmas, or a birthday... my wife was like "a gift certificate to dr foster and smith, yor not trying to get pain meds right?" Then you have to explain that they are a pet supplys online store and not people doctors. My mother inlaw asked me a few years back what I wanted for my b day. I told her "2 55 watt compact flourecent tube lights, 20" long and at the temp of 67k kelvin". She said " how much should I put in the card". Ohh man I was rolling.

lol VW too funny. it was my gf that found foster and smith to begin with.. its all that she will order from.

Beautiful fish JK, keep up the good work!

Thanks guys. Yeah family is funny when you ask for fish stuff for xmas. Thankfully after so many years my family is used to it. My kids have never had an xmas without getting dad something for his tanks.

I feel bad for their wifes in the future... She gunna be asking "what the hell am I gunna do with a 200 watt heater???"

Lmao.... that's funny!!!!! I have been at this a long time too, sometimes my wife refuses to fish related stuff. But most of the time she's cool with it. Funny thing about kids, when mine go over to other peoples house they always ask where there fish tanks are. They just assume everyone has like 10 tanks in there house.

How long do you guys think it will be before these two spawn? I am going to say May. Any takers? Updated pics from today below:

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How are they towards each other? Any unnecessary aggression?

madness wrote:How are they towards each other? Any unnecessary aggression?

None what so ever, not a mark on either. The female is far more aggressive to tankmates than he is. These pics don't show his barring because he wasn't "feeling it" at the time but when he bars up his colors are intense..

Since they seem to get along great. (unlike my psycho male) Id say they spawn before the end of Feb. Maybe by January if you help them get in the mood.

Maybe we should start a pool with the winner getting the Festae as the prize... I get from now till infinity that they will spawn.

I will give the address of where the Festae need to be shipped to...

They are looking good JK!

im gonna guess april second. anybody who spawns festae know that the best day

madness wrote:Since they seem to get along great. (unlike my psycho male) Id say they spawn before the end of Feb. Maybe by January if you help them get in the mood.

LOL! Yours got a divorce bro so hopefully I hope mine don't. So you got Feb.

DMD123 wrote:Maybe we should start a pool with the winner getting the Festae as the prize... I get from now till infinity that they will spawn.

I will give the address of where the Festae need to be shipped to...

They are looking good JK!

Good idea bro! I will give 20 fry to the winner. What month you got?

fishman09 wrote:im gonna guess april second. anybody who spawns festae know that the best day

That is the best day LOL!

So the poll so far is:
Jan =
Feb = Madness
Mar =
Apr = fishman09
May = JK47

Well JK put me down for January, that girl is looking frustrated because the boy is moving way too slow. She will only put up with a little longer than bam followed by lots of bouncing babies

How about March

DMD123 wrote:Well JK put me down for January, that girl is looking frustrated because the boy is moving way too slow. She will only put up with a little longer than bam followed by lots of bouncing babies

You got it bro!

aaronfeeney wrote:How about March

You bet!

So the poll so far is:
Jan = DMD123
Feb = Madness
Mar = aaronfeeney
Apr = fishman09
May = JK47

I'll see if I can snap another pic before lights out but her vent just dropped. His hasn't though. I'm gunna be bummed if they spawn in Nov, all my fry tanks are full of dovii and carpintis..! Looks like the carpintis will be feeders if they do spawn..

Get a video going. I'd like some local inspiration. I got my 4" female and young male festae pair and await to see if they bond later down the road.