Festive cichlid opinions?

[SAChichlidLover]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask some questions about festive cichlids (festivum) as I was looking to include one into either my current cichlid setup or my concept cichlid setup.
What sort of parameters do they require?
What is the max size?
How aggressive? (for a cichlid)
and has anyone had any experience with this fish?

 

[Wills]

I had a pair for a while, really attractive fish and one that looks tons better in real life than the pictures. Mine were insanely aggressive though so were only in my tank a few months. I got mine as 5-6 inch adults so not sure if smaller fish grown in a community would fare better, I suspect like Angels they would do best in a big group. Ideally you'd want them in a deep tank of at least 24 inches, though mine was they still went for fish at the bottom.

There are actually I think 3-4 species here as well I dont think mine was the common one either so it could be different on that basis?

Wills

 

[Colin_T]

They naturally occur with angelfish and do well in soft acid water. There's nothing special about their care, just look after them like you would angelfish

 

[SAChichlidLover]

I had a pair for a while, really attractive fish and one that looks tons better in real life than the pictures. Mine were insanely aggressive though so were only in my tank a few months. I got mine as 5-6 inch adults so not sure if smaller fish grown in a community would fare better, I suspect like Angels they would do best in a big group. Ideally you'd want them in a deep tank of at least 24 inches, though mine was they still went for fish at the bottom.

There are actually I think 3-4 species here as well I dont think mine was the common one either so it could be different on that basis?

Wills

Thanks so much! I wanted to try and look at some of the rarer varieties of festives as I actually really like the look of them! I’ve read that they are indeed a lot like angelfish so that has me wondering if my cichlid tank mates or my proposed cichlid tank mates are quite impossible especially considering they seem to be in the grey area side of aggression.. Would you say it’s even worth trying?

 

[SAChichlidLover]

They naturally occur with angelfish and do well in soft acid water. There's nothing special about their care, just look after them like you would angelfish

Yeah that seems quite simple to be honest, tap Water round here is on the soft side anyways, not sure if they are worth trying though as there’s lots of differences about them with the current/proposed fish