Festivum Compatability

[Ebbo]

Hi,

I have a 40g, deep tank that currently houses 20 harlequin rasboras, 2 BNs, and my new juvenile Festivum chichlid (roughly 3").

The tank is small stone and sand based with lots of bog wood and plants. Ph is neutral, water flow is slow with a lot of aeration, other water parameters as normal.

My question is, could I house a couple more single SA chichlids, I was thinking of a key hole and angelfish?

Thanks,
Ebbo

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

With 20 harlequins, 2 bns and a festivum you are way too overstocked if you plan to add your other fish plans.

Also, though festivums are generally peaceful cichlids, they do best in small groups than as an individual. Be prepared to lose some small fish if keep them singly.

They are also best kept with rams, angelfishes and discus so they could showcase their social behavior

 

[bricko]

Agree with Tongue_Flicker above.  I have a single specimenn in 100g tank, very heavily planted and he will hunt out and take small fish under 1 1/2 inch, this is a fully grown specimen at about 8in however.
 
Also you will need a bigger tank at some point 50g is absolute min for a Festivum.
 
As a side note mine also killed a bolivian ram tankmate

 

[Ebbo]

He was the last remaining Festivum at my local, and I read a whole heap of other peoples experiences on keeping a single Festivum and the key points were 'keep as a single or a min. of 6 if hoping to eventually get a pair', and 'aggressive if keeping more than 1 and are not paired'.

I was thinking of acquiring some more Festivums however as they are impossible to sex until paired and I don't have the room this is probably not a good idea?

Lots of info I have read advises they are fine kept as individuals and will do well when kept with other, similarly sized, individual SA cichlids, is this not the case?

 

[bricko]

I have mine with denisoni barbs and a blue acara.  The festivum and acara have a little flare up from time to time but nothing too agressive.   As stated before you dont really have room for any other similarly sized fish so I wouldnt even consider it

 

[star4]

I have a "festivum" that is an evil little blighter, he has killed two other "festivums" and a blue acara and he will harrass my tetremerus (who are 9"+).  I had two Mesonauta insignis which were ok with each other, its my egregius that is the aggressive one, but I have not had festivus, the problem is as juvi's it can be difficult to tell them apart so getting one, they finding others may cause you problems, the trouble is they get lumped together under "festivum" in shops without knowing the exact species.

 

[Ebbo]

I see, thanks for your guidance people.

We are buying a house in the spring so am planning to upgrade the tank at the same time, possibly to a 300litre. I guess I'll see how this chap gets on until then, he has started to get a bit gnarly with the rasboras but for the most part he's fairly placid. I'll post an image of him on here as hoping to get to the bottom of what species he really is...

 

[Ebbo]

Apologies for the poor snapshots, but here he is -