How Many Festivums Is Considered A Group?

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onidrase

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Hey guys. I'm gonna just redo my 75 gallon tank. Wanna get some more mild tempered fish which would be more peaceful to watch with a more smooth and green appearance to the tank to help with stress relief as opposed to getting stressed out by worrying about future aggression issues and the like. It's hard to be letting go of my guys, but I found somebody willing to take them with a much larger tank than I do.

I've already picked bleeding heart tetras as my schooling fish, and am gonna build around that. Bleeding hearts have been my favorite since I was just a kid, it brings back memories to have a small school of them on standby in my 37 gallon. I've always wanted festivums, but after doing some brief reading around, it says they like to be kept in pairs or groups, and don't really like being kept singly. How many festivums would be a group? The usual magic number of 6 or more? Would that (probably) be way too much for a 75 gallon? I was also thinking on getting a grouping of bolivian rams just cause they're awesome. I'm assuming they'd work together fine. But if not let me know. Any stocking numbers are appreciated if I do go through with the festivums. I'm not even sure if my LFS has them still, but I recall they had a big group of juveniles when I was last there. Unfortunately I haven't been there in a month or two.

Anyways. My plan:
group of festivums
10-15 bleeding hearts
3 raphael catfish (cause they're my guys and they're not going anywhere)
1 bristlenose pleco
6 bolivians if they fit, or apistos if I can find them.

any objections? suggestions? Thanks much.

right now I'm simply running the fluval 406 and a aqueon quietflow 55/75 (because it's cheap and helps keep up the aeration in the tank, but I guess it counts as a filter too)
 
sounds good to me but not an expert on festivums or big tanks so maybe someone with mor expertise could help you.
 
Just like angels, the more you have in the group the better. So, I would say no less than 6 individuals. Everything else seems fine.
 
Festivums can be nasty. A few members here have had bad experiences with them.
seems so with most cichlids, though :unsure: always a few bad eggs even with the relatively peaceful species

Still just a plan, going with festivums if they have them, but I'd love to do keyholes or something. Unfortunately keyholes are scarce here. I've only seen 2 of them in my lifetime. none of the fish shops seem to interested in ordering them either.
 
Keyholes would win hands down for me. 2 or 3 members had issues with them attacking and gouging out the eyes of other fish in the tank...
 
Keyholes would win hands down for me. 2 or 3 members had issues with them attacking and gouging out the eyes of other fish in the tank...
oof, now that's something to think about... I was just reading an article on how they're generally docile and make good community tanks from somebody who claimed to have years of experience between them and keyholes, seemed pretty legitimate to me.

My LFS had said they never personally stock keyholes, the place I saw them at was rather shady, and they were all sold out when I went back there. Guess I'll have to see what I can find though.
 
Nobody had any festivums, but I did get a couple keyhole cichlids. They're cute as heck, but I'm pretty sure they're both males. One of them is also really sulky, and was like that at the store, but he wasn't unresponsive, so I figured I'd give him a try.

The store I got them from isn't expecting any more any time soon. I'd like to get a group of them as opposed to a pair. Any place online I could order another 4 or so?
 
:D Look forward to seeing some pics!!!

Sourcing your group from a few different places is sensible too as it splits up blood groups etc.
 
keyholes1.jpg


only picture I could get without them stressing out and hiding away
 
I love keyholes, I just looked through about 20 sites and the only one that had them was drfostersmith.com
 
Yeah, I was hoping to order them from fostersmith but they've been sold out of them for at least a few months.
 

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