The Truth About The Festae Cichlid

[@MbunaMarcus]

Incredible setup D. Very nice quality specimens.

[@luigigreen9823]

Dude you're probably my favorite youtube fish guy DW! Your love for American cichlids matches mine!!

[@CrownedBrows]

Great video. Answers all my questions

[@TIMOTHYJAMES-wk2yk]

Another great video as always....thanks!

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks for watching!

[@TIMOTHYJAMES-wk2yk]

@@dwsdarius Great channel my friend....an army couldn`t stop me from watching....all the best to you.

[@wyzemann]

Comfort fish and/or dither fish are probably the most underrated live asset to fish keeping. I've considered using a school of silver dollars in my mbuna tank to keep them from destroying each other. After abruptly losing over two dozen Mbunas in less than a year (even with a multitude of caves), hopefully, this will become a solution.

[@dwsdarius]

Dither fish definitely bring a level of comfort and peace to the aquarium

[@chillwill7s60]

Thanks for the video, keep up the good work, also good information on these fish, thanks for the heads up.

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks

[@danb2533]

I have 4 juveniles right now in a SA cichlid community tank. 1 is growing much faster than the other 3. I haven’t seen much aggression yet and hope it stays that way.

[@dwsdarius]

Hopefully, but these fish are a menace from my experince. Usually, it starts at around 4-5 inches

[@DROIDRAZR16]

Where did you get the festae from I’ve been looking for them?

[@dwsdarius]

They are definitely hard to come by, picked mine up from a lfs after waiting months for them to come in

[@mikewid99]

Great video DW. Question, how you going with the festae? I am planning to add female festae to a community tank, which consist of Vieja, Bocourti, Argentea, Pearsei, Polleni. Are they going to be ok? Given that it's a female not male Festae?

[@dwsdarius]

Hey, so the Festae has made it to my top 10 most aggressive fish list, the males mainly. A female should do well with those fish you've listed, females aren't as ambitious as males. Just make sure your festae is smaller, because they do grow pretty fast and those vieja grow slow, it would be best if the festae isn't the biggest fish in the tank.

[@mikewid99]

@@dwsdarius thank you

[@mickeysr5817]

Great video How about a father fish tank? ??😊

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks, father fish as in the youtuber? His concepts are great, I run some tanks the same way, but it wouldn't work with my cichlids. They dig and destroy plants for sport

[@ReelHardFishing]

My favorite fish in the hobby! I've owned some beauties. I have 3 right now, waiting for my females to show some color. My male is looking great

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks

[@shawtyshort2648]

I love seeing your videos with these big fish I agree keep that tank and buy a new one for salt 👍🏻

[@dwsdarius]

Thanks, I keep planning for a saltwater tank else where

[@anthonynoneyabusiness420]

Where can I get my hands on these red terrors

[@dwsdarius]

I bought mine from a local fish store but I see that a lot of online stores are carrying them now like imperial tropicals and wetspottropicalfish

[@anthonynoneyabusiness420]

@@dwsdarius thank you 🤞🏼

[@jessoliver2955]

If you want to see some serious color in a similar type (different species) of fish. Plus hardy and able to hang with large cichlids look at North American long ear sunfish. Feed them color enhancer pellets and they turn nail polish red and electric blue.

[@dwsdarius]

I've seen a video of them in the wild and they definitely are stunning.

[@jessoliver2955]

@@dwsdarius there are a few u tube videos of them in tanks. Obviously eating color enhancer

[@1980ify]

How to solve swim bladder issue?

[@elvinsworld11]

Lovely

[@GCaquatics]

Haha you are so patient with your fish, if they gave me a head ach id get rid of the troubled fish :p Saltwater would be a cool idea.

[@dwsdarius]

Lucky for them I have a hard time rehoming them to a decent home so I try my best to work with them. I'm going to hold off a little longer on the salt water tank. When I do it I want to go big so maybe a little planning is best

[@jaysmith5736]

Great info! I choose red tiger mots over festae all day, especially females of both species. Currently trying to hybridize the 2 both ways (male festae with female rtm and male rtm with female festae) got them paired up but so far, no eggs. Look up Manaconda, beautiful fish! Supposed to be festae and jag. No info on whose male or female parents.

[@amx1820]

For me as a breeding pair, festae looks more beautiful than RTM

[@dwsdarius]

Red tiger mota might have been the better option for me because I'm much better with parachromis species...but I didn't want them to clash too much with my dovii

[@HNiCDuke]

Central American and some South American cichlids def are sneaky. They will act like everything is ok then when your back is turned , they'll take out a fish over night 😂 in my experience females were okay being in communities. Ive kept big female dovii and jags in communities with no problem. Its just the males you cant unless its a big pond.

[@dwsdarius]

Yes the males are so coniving

[@amx1820]

I don't know about adding the salt water tank in your fish room, here's why: most notable American cichlid keepers in KZbin like GuapoteMel and Andy Woods are shutting down, you might be the most sub/viewed American cichlids fishtuber. Would it be better for you to keep on down that road, I'm pretty sure people like me who love quality cichlids and quality videos are keeping an eye out for such contents and you have the potential to be one of the greats in that area. Maybe you could set up a salt water tank in your house as apart of house decor

[@dwsdarius]

Yes if I do saltwater has the potential to take me away from freshwater a bit because of the price and effort needed so I'll hold off for now

[@Arauquatics]

I bet you can fit another tank in that fish room 👀

[@dwsdarius]

Not another big tank, but I could do a double rack on my 125g

[@ultimatefishkeeping]

Hi Darius. I hope you are well. I do like the Festae Cichlid very much. However, my personal opinion, no freshwater and tropical water Fish can be compared to the beauty of Marine Fish, so personally speaking I would suggest that you go for a Saltwater Aquarium. The only thing that, I will say is that you are better off with Live Rock instead of that man made life rock as they loos their goodness over time and become more like decorative rock. A friend of mine here in the UK kept asking me for advice and in the end he never took my advice and he went for life rock to avoid the risk of putting into his Aquarium Bristlworms and other unwanted invertebrates, but the result was that after 1 year his Aquarium was beginning to crash and after two years he closed it down. Therefore, please consider getting Live Rock instead. There are many people on KZbin that use Life Rock, and they all end up with their Aquariums crashing because they are not using Live Rock, which is the lungs of Saltwater Aquariums. Anyhow, as always I appreciate you sharing and therefor I have given your video the 70th 👍🏼 up to say thankyou very much for sharing. Have a great Weekend and Take care, Sir. 👍🏼🙂👍🏼❤️

[@dwsdarius]

Thank you, I'm guilty of that too with my first reed tank. I didn't go with live rock and my tank lasted about 18 months

[@ultimatefishkeeping]

@dwsdarius You are welcome, Sir. I hope you have a great Weekend. Take care. 👍🏼🙂👍🏼❤️

[@jaycee4525]

Lol @ he chose violence😂

[@brazzr]

I couldn't of clicked faster. I don't know if I should get one or not

[@dwsdarius]

They are beautiful but terribly aggressive

[@bayou504ctcL9]

For me the only down side about the Festae cichlids they get spook easily omg always hiding but the more time u spend with dem they get used to u in time

[@dwsdarius]

I'm definitely experiencing that now, hopefully a pair stays bold

[@mariobazemore2198]

Keep the Red Terror

[@mattbatcher802]

Dude is too big to be able to maneuver well enough to get at the little guys. If he was a half or a third his size he would be dangerous to them.

[@chrispatterson3110]

Keep that tank up,buy another tank for salt

[@dakiwifuit7587]

the largest juvenile festae you have is a female

[@samsta213]

I vote for a salt water tank 👍