[hyphen]

my juvie f1 festae have been doing great. they play well and eat like pigs. they're still a bit skittish, but that's expected from 1.5" juvenile fish of any species.

anyway, to the question. what's the growth rate for these terrors? i know most cichlids do about 1" per month and the growth slows. but, i also know that festae are slow growers. they're also a bit dull in color, when do the colors truely start to show? i know that they're the most resilient when breeding, but off-breeding times?

 

[piranha45]

From the accounts I've read, RT growth rate can vary immensely. Most people are happy if their RTs manage to hit 6" in the first year, but there was one guy on pfish who kept his male RT with other fish in a 350g, and it grew about 12" in the first year. It was also quite peaceful, and it was kept with other peaceful fish. I suppose tank size and water changes are the key factors there.

But as said, most people seem to experience much slower growth rates than that fellow. I wish I could recall a way to find his post so that I could refresh my memory, but I'm not inclined to search through all 500 festae-related posts in the ww picture gallery to find his post, which was made quite some time ago.

Coloration varies with sex. Females are much more resplendent than males; males have a much more muddy color. Yours may be more dull-looking due to environmental stress, if they're still new in the tank.

I don't know if their colors brighten up with age, or not. If so then I haven't heard of it firsthand, but of course such minor things as that are usually not mentioned by people anyway. Hopefully someone else here can provide a more definite answer on that issue.

 

[lemmywinks]

festaes start out pretty damn dull. All 30 of my little guys (ya I know I have too many

) have red fins w/ a few blue spots, and a bit of blue on their faces, but the rest of their body is a plane dull tan color. once they hit 3-4" they begin to color up and at that size you can usually sex them. and a normal growth rate for these guys is 1/2" per month. but that can be increased a little bit if you powerfeed good foods and keep the water perfect