Mesonauta Festivum

Well Mom & Pop had to be separated from their offspring! The young ens are now 5 1/2 weeks old , and in the last week a very strange occurrence has happened. They have started to act like Discus fry--- eating the slime coat of Mom & Pop! I find that to be very strange. I let it go till last night when the female was hiding behind the sponge filter and the male had very obviously peck marks on both shoulders almost to the point of scale removal. I watched for 10-15 minutes and observed the fry coming up to him and relentlessly pecking at him.! Not all at once , but 1 or 2 at a time! Poor Pops just allows them to do it, sometimes almost laying in a 45 degree angle! Mom had enough and hid. Even the adopted Angels would peck at them! I guess monkey see monkey do! So to avoid further damage to Mom & Pops it was easier to move them to another tank then all the evil kids. In all my years of Cichlid raising I have never come across this. Even though they had this pecking behavior on them , they still attacked my hand when I fed the evil kids.
How devoted parents!
Let me know if any one has experienced this .
Regards, Ken

Second of Festivum parents caring for Angel Fish babies along with their own.

Thank you for your interest.

Here is the video of my Festivum parents caring for the Angel fish babies.

Hope you enjoy

Now I decided to try an experiment-- I have a pair of Phillie Blue Angels that spawn for me regularly. Lay eggs and fan them, move the fry when they hatch , have them free swimming for about 2 weeks and POOF they magically disappear! I am assuming they tire of them and are eaten, or are ready to spawn again. This has happened 3 times, but on the third time I happened to walk down stairs and saw only 4 fry left. I scooped them out-- what to do with them? no tank ready for them-- well I decide to see if the Festivum would accept them as their own. They mixed in well so I could not tell if they accepted them or ate them as a threat!. Well yesterday as I was making fish rounds, looked in on the Festivum and their brood and sure as heck--- fins are budding out and there are the Angels swimming in the group of Festivum youngsters! Now not all fish accept other fry but this couple was so intent that they adopted the Angels as their own! No questions asked! Will send pics when its clearer to tell the difference between them.
regards,

I had a managuense that tried to take my hand off, but he wasn't that wary or that small. Great video of cichlids being cichlids.

Here is the other video of the protective parents.

Here is a video of the fish protecting her babies. I took a YouTube video. here is the link for one of them.



Let me know if you can see it. Thanks,

When I get home this evening I will video these very protective parents!
It is really something that I have never come across!
Ken

Never saw that. Can you make a video with your iPhone?

I have a mated pair of Festivum-- male around 7" female around 5"--- Have spawned twice for me in the last 2 months, but never any fry. Eggs disappear after 2 days. They have now spawned for me 2 weeks ago, eggs were missing again, but this time I noticed the female guarding a patch by driftwood-- 4 days later free swimming fry! [ third time is the charm ! ] My question to cichlid people out there is, has anyone come across this strange behavior that my pair are doing? I have had cichlids for all most 50 years, keep Angels , Apistos and some Cichlasoma-- but never had this happen. When I open the top to feed the fry , the male , but mostly the female charges the surface and either splashes water or squirts water at my hand as it comes close to the surface! It will startle you and sometimes it is so strong that the water fly's out the tank onto the floor! Wondering if anyone else has come across this. I know it protection defense, but never seen this so strong as to knock water out of the tank.
Thanks!
Ken [with jurassic park fish ]