She just needed a little gravel lol

[Crazylegs78]

So I've had big momma for almost 5 years. She's constantly looking to eat and being for food. The males I've tried to pair her with lose patience and get aggressive when she would rather eat than spawn, so she's become my wet pet. I've had her in a 125g on a black stand, with black back and sides. Her colors have always been amazing, but a little dark.



After doing some yard work last week, I had some left over pea gravel. I decided to wash it really good and put it in her tank. Now every time I come in the fishroom, she's tail-up digging around! Her colors have lightened up and look great!




Now I feel bad for not having provided gravel sooner as she seems to enjoy it soooo much!

 

[troublesum]

I have to ASK how do you keep your female with her colors with out a male I have a 2 year old 8in female she killed all 7 of her brothers & sisters so no pair formed and when she was by herself her colors looked like s*^t so i got her a infertile male Midas and now her colors pop. but i would prefer her to be solo. Is the silver dollars that help? the dark tank?.
I have PFS with a black background. Please tell me your secret

 

[Crazylegs78]

I wish I knew why my friend! I purchased her as a group of 4 from wet spot, and immediately put them in a growout pond for the summer. I brought them into a tank for winter and she was the dominant fish, fully colored up. She's always been in proximity to a male (in adjacent tanks or a divided tank) so she's always been colored up. She's only been solo for about 9 months now.

It makes me wonder if it becomes permanent after so long. I think we've all seen how young females that are just coloring up seem to start off yellow or very light red. As they age and stay in color, the red shifts to neon orange and then to fire engine red. This happens over the span of years, so it makes sense to me that some part of this process is long term or permanent. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of color progression.

 

[danotaylor]

Stunning colors. What type of fish is “big momma”? Looks to have festae color & pattern but Vieja shape

 

[Crazylegs78]

She's a Mesoheros festae. Only the females color up like this, although an adult male is an equally beautiful fish.

 

[troublesum]

I wish I knew why my friend! I purchased her as a group of 4 from wet spot, and immediately put them in a growout pond for the summer. I brought them into a tank for winter and she was the dominant fish, fully colored up. She's always been in proximity to a male (in adjacent tanks or a divided tank) so she's always been colored up. She's only been solo for about 9 months now.

It makes me wonder if it becomes permanent after so long. I think we've all seen how young females that are just coloring up seem to start off yellow or very light red. As they age and stay in color, the red shifts to neon orange and then to fire engine red. This happens over the span of years, so it makes sense to me that some part of this process is long term or permanent. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures of color progression.

So from her tank she can see another male? I saw a member here (forgot who) who bought i believe a 125 for a male and placed them right next to each other in his garage i live in NYC apartment thats not going to happen. I bought 8 F1 from cichlid dojo at 1in placed them in a 125 slowly over the last 1.5 years she killed them all. How old is your female? So your saying the older she gets the more her red will stay permanent without a male?
Thanks sorry for hijacking your thread

 

[Crazylegs78]

Here are some pics of her color progression of anyone interested. This is her when I first brought them in from the growout pond.

Then as time went on...





And the above picture was the last one before the male jumped out of the tank trying to get through the divider.

 

[Crazylegs78]

So from her tank she can see another male? I saw a member here (forgot who) who bought i believe a 125 for a male and placed them right next to each other in his garage i live in NYC apartment thats not going to happen. I bought 8 F1 from cichlid dojo at 1in placed them in a 125 slowly over the last 1.5 years she killed them all. How old is your female? So your saying the older she gets the more her red will stay permanent without a male?
Thanks sorry for hijacking your thread

As you can see from my pics, I tried keeping her side by side with my male. All they did was try to fight through the glass constantly. It was miserable. She spent most of her life either being the dominant fish or in a divided tank with the male. She was never extremely aggressive until food was involved.

Since my big male died, she's been in a 125g alone except for 9 silver dollars. She has no view of other festae tanks in the room.

I can't say for sure that coloration is permanent across the board, but in my experience, if a female stays colored up long enough to build that vibrant red coloration, there's some degree of permanence.

 

[troublesum]

LOL your the member who bought a 125 to put next to his female tank for his male. My female was always aggressive but the male Midas is 10in and shes starting to hassle him as her colors are popping and her tube is starting to drop but he cant breed and has no interest in her so shes starting to hassle him and when i had her by her self she almost looked like a male her colors were so drab.
Thanks for your time and knowledge

 

[danotaylor]

She's a Mesoheros festae. Only the females color up like this, although an adult male is an equally beautiful fish.

Wow she stunning mate. I’ve never seen a female festae with the nuccal hump before. Perfect festae color but had me thinking she was a hybrid w the head shape.
She’s a gorgeous specimen!!