feisty little festivums

So . . . day before yesterday I went on an outing to the LFS 40 min away- much better place to buy fishes than the local chain stores.

It felt like an event, because of covid I haven't gone there in a long time. I really wanted to get a new paradise fish for my 33L. They didn't have any. They had every other kind of gourami it seemed- but no paradise fishes. No striped kuhli loaches, either. But a pair of young festivum caught my eye, every time I walked by their tank. They've caught my eye before (previous visits, other years) and I asked some questions- they can make very good tankmates for angelfish, are not likely to eat or destroy plants, live for a decade... Well, I bought 'em. And one green stripe severum. Which was maybe a mistake- I'm now having buyer's remorse about the severum:

It's just not as attractive a fish to me, whereas the festivum, I can't stop looking at these guys. They are so inquisitive, they have such a cool way of moving- a very smooth glide like a fox- and they almost immediately started exploring the tank. Cautious, but not terribly shy. I'm very taken with them already. These pics are from the first night when I released them in the tank with low light- I thought they would hide right away but nope. This is the larger one

the smaller festivum shows more spots, I think when it's nervous-

It also looks a tad bit bloated, and was holding the tail fin clamped sometimes, and I saw white fluffy segments of feces in its bag from the store- while saw the larger festivum pooping normal brown ones. So I think the smaller one has parasites, dang. I did a very large water change and dosed the tank with praziquantel (I'd rather use general cure which also has metronidazole but I can't find any- every place is out of stock, local stores and online).

I had the 20gal QT filled to about fourteen or fifteen gallons at first, but only refilled to ten with the wc, so I could dose the medication accurately. Here's the smaller festivum in QT, on the left:

and the larger one in the same spot:

The larger festivum is obviously dominant right now- and both of them constantly displace the severum, or nip at it- they don't go so far as to keep it trapped in a corner, but it is hiding more, staying out of the way. So that's one reason I didn't get as many pics of the severum, but also because the two festivum are just so engaging.

They're not at all camera shy.

I have a fish again that looks straight at me!

This is their final destination- to live in my 55gal with Miss Beautiful. I can't wait to see them in there.

Somehow I can't picture the severum with them, though. The more I look up differences between the two cichlids, the more I want to just keep the two festivum and take the severum back to the store... especially as together with the angelfish, I think they will ultimately get too big for this tank. 

I'm already mulling over names in my head for the festivum- 

Whereas I haven't once though of a name for the severum, hm. I even like this photo I got of the larger festivum all blurred. Name ideas: Bandit, Rascal, Sneaker, Foxface . . . 

But I will wait to see their personalities more clearly, as they grow. And cross my fingers they're okay in the planted tank. Already I've seen them mouthing and tugging at the hornwort and subwassertang bits in the QT. They're eating the snails. Which is okay- but I've read conflicting reports from other fishkeepers now- some have kept festivum that left all plants alone, others say they ate nearly everything green- vals, swords, crypts . . . my tank might get mowed down to just the anubias that would be upsetting. Also varying reports on how aggressive they can be. I don't know if the variation is by type from different localities, or just individual personality. I'm game to try keeping them anyway, I like them that much- but might have to change out what kind of plants I grow. . . or turn it back into a mainly driftwood scape.

But that green stripe severum, just the more I think about it and the more I read about them, he's gotta get returned. Sorry fishie. Better now than later when he's too big and gets destructive and I can't find a home for a 'monster fish'.

Side note: my instant QT setup went almost perfectly this time. I did as before- pulled all the 'extras' out of the back of my 55gal: two small sponge filters, one large piece of hydro sponge, a small bag of ceramic media, two plastic tube pieces, handful of live plants, handful of malaysian trumpet snails and ramshorns. Tested it a few hours after setup, before I put the fishes in, and the next morning. Zero ammonia, zero nitrite, around 10 nitrates each time. Perfect. Only issue I had was with the temperature- I had planned for a paradise fish so wasn't running a heater on it. Then when I got home with the cichlids, had to let the heater warm up it was over an hour before I got them acclimated and released, and I still had to make some temp adjustments after that. It's fine now.