Nandopsis Festae are also known as The Red Terror. They are from the Rio Esmeraldas drainage in Ecuador to the Rio Tumbes basin in Peru, on the Pacific side of South America. They tend to favour the slower, heavily vegetated reaches close to the margins. They are a highly territorial species and they can grow very large (length and girth), so a voluminous aquarium is required with powerful filtration to match.
Providing a substrate of soft sand or small rounded gravel with sizeable pieces of driftwood and rocks/slate can be used to create sheltered areas, but these should be made secure as they are notorious diggers, more than capable of moving décor around.
Partial water changes should be carried out on a regular basis to help keep nitrate to a minimum. They are intolerant of their own kind, but can sometimes be combined with other cichlids, if the aquarium is particularly spacious (over 1000 litres) and has a large number of visual barriers.
This species requires a balanced diet in order to retain good colours. Slow sinking pellets/sticks, frozen foods such as Mysis shrimp, krill, chopped cockle, chopped mussel meat and prawns will all be taken with enthusiasm. Be sure to provide a vegetable component to the diet, such as spinach, kale, lettuce and cucumber.
