Severum agression
Steve McCready
I've got a 55g with a pair of severum (one green, one torquoise) in
it, as well as a gold nugget plec and a pictus catfish. I'm having a
bit of a problem w/the two severum - the green (who is the large one)
will periodically chase the torquoise one around the tank rather
aggressively. I've not seen any fin damage, but I'm concerned about
the stress it may be causing.
I'm figuring on adding something else to act as a dither fish - anyone
have any suggestions for what would be good in this environment?
Thanks!
-Steve
s...@pobox.com
Sacramento, CA
Joyce Moore
smallish, tough cichlid, like convicts. If you had more tankspace, more
severums would work, but a 55 gets real crowded with any more than two. If
the bully gets too mean, you may have to separate them with a divider, or
sell one fish. I had to get rid of my big green female because she was
thrashing the hell out of the male, He now lives with a gold female that's
nearly old enough to think about breeding.
--
Good fishing, Matt Moore
Visit Matt's Severum World at:
http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html
Steve McCready <s...@pobox.com> wrote in article
<36f67718...@news.ns.net>...
Jared
wrote:
>I'd go with silver dollars, very quick, and eat the same foods, or a
>smallish, tough cichlid, like convicts. If you had more tankspace, more
>severums would work, but a 55 gets real crowded with any more than two. If
>the bully gets too mean, you may have to separate them with a divider, or
>sell one fish. I had to get rid of my big green female because she was
>thrashing the hell out of the male, He now lives with a gold female that's
>nearly old enough to think about breeding.
I had convicts with my severum and they harassed the sev constantly.
After removing the convicts the colour and behavour has improved
greatly, so i think the silver dollars would be a better choice.
On the other hand if you are only worried about your severum getting
stressed... why add more fish? It will then be the silver dollars
getting stressed instaed and you have more fish in the tank reducing
hiding spaces etc. (also severums love plants to hide in, and silver
dollars will eat the plants).
I think as implied above the best option might be to keep only one sev
in the tank, and maybe add something else instead. Severums are
peacful giants really :)
Stuart Pauker
> I'd go with silver dollars, very quick, and eat the same foods, or a
> smallish, tough cichlid, like convicts. If you had more tankspace, more
> severums would work, but a 55 gets real crowded with any more than two. If
> the bully gets too mean, you may have to separate them with a divider, or
> sell one fish. I had to get rid of my big green female because she was
> thrashing the hell out of the male, He now lives with a gold female that's
> nearly old enough to think about breeding.
> --
> Good fishing, Matt Moore
> Visit Matt's Severum World at:
> http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html
>
> Steve McCready <s...@pobox.com> wrote in article
> <36f67718...@news.ns.net>...
> > Hey all -
> >
> > I've got a 55g with a pair of severum (one green, one torquoise) in
> > it, as well as a gold nugget plec and a pictus catfish. I'm having a
> > bit of a problem w/the two severum - the green (who is the large one)
> > will periodically chase the torquoise one around the tank rather
> > aggressively. I've not seen any fin damage, but I'm concerned about
> > the stress it may be causing.
> >
> > I'm figuring on adding something else to act as a dither fish - anyone
> > have any suggestions for what would be good in this environment?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > -Steve
> > s...@pobox.com
> > Sacramento, CA
> >
Silver dollars are an excellent suggestion, they are primarily herbivorous
just like your severum. I keep some Leporinus fasciatus in with my severum,
they also enjoy a lot of greens in their diet and likewise fare well with
severum. You could also add a shoal of congo tetras, they get large enough so
that the severum can't eat them and really do nothing more than give them a
good chase now and then. All of the fish I mentioned will do well in the same
water anywhere relatively close to neutral. I'd stay away from adding more
cichlids at this point, since aggression is a concern, and stick to fish from
other families.
hth,
Stuart Pauker
Joyce Moore
planted tank alright, it'd be like living in a salad bar for them, they eat
most plants greedily, and may shred any they find unpalatable. If you want
heavy planting, go with plastic. I do agree that silver dollars eat plants,
but they're amatures compaired to severums.
As for the label "peacefull giants", this applies to my green male, but I
had a very tough, mean female that got so beligerant that I finally had to
sell her. As a juvinile she killed two angel fish, as an adult she killed
three out of four full size giant danios. She viewed anything added to the
tank as prey untill they proved themselves to fast, smart, or tough to kill
or eat. When I had five severums in the tank she ruled them all. When I
sold three to reduce bioload and hopefully firm a pairbond with the
remaining male, she started terrorizing him. I put in a divider with spaces
large enough for the male to swim through, she'd still bully him, and try
to force her way through the swim holes of the divider to get at him. When
he got full size, I made the holes larger so he could visit her, she then
started beating up on him, and he'd cower behind the plastic plants. I
finally sold her, and the male gets along great with a female gold that's
now just getting to 4 inches. The only fish she wouldn't push arround was
my big, sandpaper skinned pleco.
My convicts only keep the severums away from their nest, otherwise the
fish get along fine, with some posturing between the juvinile severum and
the convicts, As she's gotten larger, the convicts are less inclined to
mess with her. I'll add that the my original convicts went in as 1" -2"
fish, so learned early to respect the severums. The convicts that now live
in the tank are offspring of the original pair, and have always lived with
the adult severums. Provide plenty of hiding places for the convicts if you
go this route, especially if you have a preditory severum like the female
that I got rid of. I have heard of others reporting problems between
convicts and severums such as Jared describes, most likely with breeding
males. In such a case I'd trade the fish in on a smaller, younger convict
that'd learn respect for the larger fish.
I'm not trying to flame Jered, just pointing out that fish vary, and I
only can report on the behavior of the 6 severums I've kept. Severums do
show more interest in life when kept with other severums in my experience.
The major problem being their large size requires lots of tankspace. I
consider a 55 gal. minimum for two compatible severums. Ideally would be a
150 or bigger for half a dozen, maybe some day I can comment with
experience on a school of severums. I wonder if my big mean female would've
worked out if she'd had the space she felt she needed.
Jared <liq...@orcon.co.nz> wrote in article
<36f8675f...@news.orcon.co.nz>...
Daryl Vanry
more color and don't mind mixing continants a bit....go with some larger barbs
(Aurillus, Clown Barbs, or even BIG tigers)
In my experience, Pairs are sometime difficult to keep alone.....I've done well
keeping several pairs together. They usually pair off together in little teams
and the aggessions are disapated amoung all. You need a big tank to do this well
though.
Good Luck, I love severum,s!
Daryl
Stuart Pauker wrote:
> Joyce Moore wrote:
>
> > I'd go with silver dollars, very quick, and eat the same foods, or a
> > smallish, tough cichlid, like convicts. If you had more tankspace, more
> > severums would work, but a 55 gets real crowded with any more than two. If
> > the bully gets too mean, you may have to separate them with a divider, or
> > sell one fish. I had to get rid of my big green female because she was
> > thrashing the hell out of the male, He now lives with a gold female that's
> > nearly old enough to think about breeding.
> > --
> > Good fishing, Matt Moore
> > Visit Matt's Severum World at:
> > http://www.virtualseeds.com/matt.html
> >