Severum breeding triggers? and post spawning attitude changes.
Dallas Wilson
I have 3 severums in a 55 gallon tank. The largest a 5"-6" male, a
4"-5" female and a 3"-4" male.
The tank is well established, been running for over two years, and the
water quality is great.
About two months back the female and the larger male began too breed.
She laid her egg on the side of a rock and the two protected them and
took turns fanning the eggs (the female did most of the fanning).
Four or five days into it the eggs tuned white and fungused and the
male removed them.
The larger male who before this whole spawning event was quite
fearless, ate out of my hand and would swim right up to the top of the
tank when ever i walked by and was not at all aggressive. Now he
hardly eats, chases every one in the tank (especially the two other
severums) and swims away and hides when ever I walk by.
Are these changes in "personality" usual?
Does anyone have sugestions on how I should try to get thes two to
beed again??
--
As Always, Thanx In Advance
Dallas
Please remove the "nospam." from my e-mail to reply.
The Moore's
Raising the temp 5 degrees has jump started my female twice, if I could
only get her to pair up.
The personality change you describe sounds like the puberty my severums
have gone through, at about the same size. It's been more noticeable with
the female in my tank, she's the biggest fish. She also got real dominating
after I removed 2 smaller severums, leaving only the male to pick on. I'm
getting the opinion that severums may need lots of target fish, or they
start getting belligerent. I've had six severums at different times, and
most have shown bullying towards smaller severums, I feel they would do
best with same size fish, and several non severum targets. This takes more
tank capacity than I can afford, so I've put a divider in my tank with
passages too small for the female, yet large enough for the male. Maybe
they'll pair up, and the fighting will level out. I've learned allot, but
I'm a long ways from knowing all the ins and outs with these fish. Keep
trying, if they spawned once they'll probably do it again, your male may
not know what to do yet, the eggs may not have been properly spawned the
first time. It may take several trys.
--
Good fishing, Matt
Michael Garner
I haven't experienced aggression with my severums. What size tank do
you have? Now that I think of it, mine weren't getting along the
greatest in my 55g. A pair would breed and chase the other 3 a bit.
They were way too big for that tank anyway. The depth was not much
bigger than the fish are long, so they really had to turn sharp to turn
around - a problem when you're getting chased. I have those 5 plus an
additional one in a 125g. They get along beautiful. All chasing is
slow motion half hearted. And I can have 2 breeding pairs and still
enough room for the extra two. (Never had successful fry though, that
might stir things up a bit.) Do wild severums school? Maybe they
behave better in groups. I do have a couple homeless peacocks in
there. They were put in there to save them from mbuna abuse. The
severums don't acknowledge that they even exist. No clue about getting
them to breed. Mine breed every few weeks for awhile then not for
months.
By the way, I just noticed that I can HEAR my severums chew their
pellets! Weird.
Lisa G
The Moore's
I've got a 55, when I can afford it I'll look for a 100+. I had less
belligerence when I had more fish in the tank, maybe it was working on the
overstock principal the African hobbyists refer to. I know I was going
through hell keeping up with the bioload.
--
Good fishing, Matt
Bongy Tang
Lisa, when your severum breed. What do they behave like. I know they won't
be holding fins like the convict but how closely attached they are? These two
days, my males and one of my female is hanging out together and attacking the
third female in my 86 gallon tank. Sometimes, they will "attack" a vertical
pieces of rock as if they are trying to clean it. I think they are substrate
spawners, do yours spawn on rocks or sand?
Bongy
P.S. I can hear they chew on the pellet too. (like eating potato chips)
Michael Garner
Bongy-
When they decide to breed they tend to swim more closely together. It
isn't that noticable though. One pair does a lot of lip locking and
tugging, to the point of causing damage to their mouths. The others
don't do much of this. They may or may not chase other fish from the
chosen site. They really aren't that obvious about breeding. If I'm
not watching closely the first thing I see is eggs! They are always
laid on a rock (all pairs do this). The rocks are big heavy squarish
things. The eggs are laid on the top surface. They have never laid
eggs on the angled sides. The female fans the eggs mostly. The male
works a little farther away to keep other fish away. He also fans the
eggs some. And one male insists on eating the eggs by 24-30 hours. :(
I've never had a successful batch so I can't say much past this. Maybe
you can figure that out for me!
Lisa
The Moore's
I'll add what little I can, my severum's laid eggs on a piece of slate
laying flat on the bottom both times. The second time she dug a big hole
near the slate, I assume for placing babies. Of course with no mate, no
babies.
--
Good fishing, Matt
Bongy
Thanks Lisa and Matt. I am quite sure that mine has formed a pair now. They
swim together most of the time and fight off the other fish (convicts and an
odd female severum). I can even see their breeding tube. I change some water
today and have raise the temp by about 2 degree. I will start feeding some
beef heart tomorrow to give them more protein. The female is still a little
thin so I think I probably have to wait before they lay eggs. Thanks again.
Bongy
Vancouver, BC
Bongy
It's me again. Good news! This morning, I just find out that my two severums
has spawned on a near vertical plate of rock (similar to angel). Since this
is their first time in laying eggs, I am prepared that they will eat the eggs
within several days. I am thinking of taking several eggs out and hatch it
myself inorder to find out whether they are fertile or not.
Bongy
Vancouver, BC
In article <6g4ubs$lg7$1...@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, bo...@unixg.ubc.removethis.ca
Michael Garner
Congrats! Let us know how it works out. Good luck!!
Lisa G
The Moore's
Good luck! I'm semi jealous, my fish are finally flirting allot, so they
may also pair up soon. Keep us updated on your severums.
--
Good fishing, Matt
Bongy
Hello all, more crazy news from my SA tank. Most of the eggs from the severum
are no good. Maybe the male didn't do his job right or maybe the parents
aren't doing a good enough job at cleaning the eggs, most of the eggs has
turned white after the first days. Interestingly, after three days, the
parents is still fanning the eggs and have not eaten any yet. This turns out
to be both good and bad. The bad thing is because they didn't even bother to
eat the fungused egg and the fungus has spread to nearly all of the eggs now.
Of the 10 or so eggs that I took one, only 1 or 2 still remain clear. (If
those 1 or 2 hatch into fries, atleast I will know that my male is not
sterile; that's actually my main purpose of taking some eggs out)
As I posted before, I have 3 severums in the tank (2F and 1M). The spawning
come from the beautiful female and the lone male. This has been a very
desirable pairing as I want the fry to come from the beautiful female. The
crazy news is that the ugly female is trying to lure the male to her "home"
and mate with him. Usually, the male fans the eggs for awhile. Then, he gets
"bored" and swims around. When the ugly female sees him, she would come near
the parent's home and attracts the male. The male will "visit" her but so far
he is still being loyal to his partner and swims back to his home. When the
male come back home, the beautiful female will hit him a little as if to
punish him and he would be good and fan the eggs for awhile again. This goes
on continuously and has been a very interesting observation to me. This has
also caused me some concern because I don't want to startle the male (by
taking the fungused eggs out) and encourage him to mate with the ugly female.
So far, I still haven't decide what to do next. Will keep you all posted when
something comes up. Thanks!