Green Hero Severum is not eating.. worried.

NeonFlux

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2010
270
17
48
Los Angeles
Hello fellow MFK members,

I just introduced a little 3 inch hero sev to my 250 gallon a couple weeks ago in healthy condition, eating fine, and quarantined.. Well, the sev was actually not thoroughly quarantined long enough though, I hate to admit that, and it was a little too early to put the sev in, because he/she was harassing my baby indo datnoid a little bit that was also in the quarantine tank, so it was causing some bit of stress to my dat.. unfortunately, so since the sev looked pretty darn healthy and was not showing any symptoms and eating fine anyway, I threw the sev in the 250 gallon.. it was risky, careless, and reckless of me, I know.. but I didn't have much of a choice and I did not have another tank to isolate... however everything in the 250 gallon is fine so far luckily after several weeks since.

Well, all right, so the sev is in, colors are good, healthy and active, not hiding, seems a bit shy, but it has not decided to eagerly eat as of yet. Maybe I have to be patient?? I'm worried because all of my bigger 4-6 inch fish are hogging all the food, and the severum is just... not willing to go for it and eat. Maybe he/she is just too shy and intimidated by my large blood red parrots, SD's, loaches and other fish?? He/she is in healthy condition, no signs of any diseases or anything, none of my other fish are bullying him/her, and he/she even managed to find a favorite spot in the tank, but like said, it is not getting it's share of food because of my SD's, cichlids, loaches, recognize the food that are given, and know when the food is coming and etc.

Some info on the tank.. the tank, filtration is established and cycled for years since 2010, so no worries there, and I do very large water changes once every week, about 75%. Filtration's bio-load capacity is very high, about 50 gallons of sump space, and maxed out with a ton of media: bioballs, ceramic rings, scrubbies, various canister filter medias, and etc; so I don't need to worry too much about the bio-load in the future and presently. I also use some purigen to help lower nitrate a little bit. The nitrates are under control, and don't get very high. So no need to ask the tank parameters questions, I'm no novice when it comes to keeping fish lol.. but if you want parameters, fine, here you go. pH 7.6, Ammonia is 0, Nitrite is 0, Nitrate about 20 ppm. temperatures are about 84 degrees F. Pretty stable and safe.

I have an idea.. should I take him/her out and isolate the sev in a smaller tank as a grow-up tank until it reaches a bigger size to about 4 and a half inches or 5 inches and is more comfortable with the foods given?? Or just be patient, it will have to eat eventually due to starvation and finally learns how to eagerly eat? Ugh, I'm going to hate trying to catch it if I wanna isolate the sev.. stressful for my fish and especially my SD's lol... I know how easily they freak out and injure themselves.. but if I have no other option, I'll do it to save my first severum I ever kept..

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.
 
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