Are Severums Friendly?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

princessearrings

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 18, 2010
37
0
0
Florida
Just out of curiosity, is it really true that some fish can be hand fed and possibly even touched by their owners? Sorry if this sounds silly, but I am totally new to this. I know from research that a lot of cichlids and larger fish can be more like pets than just fish. I am looking into getting a severum for my new tank, if I spend enough time feeding it and such, will it act as though it is really part of my collection of pets? I would love to hear some personal experiences!
Thank you!
 
It depends on the fish. My wild-caught severums, even the ones I've had since babies, are leery of my hands. They will eat from them, but they will always shy away from actually being touched.

Some of my tank-raised severums will let you touch them. My super red lets me pet him and mess with him -- he's pretty oblivious to it.

The best way to get them used to being handled is by interacting with them a lot as young fish. I usually try to hand-train all my discus because it makes it easier to move them as adults. Starting when they're very young, I make sure to always keep my hands in the tank during feeding or water changes. I also sometimes just scoop them up in my palm, hold them for a second, then put them back in the tank. By the time my discus are 6 - 8 months old, they'll basically let me hold them. This could come in handy when moving larger cichlids as well. It's less stressful and less damaging than going after them with a net.
 
My experiance has been some Severum I have owned were very docile while others could be down right nasty. I never owned one as a single wet pet so IDK about the touching/petting, some have been a little skiddish, spooking somewhat easly while others were very outgoing and bold. So what I'm saying is, I guess it depends on the individual you get.
 
I owned a gold severum that was a psycho. it killed fish twice its size, beat the snot out of a parachromis loiselle and tried to fight my GT i had at the time. of course it got whipped by the GT but it didnt stop trying.

i have read far more about friendly severums than nasty ones though. i think its probably an exception to the rule when you get a nasty one.
 
I don't pet my fish so I can't give my two cents about that. But I have had Sevs. The Sev that I had started out only being aggressive to one of the other Sev's. I removed the one that was being bullied but the aggressive Sev just started taking everything else out. He calmed down once he and one other Sev were left alone. There was no mating involved, both were male. So I don't know the reason for his aggression. For the most part I have heard more good about Sev behavior than bad. I had one of those isolated psychos.
 
I have a 12 year old Gold Sev. It bullies everything and kills any sevs I put in with it. It has killed 3 greens and 1 gold.
 
I've yet to have a severum turn aggressive toward anything except for another severum, and that's only if they don't have much space or there's breeding involved.

Maybe it's how they're raised? I know a lot of stores will keep baby sevs with more aggressive cichlids, and often people grow them out with tougher tankmates. I raise mine with wimpy stuff and they are usually pretty mellow. :ROFL:
 
It really depends on the fish. I have had a few severum over the years. Some were very docile, while others mildly aggressive. One in particular, a gold severum could be hand fed with food sticks.
 
I can hand fed my kois. The big one can swallow my pinkie. (good thing it got no teeth). My oscar let me pet it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom