i used to have a sev and he was one of the coolest fish i had ever owned, up until he got to about 4.5". then he made a spawning pit and started harassing everything else in the tank. like, one week he wouldnt hurt a fly, the next he was the most aggressive fish i had ever had.
I had a gold sev that was psycho. it was 1" when it harassed its sibling so much it starved to death. then when it was a bit bigger it killed a 5" oscar, beat the crap out a larger FM, beat the snot out of a 3.5" parachromis loisellei and tried for top spot in the tank by taking on my 5" GT when it was about 3.5". it promptly got a kicking off the GT but didnt stop trying.
eventually i had to rehome it because it was beginning to starve some of my other fish in the tank, it had them s scared that they never came out from behind my filter pipes. it was a beauty too.
my male gold harasses the female pretty good after their eggs hatch. he'll chase her around and she'll be pretty banged up. she then eats the fry and everything is normal
my male gold harasses the female pretty good after their eggs hatch. he'll chase her around and she'll be pretty banged up. she then eats the fry and everything is normal
Reading things like this makes me feel really blessed to have mild-mannered severums. lol.
I had four together in quarantine from Rapps back in January -- two Super Reds and two wilds. One of the wilds started getting bullied by the other three, so I put the three in my 150 gallon and let the lone severum beef up on her own in quarantine for a while. Then I added her to the 150 after about a month and the other three didn't even seem to notice her. Now they're all getting along great. I was lucky on that one.
Stress most likely. Sevs aren't the greatest parents by cichlid standards...they're better than angelfish for example but in my experience they're a bit quicker to stress out and eat their fry than other cichlid species.
The ones I have now are very peaceful. They stand up for themselves, but they aren't aggressive. I have seen them get aggressive though, and it's usually been around a spawning or attempted spawning/pairing; mine are both males so that hasn't been an issue (and so is the chocolate cichlid they live with, the only female in the tank is a JD).
