Is my severum too chunky?

[GermanDude]

Hi everyone,

I got a male gold severum in a 100 gallon tank, which has been purchased 7 months ago at roughly 1.5 inches.
He is 6.5 to 7 inches now and I now they are quite bulky.
But might he be obese?
I am feeding twice a day, but just what he eats within 2 minutes.
Food is low in fat and carbs, but high in protein.
Veggies are fed too, regularly.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Backfromthedead]

He sure is a chunker. Doesnt look unhealthy to me. Must like what youre feeding him.

 

[GermanDude]

Yeah, he is eating very greedy.
I started to feed smaller pellets again, so he can not eat big amounts of food at once.
He is crazy for broccoli and peas and I love to watch him tearing blanched romain lettuce apart.

 

[duanes]

Since Héros are omnivores with a propensity for vegetation such as algae, feeding a heavy in protein diet may be contributing to the rotund look.
I find most high bodied cichlids like these, or Vieja tend toward the vegetarian side do not need the high protein diet most aquarist provide.

 

[GermanDude]

Thank you Duane, I will change his diet so it has a higher content of plant matter.

 

[RD.]

I will only add that IMO your fish would be better served eating aquatic based plant matter, not terrestrial based. NLS AlgaeMax is what I use to increase plant matter in the diet of species that typically require higher amounts.

 

[duanes]

I also used NLS ALgaeMax army main staple for omnivorous cichlids like Vieja, Chuco, and Herichthys.

 

[neutrino]

I've kept and raised a lot of sevs, ime you don't need to make a special effort to feed them veggies-- or restrict protein vs any fish you'd keep with them. They do enjoy veggies, yes, but they're essentially omnivorous and will do just fine on a good pellet. My sev keeping experience goes back 25 yrs, includes breeding, and I've never fed them differently than my other fish-- which at one time included regular live brine shrimp (but never beef heart or extra heavy protein for any fish). There was a year or two I gave them an occasional veggie treat-- they like it, don't need it.

During that time they've gotten different pellet products, according to what I was feeding at the time, but over the past 12 or so yrs I've noticed they like and look good on NLS, including Thera-A. I've yet to try Algae-Max but I expect they'd do fine on that also.

I've had sevs live over 15 yrs. They don't need special treatment with food and don't need lower protein than other fish. More important than feeding veggies is don't overfeed.

 

[xraycer]

I think you're sev looks great, and not obese at all.

 

[neutrino]

Thick-wise, he'd be fine for a mature male imo. If he was mine, though, I'd want a little less belly on him.