odd severum behavior

[bbortko]

Yesterday I went to feed my wish and my green severum was bright blue, gasping but not at the surface, and twitching like it had tourette's. I did a wc in the morning and he was fine and except for a 2 hour period I was in front of the tanks from noon to 10, the entire time his coloration and behavior was normal. Today I wasn't around until I fed them so I can't attest for what went on before 5pm but when I walked up to the tank he was bright blue, gasping, and twitching. The episode only lasted a couple of minutes and oddly both episodes happened at the same time of day.

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[FluffySackson]

I find it normal for cichlids to twitch like they have parkinson's from time to time. My black belt and geo. brasiliensis do it from time to time. If your severum was darker than usual, it was likely very stressed. Are there any cichlids in the tank that could possibly be bullying him?

 

[bbortko]

There are minor standoffs from time to time but nothing too physical or relentless. Since you mentioned it, I do recall some of my others twitching from time to time but its the blue that is really odd. It's not the normal drab darkness they show from time to time, it turns bright blue like an umbee. I had him a year or two and never seen this blue.

 

[FluffySackson]

May be the lighting, green severums can be colored to an olive green to a blue-greenish color. I don't think there's anything to worry about then, what else do you have with him?

 

[xraycer]

I had a green sev that did that once in a while.
I also have a baby small mouth bass that did that when it was first tanked together with a baby bullhead catfish. Every time the bullhead brushed up against it, it have these seizure episodes. This lasted for about a week. They're still tankmates and no more episodes

 

[bbortko]

May be the lighting, green severums can be colored to an olive green to a blue-greenish color. I don't think there's anything to worry about then, what else do you have with him?

He's in a few 72x30x25 with silver dollars, pleco, rotkeil, bellycrawler, 2 heckellii, synspillum and a polleni.

 

[ryansmith83]

Is it in breeding colors?

 

[bbortko]

I looked up breeding colors and tha5 is what it looks like. I will try to keep my phone handy in case it happens again.

 

[FluffySackson]

He's in a few 72x30x25 with silver dollars, pleco, rotkeil, bellycrawler, 2 heckellii, synspillum and a polleni.

Polleni are quite mean, I've kept them with peaceful cichlids like severums and geophaus all the way up to black belts and jaguars. Though, mine was just aggressive to the giant hand that came into the aquarium to steal half his water every week.

 

[bbortko]

All morning and afternoon he was normal until I went to feed the tank and he was doing his thing again.