Severum babies growth rate

[Aidan.Kilgore02]

Hey there MFK, so I recently posted a thread asking how long it would take my severuk fry to reach 1 inch and got some great feedback. Recently I had a lady respond to a video I posted of them saying, assuming the babies turned out healthy, she's gonna want to buy 10. I'm thinking I want to sell at 2.5-3 inches and since I've updated my care, I wanted to see how long everyone on here thought it'd take the babies to get to that size so I can give her a rough estimate on when they'll be ready. So currently the babies are in a 55 gallon with the parents but within the week they'll be in a 55 or 60 grow out tank by themselves, there is roughly 75-100 left and they are roughly 2-2.5 cm's long right now with some at about 3. I currently am doing 2 45% water changes a week, and feeding them 4 times a day. 2 baby brine shrimp feedings, 2 pulverized high quality flake feedings. Since they've been in with the parents, the babies have also started to eat at the pellets I've got the parents on, which happen to be carnivore pellets meant for large fish like arowana and large cichlids (before I decided to breed the parents they were in a tank with a juvenile silver arowana I'm growing out and got hooked on these pellets, I'll include include picture for reference) as well. So any ideas on how long it'll be with this current care (open to suggestions for changing it up, this is just what has worked for me so far) before they reach 2.5-3 inches? Thanks ahead of time!

 

[djsaltynuts]

i can get cichlid fry to 3” in about 3 months assuming temps are high and theyre kept well fed.

 

[..puSkar..]

No matter how large the tank is everyday 40-50% water changes will definitely bump up growth 1.5-2 x times than normal weekly changes. I'm no severum expert so I won't comment on how long will it take but with everyday wc it will certainly take less time than weekly wc.
Now on food. High protein food is good for all cichlid babies be it imniviee or carnivore in nature . The carnivore pellets are too high in protein than what a severum's diet should be. So I suggest changing the parent's diet.
Do also try growing some algae in the tank for the fry to pick in some veggies.
Good Luck.
ryansmith83 would know better.

 

[Aidan.Kilgore02]

No matter how large the tank is everyday 40-50% water changes will definitely bump up growth 1.5-2 x times than normal weekly changes. I'm no severum expert so I won't comment on how long will it take but with everyday wc it will certainly take less time than weekly wc.
Now on food. High protein food is good for all cichlid babies be it imniviee or carnivore in nature . The carnivore pellets are too high in protein than what a severum's diet should be. So I suggest changing the parent's diet.
Do also try growing some algae in the tank for the fry to pick in some veggies.
Good Luck.
ryansmith83 would know better.

Noted on the water changes, and as for the food for awhile I had them on a variety of bug bites, a plant based crumble, and the occasional floating cichlid pellet but as they started getting stray monster pellets the arowana didn't eat, they seemingly got hooked so it'll be interesting trying to get them off of it. As far as the algae, the tank they're all in right now has plenty of it that I don't clean to allow for all-fay grazing so that's not an issue. What veggies would be good? The tank is also currently at about 82 degrees so should I bump that up at all? I'm relatively new to breeding (only ever bred angelfish a couple of times before) and I didn't initially even want to breed the sevs, they just kept laying eggs in the somewhat community tank they were in, and a few times the eggs made it to the 2nd or 3rd day of being hatched due to the sevs actually fending off other fish so I figured I'd give it a go and have been researching asking others as I go, as the same day as I moved them into a tank of their own, they laid eggs and 2 or so weeks later, here I am haha. Question on the water changes though, is daily 50 percent not too much of a shock for such young fry? In the research/questions I've been doing as the process goes on, that's been easily the most conflicting topic in terms of getting varying answers from different sources. Some have suggest daily, large water changes like you, others have said that 50 percent daily is far too much and will shock the babies so I'm just curious on the logic behind it (if you don't mind me asking)?

 

[..puSkar..]

Noted on the water changes, and as for the food for awhile I had them on a variety of bug bites, a plant based crumble, and the occasional floating cichlid pellet but as they started getting stray monster pellets the arowana didn't eat, they seemingly got hooked so it'll be interesting trying to get them off of it. As far as the algae, the tank they're all in right now has plenty of it that I don't clean to allow for all-fay grazing so that's not an issue. What veggies would be good? The tank is also currently at about 82 degrees so should I bump that up at all? I'm relatively new to breeding (only ever bred angelfish a couple of times before) and I didn't initially even want to breed the sevs, they just kept laying eggs in the somewhat community tank they were in, and a few times the eggs made it to the 2nd or 3rd day of being hatched due to the sevs actually fending off other fish so I figured I'd give it a go and have been researching asking others as I go, as the same day as I moved them into a tank of their own, they laid eggs and 2 or so weeks later, here I am haha. Question on the water changes though, is daily 50 percent not too much of a shock for such young fry? In the research/questions I've been doing as the process goes on, that's been easily the most conflicting topic in terms of getting varying answers from different sources. Some have suggest daily, large water changes like you, others have said that 50 percent daily is far too much and will shock the babies so I'm just curious on the logic behind it (if you don't mind me asking)?

If you match up the water temperature I don't think it would shock the fish. Like if your tank sits at 27--28 °C then water changes should be done with water not less than 24-25°C. If the temp vary too much then do 25% , but still do it everyday.
I doubt the shock cause most discus breeders I've seen do 80-90% water changes per day. But the water they use is generally aged for 2-3 days and temp regulated.
Water changes not just to lower ammonia nitrite nitrate, but to replace the minerals lost due to baby fish absorbing them fast from water column.

 

[Aidan.Kilgore02]

If you match up the water temperature I don't think it would shock the fish. Like if your tank sits at 27--28 °C then water changes should be done with water not less than 24-25°C. If the temp vary too much then do 25% , but still do it everyday.
I doubt the shock cause most discus keepers I've seen do 80-90% water changes per day. But the water they use is generally aged for 2-3 days and temp regulated.
Water changes not just to lower ammonia nitrite nitrate, but to replace the minerals lost due to baby fish absorbing them fast from water column.

Oh okay, good to know about the temperature suggestion. Since I've only been doing twice a week right now, do you think say 40 percent every other day would work, at least for a little bit? I'd switch to every day, but I'm working 5-6 days a week so it would be interesting finding time every day to do a water change on the tank, but if it truly makes that much of a difference for their overall health and growth rate, I can certainly put the extra work in. Also, any suggestions for a good, plant based food to try and switch the severums to? They just flat out won't accept the crumble I had them on for awhile, dorky things seem to have gotten addicted to the monster pellets.

 

[..puSkar..]

Oh okay, good to know about the temperature suggestion. Since I've only been doing twice a week right now, do you think say 40 percent every other day would work, at least for a little bit? I'd switch to every day, but I'm working 5-6 days a week so it would be interesting finding time every day to do a water change on the tank, but if it truly makes that much of a difference for their overall health and growth rate, I can certainly put the extra work in. Also, any suggestions for a good, plant based food to try and switch the severums to? They just flat out won't accept the crumble I had them on for awhile, dorky things seem to have gotten addicted to the monster pellets.

You could do wc every alternate days and one in between if you get the time. As for food , I'm not quite sure cause I'm from India and brands differ . If you're from the US then nls algaemax would be good, haven't used it but read good review about it on the forum.
As if now you could crumble the monster pellets and feed the fry, the parents would also get some . But once you have separated the fry , don't feed the parents for a maybe 2-3 days just drop a small amount of the low protein food you want them to eat.
If they don't eat even after that, you could safely starve them for about 5 6 days no problems , but if they don't accept even then, then try soaking the low protein pellet in garlic juice and then feed them , you could try soaking them now also if you want to. I've had many fish accept food right away if coated with garlic juice.
Keep the fry on high protein food till about 3-4" and you could also soak the food for the fry in garlic extract.
Garlic acts as an immunity booster as well as appetizer.
Good luck. Do update if you try out garlic.

 

[ryansmith83]

Honestly 3” means you’ll be growing them out for months. If you power feed and do daily water changes you can have them to 2” in 10 or so weeks, but I’m not sure it’s the best way to grow out fish.

These are 11 week old F1 Heros notatus that are 2”. I grew them out with daily 90% water changes and high protein food (Hikari frozen bloodworms, beefheart, flake foods).

I don’t grow fish out like this anymore. I still do 75% water changes every few days on fry tanks but they get fed with a micropellet a few times a day and no more high protein frozen foods like beefheart.

 

[C. Breeze]

Honestly 3” means you’ll be growing them out for months. If you power feed and do daily water changes you can have them to 2” in 10 or so weeks, but I’m not sure it’s the best way to grow out fish.

These are 11 week old F1 Heros notatus that are 2”. I grew them out with daily 90% water changes and high protein food (Hikari frozen bloodworms, beefheart, flake foods).

I don’t grow fish out like this anymore. I still do 75% water changes every few days on fry tanks but they get fed with a micropellet a few times a day and no more high protein frozen foods like beefheart.

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