Severum, im 99% sure is a slight fin rot?

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regimezx

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2010
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my almost 5" Severum, finaly 5" a decent size, has caught a what i think it is " fin rot " but is just the beggining of it it started a couple weeks ago but i did a water change and stopped rotting the tail, but now is starting again and is making the very end of the tail(very very end thats why im saying is not a strong or advanced fin rot) to fade a bit and rip VERY tiny pieces off, as if a fish was nipping him, but he is the king of the tank, owned my convict and oscar, and is in a 55 gallon tank.

this is also slightly spreading towards the very end of the very long dorsal/anal fins he has, will just every 2-3 days water changes cure it?

also can you tell me which sex do u think it is? it has very long dorsal and anal fins, 2x longer than my male 3.5" convict cichlid, is all green no stripes. and has no face markings if i look VERY CLOSELY i can see some but are really faded but no matter how good i feed him, how clean the tank is never brings its color, i heard males are less colorful? wat sex is it? male female
 
Well we'll need pictures. And are you positive it's not the other fish nipping its fins?
 
How big is the Oscar you mention in that tank? You might be dealing with nitrate burn as well. No matter what, with and Oscar and Severum reaching the end of Juv and heading to adult size you need a bigger tank for them. Just my $.02
 
it is fin rot the oscar wont even touch the severum in fact the severum bites the oscar when is too close to him begging for food, it is some type of slight fin rot...
 
agree on getting the bigger tank, what are your water parameters? with those big fish in that small of a tank it wouldnt take long for the nitrates to climb too high...
 
My guess would be some kind of burn (ammonia) or fin-nipping. Just because you don't see fin-nipping doesn't mean that it won't happen. When I'm sitting in front of my tanks, my fish are little angels. The second I leave the room they all start chasing and nipping one another. Even my most dominant severum has nipped fins occasionally. Usually these heal fairly quickly.

I agree on the tank upgrade -- at 5", a single severum will dominate a 55 gallon. Throw an oscar into the mix and you've got two pretty large fish, which means large appetites and large amounts of waste. It also means less room as they grow, which leads to disputes over territory and food.
 
well right now the fish barely bother each other and they are not 5" exactly , are like 4 1/2" u r saying i need a bigger tank but it doesnt have to be right now ill wait when the fish get bigger, im just going to do a water change every 2-3 days and see how it goes,

also u said fish are angels wen u look at them, yes they are but i would know whether they are true angels or not as when they bite they take scales or fins off, and my oscar NEVER has a torned fin from either fish the Sev or convict cichlid,
is like this Severum owns the tank --> then the oscar --> then the convict theres no way the sev is getting beat up, the difference between fin rot and beat up fins is very different, wat the sev has is FADED ENDS of his tail and dorsal fin, and are SLIGHTLY falling, not even 1/4 of an inch
 
regimezx;4187653; said:
well right now the fish barely bother each other and they are not 5" exactly , are like 4 1/2" u r saying i need a bigger tank but it doesnt have to be right now ill wait when the fish get bigger, im just going to do a water change every 2-3 days and see how it goes,

also u said fish are angels wen u look at them, yes they are but i would know whether they are true angels or not as when they bite they take scales or fins off, and my oscar NEVER has a torned fin from either fish the Sev or convict cichlid,
is like this Severum owns the tank --> then the oscar --> then the convict theres no way the sev is getting beat up, the difference between fin rot and beat up fins is very different, wat the sev has is FADED ENDS of his tail and dorsal fin, and are SLIGHTLY falling, not even 1/4 of an inch
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It doesn't have to be 5", and why doesn't it have to be right now? That tank is very crowded for those type of fish. Convicts tend to be tale nipper because they are territorial. not always do fish take scale or fins off when they bite, they can nip which will mess up the tips of the fins. size and aggression doesn't always mean some one won't take a stab at him. Plus the fin could be white from trying to heal. have you tested your water? it sounds more like you have bad paramaters, you can't really just catch fin rot with out adding new fish, so its either another fish nipping or water paramater. But i would get a bigger tank no matter what because if your paramaters are bad now, they will just get worse as they get bigger, which will lead to even worse sickness like HITH
 
so a 4.5" severum and a 4.5" oscar already need a huge tank when they are at that size? many aquarists dont tell me that, they do say they will eventually need a bigger tank but not at this size, i WILL get a big tak once they are bigger not at 12" but a more decent size like 7.5" and please dont say that they will grow in just 2 months to get there. Ever since i bought the severum at 1.5" it took him about 6-7 MONTHS to get to 4" also u said convicts are territorial and are fin nippers but mine had alraedy fighted(lip locked) with the severum and got his butt kicked in 5 minutes, the male convict is so scared of the severum runs away from it as soon as he sees him... so with the oscar, is not like convicts are like jewel cichlids which will take way bigger cichlids than them. cons are just super mean when guarding eggs.

as soon as someone touches the severum by accident he turns around to fight it, he/she is a fighter sev. never seen a single severum lip locking and WIN with a bigger cichlid(the con used to be bigger when the sev was just 2.75")
sorry if iwrote a lot i was just trying to make u believe that the severum is the owner of the tank and has been in there for a while and knows how to defend it self pretty well from more aggressive cichlids.. and there isnt any chance that he is getting bullied by the convict or oscar, they never fight anymore just run away from him

so yes it is beggining of fin rot and is a sign that i will need a bigger tank as soon as they are a bit bigger not full growns but 'big', what are tips for fin rot that u have used in the past? the sites tell me water changes, and if is worst adding common medicine like melafix??? i dont think is very bad just slightly turning pale and barely falling
 
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