What to Do about Severum Agression

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boxerfish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 6, 2007
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Richmond, VA
I have several cichlids in a 6ft 110 gallon tank. I had a 3 inch rotkeil sev which was always very mellow and gave me no problems. I found a 2 inch red/gold sev which I had in hospital tank for couple weeks. I finally put him in my SA tank and the Red sev got very aggressive with him to the point were he was obsessed with chasing and bitting him, and also other fish when the red/gold found good hiding. Is this breeding behavior. I noticed the rotkeil colored up more than ever before. I took the red/gold out because i didn’t want it to get hurt or jump out the tank. Should I add more severums to spread out aggression. I plan on making a severum/gymnogeophagus tank in a 125 in the next month or so anyway.

Anybody have a problem with mixing severums. My LFS which I get good info on said awhile ago he had to split all his severums because they were tearing each other up. I really wanted to have a community tho.
 
Never had an issue with my gold sevs ever since I bought them when they were only 1.5 inch. They have their occasional pecking to the point the male tears his partner's fins otherwise they get along most of the time and even spawn several times despite my refusal to try breeding and rearing the fry.
 
Every fish is different that is for sure.
I always considered severums pretty mellow and peaceful. I have a green severum that is king of the tank! He flat out owns way larger and more aggresive cichlids. He doesnt lock lips but, alot of face offs and guerilla warfare tactics.
I am sure once he locked lips with a big dog in the tank he would lose pretty quickly but he is smart enough to establish dominance in other ways.
 
Only prob i have had with sevs when adding new fish well just new cichlids, is that the current one would bully the new cichlids, apart from if i added more severums, even my 8" dominant male dint kick off when i added another large male, and this was in a very full 100gal (arow, GT, sevs, jag, bichir, cats, tin foils etc...then got moved to my 180gal before i sold up lol) anyways, i have NEVER had a problem....try this, rarange the hospital tank (take the sev out 1st, put him in a jug for 5 mins or so) catch the other sev out of the large tank, then put them both in the hospital tank at the same time, if things dont change u have no chance in hell, if they are both calmer, and less agressive, just leave them there over night....and see what goes on in the morning, and either leave them out of the main tank for 3-4 days, or rearange it the next morning, then intordouce them the the large tank together, as there will be no dominant one cos they are being added to a 'new' tank...try that if it dont work, get another severum lol

- Rust
 
They are probably a bit too young to breed.

A lot of the times you'd have problem keeping two individual of the same species together unless they are a pair. I agree with above that severum aggression is in most cases not too worrisome. It might work better if you added a few more severums.
 
Hi.. Just a thought... Could you speed up the 125 gallon tank?? That way they would both be going into a new tank and no one would have claimed the territory and have to defend it. Also it would be less fish so more room to establish different turfs if they want..
If not... All you can do is rearrange your current tank with the rottk out of the tank.. put him in qt for a few days.. That will give the new one (if it's well and healed now) a chance to establish itself in the "new" tank. Then when you put the rottk back hopefully he will feel he's going into a new tank and maybe they can have a better relationship... Sometimes this works.. I had a rottk juvie that kept lip locking with the adult sevs I had rescued.. I tried everything.. nothing worked.. I rehomed the rescued sevs and then he went after the angels fins.. so as beautiful as Rambo was, I had to give him to a friend.. They are cichlids afterall and sometimes you just get one that is a bully and there's not much you can do.. But I would try the rearrange and time out and see how it goes first.. Good Luck...Sue
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I"m just going to keep them separated until I get more. No more speeding tanks up for me anymore. I always get complications when I do that. The current tank is just recovering from a massive ick spread from setting up too soon. Plus, where I have the empty 125 I want to put a 220 so I need to find another space for it along with my 17 other tanks. (Im an addict)
I've come to learn cichlids are very unpredictible. I've had aggressive discus and uaru. A 3 inch bolivian ram kill a stingray (well kinda sorta), a lake malawi tank where the smallest cichlid (hap moorii) dominated tank. So yeah, I'm starting to expect the unexpected.

I will prob try to buy the sevs all at once which is hard to do when your an impulse buyer but maybe that will help out with their compatibility.
 
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