severum and keyhole info?

[jasonl]

I put my 75 gallon tank back up a few days ago. Took it down a year ago when all my discus passed on from some internal parasite after 7 years.

I went the LFS and this is what i bought.

2 gold severums - about 3.5 inches long. I think that they are male and female.
2 keyhole cichlids - probably about 2.5 inches long. Sex Unknown
4 Convict - 3 females and 1 male. I thought i had 4 females cuz i do NOT want them to breed. Looks like i am going to have to bring one back.

Anyway, do you think this mix will work okay. The keyholes seems to be paling around with the convict. Weird but, hey, whatever suits them fancy. LOL

I am also going to get a couple of more severums cuz i want to breed them eventually. I have found alot of information about severums but i can seem to find anywhere how old/ large they have to be to bread. I also can't find a breeding age for the keyholes either. Anyone know this information?

Thanks in advance.

 

[digital_run]

Hi jason...In my opinion mixing breeding cichlids is always a risky business....I've kept all the fish you mentioned and can't emphasize enough how violent breeding convicts can become. Your keyholes will stand NO chance and your sev will be miserable aswell. Any breeding pair of cichlids will view any other cichlid as a threat and will act accordingly.

If you want to breed severums than i would suggest making a species tank where your sevs can raise their fry and you dont have to risk losses. Keyholes are best suited towards peaceful community set-ups but will not fair well against aggressive tank mates. I've had a pair of keyholes with a green severum for almost 8months now without a problem....The sev shoes his size at feeding time...but otherwise they get along great, so i'd say go for the sev/keyhole thing.

Get rid of that con Male asap...your cons will be the first to breed and will acquire the biggest body count if left to do their own thing.

HIH
Ðigital_run

 

[jasonl]

I plan to get rid of the male convict ASAP. I think i might put him in a spare 20 gallon that I have with one of the females. I can then use the fry as feeder fish for the keyholes and the severums.

I know how bad convicts can get when they breed. that is why i only wanted to get females. Females have more color and arent as aggressive as the males anyway. I plan to get rid of the rest of the convicts too. I would much rather have a few large dither fish in there anyway.

I am not new to fish keeping. The only experience that i have with cichlids is with discus and angles. Do you think that i could keep a couple of angles in with the severum and keyholes while they are small? I would probably have to move them to another tank eventually but do you think that it would work for now?

Also, do you know how big the severums and the keyholes have to be to breed?

Thank you for your input!

 

[digital_run]

A 20gal isnt enough to breed convicts....sorry..a 20gal isnt suitable to house convicts, especially if you are planning on keeping them long term. With a small tank aggression runs high and theres a very good chance you'll end up dividing it to save one of the breeding cons lives. The bare minimum for a breeding/species tank is 29gal.
Female convicts can be just as aggressive as Males....They display more color but have the same temper and over aggressive nature. They may be all chummy now....but give them awhile to gorw and you'll be pullin those cons out of there to save the rest of them.

 

[jasonl]

From what i understand about convicts is that a 20 gallon LONG will work just fine for them. the tank is long enough that i can split them up if i had to. I would never put them in a small tank without watching them closely.

 

[Ben]

From what i understand about convicts is that a 20 gallon LONG will work just fine for them. the tank is long enough that i can split them up if i had to. I would never put them in a small tank without watching them closely.

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20g's are no no's.
30 gal would be best and a 25gal would be the bare minimum.

Back to topic.

You might be able to add one or two Angels, but i would suggest that if you are going to try and breed the Sevs, remove all other fish because Severum's show their true aggresion when breeding and can be brutal

HTH

DD

 

[jasonl]

I think that everyone here will be happy to be informed that i took the convicts back to the pet store today. I am going to give the current fish a chance to settle back in after i tore their home apart to get the little buggers, the convicts, out of the tank.

 

[Warrior]

Angels would be the last thing to add as they get tall and seeing as it s a 20 long, it wont work.

You could keep one male con in a 20g though along with dithers.

 

[jasonl]

PLEASE READ ENTIRE POST!

The tank that the angels would be put in would be a 75 ! The 20 gallon was only for a holding tank for my convicts.

 

[digital_run]

I think that everyone here will be happy to be informed that i took the convicts back to the pet store today. I am going to give the current fish a chance to settle back in after i tore their home apart to get the little buggers, the convicts, out of the tank.

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Good to hear that Not saying i dont like cons...but they are a species tank fish IMO and really when there are soo many different types of cichlids out there that can work in a community setting...getting a con is like asking for trouble. I've never kept angels before so i won't give advise on them....But i don't see any reason why keyholes/severums would cause any problems for them and im sure you wouldn't be the first to try it....but don't quote me on that!!

Ðigital

 

[caspercanuck]

i dont know about angels and severums... maybe if you get large angels... i dont think small ones would last long with sevs... keyholes arent very aggressive i dont think, but you said yours were a decent size so they should be ok with severums i would think..

convicts are great, but i guess it doesn matter since theyre gone