Sexing Golden Severum

[tracyb]

Hi All

I have a pair of golden serverums but i have to keep them in two seperate tanks as one of them bullies the other..

What i was wandering was what both their sexes are. I think they are either both female or both male. I got them at the same time but had to seperate them instantly

I will attach some pictures.

1. Smaller Severum - gets chased and beaten up by the other severum.

another pic

2. Bigger Severum - chases the other severum, there is not much differance in size really. He has an eye problem at the moment.

another pic

Thanks

Tracy

 

[loachylover]

In my opinion they are both male, by the red pigmintation on their face.

Just a quick question what size of were they in, usually if they are fighting it is because of teritory? thus the tank being too small for them both to live happily in.

And the eye problem could be down to stress, either that or problems with your water paramters.

You did the right thing by seperating them

 

[tracyb]

They were originally in a 55 gal when they were small, roughly 3"

I tried them again in my new 100 gal recently but the bigger serverum just chased him all over the tank again. I don't like seeing my fish stressed and the bigger severum was inflicting some damage. They now seem happy to be apart

I think his eye problem must have been due to stress. My water is changed every week and I test the water with the API test kit religiously. I was advised it was lyphocystis or something similar. I think he has had it since i first bought him and it's not curable. He is happy, eating, grown by 4 or 5 inches and he is still the boss of the tank.

 

[Warrior]

Pretty hard to say because only the males have more red on there faces 80-90% of the time.. In a 100g its rather strange for them to be fighting so I would say they would be the same sex but im aiming for females. If they are males and ment to have red on there faces then in this case they look more female because there really isnt to much red on them.

 

[jasonl]

The red on the face has very little to do with sexing. Gold severums are a color morph of the regular severum. The regular severum has NO red markings on its face. Judgeing by the fins ( the most reliable way of sexing with most chiclids) you have 2 males. the dorsal fin is usually pointed on the male and rounded on the female.

 

[BlueIce]

The red on the face has very little to do with sexing. Gold severums are a color morph of the regular severum. The regular severum has NO red markings on its face. Judgeing by the fins ( the most reliable way of sexing with most chiclids) you have 2 males. the dorsal fin is usually pointed on the male and rounded on the female.

[snapback]899978[/snapback]​

Can you show me a source for that info? The squiggles on the face are how to sex a sev.Females have very few (color does not matter) ,and males have many squiggles.I've not ever seen an expert state that sevs can be sexed reliably by the dorsal fin.

 

[aardvarkfromspace]

They're both females. Males will have red squigglies all over their faces..

female

male - bottom right

 

[Warrior]

The red on the face has very little to do with sexing. Gold severums are a color morph of the regular severum. The regular severum has NO red markings on its face. Judgeing by the fins ( the most reliable way of sexing with most chiclids) you have 2 males. the dorsal fin is usually pointed on the male and rounded on the female.

[snapback]899978[/snapback]​

Thats the first ive heard of someone saying that...I dont agree with it though and would need some sort of proof. As for the most reliable way of sexing cichlids I only know of a hand full that you can sex like that, 80% you cant sex like that at all.

 

[aardvarkfromspace]

A male severums fins are way longer then the ones in those pics also. My males top and bottom fins stretch out another inch from the end of his tail.

 

[AnthonyRobinson666]

I agree in sevs alot of squiggles does usually mean it's a male, but thats not always the case!

finnage is also a way of predicting th sex, predicting!

i,d rearrange your tank set up and try again...
th already housed sev will already have their territory, mixing it up will mean less of a fight to save it. more than one cave, pot, rock, etc. will reduce fighting...
...and as a little extra thing leave th lights off for a day!




I was a little worried about th amount, type of fish, an size of tank

in aardvark's pic?

 

[guppymonkey]

Looks to me like a pair of females. The dorsal and anal fins are very long in the males. The females have pointed fins but they only reach to about their tail.

 

[loachylover]

Dont get me wrong it could be to do with finage but in all my years with serverums i have always sexed mine by pigmintation on their face, see below my pair of breeding severums, if you can tell the difference in finage be my guest

My Male Sev (see the red pigmentation)

My female guarding her eggs (which i have 10 healthy severums left from)

From what i can tell at a close inspection there is no difference in finnage, nor was there any difference in my breeding pair of Uarus (South American Cichlid) finnage.

Just my opinion