Sudden Rise In Aggression In My Severum.....

[Wills]

The past few weeks my mouth brooding Severum, Lilly has become really really bad - main targets are my Chocolate and Mixteco Gold - The Choc is the closest in size to her but will ultimately over take her but the Mixteco is only about 3 inches. I have found a few small fish dead as well - I have lost one of my Whiptails and a Flagtail Catfish in the past two weeks both looked like they had been attacked, which is understandable as Lilly is lashing out at times so if they did not get out of the way fast enough I can kind of guess what happened.

The only things that have changed in the weeks where she has developed an attitude problem are.

1. My Chocolate Cichlid has eaten a school of 15 Lemon Tetras.... which were my dithers so all I can think is its put her on edge after living with the school for a year prior to the Chocs introduction to the tank.

2. I have started feeding Hikari Gold sinking pellets along with my staple food (Tetra Prima) over the past 2 months or so and she loves them - she can actually recognise the packet... which led to her getting a little fiesty at feeding time. I had a little problem with this food causing bloat which a few others have reported so I cut down the feeding and she only gets it once or twice a week now. But I am wondering if its got additives in that are making her react? Has anyone heard of this before? I wouldnt normaly try and pin it on something like this but I do have suspicions that it does have a lot packed into it. To be fair given the issues it has caused I have already decided to not replace it when its gone but perhaps I should bin it just incase?



I am going to a shop today to hopefully pick up some new dithers that are not so snack size for the Choc - I am thinking a small group of Hemiodus or Columbian Tetras? Possibly Bleeding Hearts if I can find any large ones Hoping that the dither technique will work out and calm her down and take away the Hikari pellets and hope that fixes it - other wise not really sure what to do

Wills

 

[onidrase]

Hope it works for you, my firemouth is always a monster without any dithers in the tank, but as long as the tank has schooling fish, he's quite the angel.

 

[Wills]

Ah interesting!! There is a definite change in temperament so fingers crossed this worked.

I went to Wharf in Notts as I knew none of my shops would have what I wanted and they had all three I was considering and I came away with something totally different.

I got a school of 8 Tetragonoperus Chalceus - no I hadnt heard of them before either. After a quick google in the shop I realised what they were, they were labeled up as Tetragonoperus sp. in the shop but I had a look now Im home and I reckon Im on the money with Chalceus. They are kind of a mid point between silver dollars and tetras quite large at the moment which is good and I am hopign the reflective silver bodies will distract Lilly enough and calm her down somewhat.

I also got a large flat rock for the centre of the tank as well in hope that it might get her to pop her eggs out.... actually after a quick glance at the tank I have just seen her tube down....


Wills

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Nice find! Fingers crossed Lilly settles down again.

 

[Wills]

Well... its a bit of a mixed start really - Lilly is now trying to lay eggs right under Thornton (the chocolate) pretty much outside of one of his caves... which is getting mixed results.

And as soon as I added the tetras Thornton started kicking off and started chasing.... It looks like he managed to catch one and it is hiding round the back - just leaving it for now and hope for the best the other 7 have been too fast so far but I think he might have an other pop later on.... see how it goes. They really are a good size though Im pretty surprised he thinks he can get them. Hopefully they are stay fast enough.

Wills

 

[snowflake311]

Hey. You still have that severum pretty cool.

I found when fish are the same size there are a lot more fights. My parrot fish started lashing out on everyone in the tank. My uaru is still suffering from the beat downs not sure she will make it. I blame the true parrot fish for the death of my older blue acara who was fine till the parrot started going crazy. Now with the true parrot gone my tank is so much better it was painful to watch before. Now my true parrot is living in a 180gal tank with some oscars and JD. It's funny because my severum and parrot always hated each other from day one. The parrot is very similar to the chocolate in shape and size. I just don't think that severums like chocolates or parrots.

I never found dither fish to do any good except be expensive food. I now have silver dollars and they are cool but I don't think them being in the tank makes a difference. I did remodle the whole tank added lots more stuff this seemed to help. Now everyone is getting a long the uaru shows sings of recovering.

Sometimes the best thing to do is say good bye to the mean fish. Sorry.

You have a hormonal fish. I feel if we could spay and neuter our cichlids they would all get along a lot better. My festivum try's to put the moves on my severum.

 

[Wills]

Yeah I have had her into three years now Her last owner had her for four years but not sure how old she was when he got her so she is at least 7 now

She has been laying eggs all night but eating them all straight away.

The "Tetra" that Thornton got hold of earlier has made a recovery and is back with the school now - I think it was just a bit of a shock. They are so acive now its great!! They dont stop moving are really fast and really glistny - starting to show up some black markings on their flanks so be interesting to see if they develop as thats a sign of the other species which gets nice red finnage as they grow

Things seem calmer tonight though - not sure if its because Lilly is busy with her eggs or if its the dither fish but not sure...

Wills

 

[snowflake311]

Yeah I have had her into three years now Her last owner had her for four years but not sure how old she was when he got her so she is at least 7 now

She has been laying eggs all night but eating them all straight away.

The "Tetra" that Thornton got hold of earlier has made a recovery and is back with the school now - I think it was just a bit of a shock. They are so acive now its great!! They dont stop moving are really fast and really glistny - starting to show up some black markings on their flanks so be interesting to see if they develop as thats a sign of the other species which gets nice red finnage as they grow

Things seem calmer tonight though - not sure if its because Lilly is busy with her eggs or if its the dither fish but not sure...

Wills

Well you have had your severum longer then I had my true parrot. Sounds like maybe the problem was hormone. If this lash out is not a normal thing I would just hope for the best. With my parrot fish she just kept getting nastier and nastier till it was just not fun to watch the tank. I got stressed out watching the tank. Don't be like me a wait too long to do something. Sounds like your girl was just dealing with Girly issues.

 

[minnnt]

The joys of owning big fish... This is a great lesson to anyone wanting to keep these kinds of fish in a smaller tank... If it can happen in a 6 footer then there is even less hope for a tank that is less.

Fingers crossed for you Andy, hopefully things will settle down now, especially if she has released some eggs aswell.

 

[Wills]

I know what you mean Snowflake - I get stressed watching my tank sometimes but not bad right now

Minnnt - totally agree - makes me wish I had spare tanks times like this



Lilly is behaving better this morning and seems to forgotten yesterday so fingers crossed.

.... but I am down to 6 Tetras So annoyed I was sure these were too big for him to get!!! We will have to see what happens next at least these will grow so hopefully he might stop...

Wills

 

[Wills]

SEVEN I HAVE SEVEN!!

Last night I thought we lost one but it was just hiding after a near miss - I counted after lights on so perhaps one darted. Still got one unaccounted for though...

Wills

 

[minnnt]

Blimey mate, that's terrible. what about bosemani's? Spotted silver dollars?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How are things looking now, Andy? Did no. 8 die of stress, or was it definitely eaten? I "had kittens" the evening we came back from holiday with 8 Phenacogrammus cf. nigropterus, I swore I saw my ~6.5cm female Golden Wonder Killifish eat two in quick succession, despite their deep bodied 4-5cm size (thankfully it was an illusion and they reappeared after I had moved out the killi, ABF and my female Humphead Glassfish).

 

[Wills]

No I have 7 tetras I searched for number 8 but assuming it got eaten. The others are doing well, feeding well and really active.

Aggression is quite bad still Lilly has a torn dorsal fin but I will be able to heal that up with good water changes - she heals really quickly. An observation I heard of from some people about the Atabpo Severus is that they take damage really easy, loose scales, tear find etc but its pretty supperficial compared to the same issues in other cichlids.

Once it gets its black edges and starts healing it goes pretty fast usually clears up in a day.

I have not seen too much predatory behaviour from the Choc past two days though it was only during the initial introduction fingers crossed! He did go into proper predator mode though you could just see it!

Really wish I had multiple tanks

Wills

 

[star4]

Hey wills , sorry to hear you are having trouble with Lilly. I would cut out the Hikari, when I was feeding my fish that Harry the red spot was an absolute horror, chasing everything, also my male belem's turned on each other. I only used beighton aquatics foods now, got no problem with agression with any of the sevs at all now and no problems at all with any bloating, well in fact all my tanks are pretty calm apart from the two rescue oscars who keep trying to eat me lol.

If you cant find them mail me and I will send you the details