While I don't have a breeding pair yet, I'll give a brief description of severum breeding.
For severums to breed successfully, you need a pair that have formed a pair bond. Severums pick their mates by flirting through shimmying and body color changes. The usual aggressional behavior also accompanies the above behavior, such as posturing, lip locking, and chasing each other. The lip locking, if you haven't seen it, is an impressive display, both fish grab each other by the jaws and pull and shake the other fish in a test and display of strength. Don't be surprised if your fish do some damage to each other in these sexual displays, most the wounds are minor, and heal readily, but be vigilant, and separate them if one fish is getting it bad.
The problems of finding compatible pairs can be many, if one fish is smaller, or not aggressive enough the more powerful fish may pester it unmercifully, or possibly kill it. Since severums are such large fish, many people don't have the luxury of raising six or more juveniles together, where they can choose a mate from a pool of fish. Many times this leave the hobbyist playing a guessing game of trying to find a compatible pair. Severums do breed precociously at a size of four inches, so the several in a tank method may work to get a pair, then quickly sell the other fish before the tank overload problem gets out of hand. In some areas, especially small towns, it may be hard to find enough fish of the same age, especially if your fish is an adult already. I'll list some possible solutions to these problems.
The problem I'm currently dealing with in my own fish is the male is smaller than the female, and the female has always been the alpha fish in the tank. When I had four severums in the tank, she was slightly receptive to his advances. I sold two severums to reduce tank bioload, and the female immediately started bullying the male. I had to put a divider in the tank to preserve his health and safety. I made the divider out of
"egg crate" diffuser panel for fluorescent lights. It's a plastic grid of half inch squares that lets water flow through and allows the fish to see each other. I made openings in the grate so the smaller male can go through to visit and hopefully form a bond with the bigger female, this is referred to as the "separate bedroom" method by Loiselle. It's worked great with my fish, I learned to make them switch ends during every water change, this keeps the dominant fish off balance in regard to his or her territory, much like rearranging the tank does, only better, I feel. By keeping the alpha fish a little unsure through this, I feel the fish will be more receptive to the other fish, my male has spent increasing time on the female's half of the tank. The separate bedroom method would also work if your biding time until a juvenile fish grows large enough to be a potential mate. The divider does hold risks however, I was trying to catch my female to treat a cyst on her side, and she "gillnetted" herself, trying to escape through one of the openings. I broke out some squares to free her, and this left an opening large enough for her to pass over to the male's side. It's been o.k. this way , he just swims to the other side, and she has to find the opening again. After having the grate in a couple of months, I'm now on a trial period of no divider, and both fish are getting along. The breeding convicts may have also helped by distracting the severum's undue attention to each other.If you have a large tank, other severums, or other like size cichlids would help the pair to bond, with the us against them scenario, they're less likely to turn their aggression against each other. The target fish will help keep the bond, once formed. Many report that when only the pair is in the tank, that if anything goes wrong, one fish will blame the other and the bond may weaken or even break, with one fish damaging, or even killing the other. I'll cover target fish further in the tankmates section.
Assuming you have a pair, you need to provide for there needs. Providing water and food to their liking is first. Give them a selection of possible breeding sites, a large flat rock is the most likely choice. Provide a vertical site or two as well, to the best of my knowledge, severums want horizontal surfaces, however. Slowly raising the temperature to 85 degrees F has sparked egg laying in my female twice now. The first time was in response to a temp rise for treating Ich, the second was a failed attempt to spark a pair bond. In both cases, she laid eggs without bonding with a male. The fish will spend time cleaning the spawning site, and excavating one or more holes to place the fry in.
When ready to lay, both fish will have an ovipositor protruding from the fish's vent, pointed on the male, and blunt on the female. The female deposits strings of amber colored eggs on the site, followed by the male who ejects semen on the eggs. They may lay several hundred eggs, which will hatch in a few days. The higher the temperature, the sooner the eggs hatch. The parents deposit the nearly helpless fry into one of the prepared pits and guard them. After a few days, the yolk sac is absorbed by the fry and they need food. Suitable food are newly hatched brine shrimp, or the finest grade of fish food. They should also be able to feed on the fine bits of food their parents blow out in the process of feeding. The parents will tend their offspring for a few weeks, but could be removed at any time, if your interest is raising the most young fish possible.
To return to the main page, just click this one closed!