General inquiry

[Carlos Pires]

Hello,

I've been considering building a biotope aquarium concentrated in south
American fish. I already have severum and festivum, plus some
lorycaridae as bottom feeders. I'm thinking to put some tetras and some
other cichlids as well. I was wondering whether adding uaru sp. might
be appropriate for the biotope I intend t build. regarding this I was
wondering what are the experiences regarding uaru sp., mostly as to its
geography, as the Axelrod atlas is not specific on the geography of
this species. TY.

[dfreas]

I wasn't planning on answering this since I've never kept an uaru but
no one else is answering and maybe if I reply with what I know someone
else will pick up the slack.

Luckily I have done a south american biotope and kept severums so I
know a little bit. In my experience (and ymmv here) severums are
intollerant of any cichlid they did not grow up with - and sometimes
intollerant of the ones they do grow up with. My severums would gang up
on any cichlid I added to the tank - any other type of fish they were
fine with - but they hated cichlids. I tried two jack dempseys and an
oscar and all three were beaten up by my five severums - two died, and
I rescued the last jack just barely in time to nurse him back to health
in a separate aquarium and then return him to the pet store after a
couple months when he outgrew my quarantine tank and I had no where
else to put him.

You may still have time though. My severums didn't get aggressive until
they were about four to five inches. Up until then they were tollerant
(and even peaceful) to all fish. Anything they grow up with will have a
much better chance of survival.

Oh, and you can expect your tetras to disappear over time. You'll never
see it but when the lights go out you can count on the severums eating
anything small enough to fit in their mouth. Still it's a good idea to
have them in the tank since your severums will behave much more
naturally with dither fish.

-Daniel

[Carlos Pires]

Thank you very much for your reply, indeed I do have some "behavioral"
problems with my severum, one of them is actually as big as my hand so
any fish that I put in has basically become fish food for the "big
momma" (it's a female). I'm a little curious about water, lighting and
plant characteristics, as up to now I have maintained neutral water
with some natural lighting. I do confess that all my attempts at
putting plants have so far failed miserably (plants either die or
become "salad" for my big severum). Should I aim for acidic, soft water
instead of neutral? I was already considering that possibility but was
not particularly sure whether plants would take it very well. If you
don't mind my asking, how was your biotope setup like? It would give me
some new ideas to consider, especially since I'm also planning on
getting a larger tank than what I currently have (it'a large Eclipse 3
tank). TIA.

[dfreas]

Yeah, same experience here regarding the plants - even if the severums
don't eat them they tear them up enough to kill them. Rather than
address all of your questions individually I'll just write a bit about
my tank and let you extrapolate what you will.

My aquarium contained 5 Green Severums and a Pl*co most of the time.
Oddly enough the severums *always* moved out of the pl*co's way, maybe
they know something I don't but he sure doesn't look threatening to me.


My biotope did not always stay a biotope - as the severums got older
and I discovered their penchant for killing fish they didn't like I
experimented with some non-South American fish to see how it would go
over. I knew they had to have dither fish to get them out and about but
they kept eating all of the dither fish I bought so I tried putting a
school of tiger barbs in the tank thinking the aggressiveness of the
little guys would keep them alive. Not so - it took the severums longer
than usual to eat them all but eat them all they did. In light of that
I would suggest routinely buying half a dozen of whatever tetra your
LFS has on sale with the expectation that they won't be in the tank
more than a month or so. Still it is a neccessary purchase if you want
your severums to come out in the open much.

The severums also will appreciate having several hiding places. If you
only provide one then your "big momma" will claim it as her own and woe
to any severum that chooses to challenge her for it. Usually the
smaller ones won't mind all cramming together in one cave but the
biggest one or two will demand their own spot. Any dark wood will work
very well for this - also rocks. Avoid sharp edges when you purchase
your scenery and caves though - fights will break out fairly often and
when the smaller severum bolts for safety they don't look where they
are going. Sharp edges in the tank will result in your smaller severums
perpetually missing a few scales and looking a bit beat up. They
recover quickly but it's easier to just avoid the problem to begin
with.

I mentioned dark wood specifically because it will leach tannins into
the water. Not usually a desirable thing in an aquarium but in this
case it actually makes the environment much more natural for you fish.
In the wild they swim around in water the color of tea so if your water
starts to look a bit like earl grey don't worry - they like it that way
and will come out much more often. You have to keep it under control
with water changes though, it can easily get too dark in there if you
get a good amount of wood for the tank. This also has the effect of
pushing the pH down just a bit and making it easier to hold the water
conditions where they would naturally be for severums.

Which brings us to water conditions. Yeah, go ahead and shoot for soft
and slightly acidic. But these guys can be messy eaters so don't go too
soft or you'll constantly be fighting a loosing battle against pH
crashes. Remember that they aren't discus - they won't drop dead or
start swiming sideways like idiots if water conditions aren't perfect
so don't sweat it too much. Do what you can and don't work too hard.
They are very likely going to mess up any delicate balance you achieve
anyway.

As far as plants go, there is only one answer: Hornwort. They will
either eat or chew up and spit out every other plant faster than it can
grow. For hornwort to work you may need to get brighter lighting, but
it's a cheap plant so go ahead and try it first and see if it works -
if it slowly dies off then you need better lighting. With good enough
lighting hornwort can easily keep your nitrates at 0ppm perpetually.
Just buy a couple of bunches of it and scatter it across the top of
your aquarium. If you try to root it or use plant weights to hold it
down you'll only get frustrated as the severums tear it to shreds like
every other plant you've tried. However if you just float it they don't
eat it and even if they do tear it up then the individual pieces just
keep right on growing as if nothing happened. Great stuff for a severum
tank. It also has the effect of making the severums feel much safer so
they come out more and providing a hiding place for your tetras so they
last far longer than they would otherwise.

I did 20% water changes weekly - mostly to get rid of the buildup of
tannins in the water, but also because they basically ignore food once
it hits the bottom (unless it's live of course) so the gravel needs
regular vacuuming. With the hornwort growing you won't ever really have
to worry about nitrate buildup, but they do grow faster with regular
water changes so it's still a good idea to do it weekly if you have the
time. You'll also need to thin out the hornwort pretty much every week
when you do your water changes - it grows fast if you give it enough
light.

Speaking of food they ***love*** worms. And they are very cool to watch
when you throw live food in the tank - their stripes turn dark black
and the eyes and fins go blood red when they're in hunt mode.
Earthworms and blackworms both have this effect, I never tried any
other worms as I don't have access to them. They also like brine shrimp
but the reaction isn't anywhere near as impressive.

Don't bother with special cichlid pellets - they'll eat them but in my
experience they like flake food better. Given the choice they would
always go after flake first and eat it much faster than any pellets I
threw in. Color enhancing food is worth the extra buck - the reds that
show up in their fins are quite impressive. Live food and freeze dried
krill will also help bring this out. I fed freeze dried krill, freeze
dried daphnia, live brine shrimp, live blackworms, occasionally a few
live earthworms, and tetra color tropical flakes. I usually fed flake
for breakfast and dinner and krill for lunch with the other stuff
thrown in as alternates once or twice a week.

Anyway that's my experience - as always ymmv. I know there a lot of
stuff in this post but don't work too hard. At times I would forget to
test my tank for a week or two and when I did I'd find the pH had
jumped to 7.6 and nitrates were up to 80ppm (before I found the
hornwort) and the severums didn't seem to care a bit. So keep in mind
the optimum conditions but don't stress over them - the severums won't
really care all that much.

-Daniel

[Carlos Pires]

Hey,

Thanks for the great experience. I can relate with what you said about the
discus... stupid things would just drop dead, get hexamita or swim sideways
if the water wasn't _just_ perfect. The one time I had discus was the most
stressful time for me, aquarium-tending wise. After losing five of them in a
row, I decided to look for "trooper" fish, hence my choice for severum. Has
it paid off? it's been eight years since my last major purchase (you
guessed, "big momma") and she has coped very well with many things that have
happened, and there she is. Pity I didn't find her a suitable mate, I would
have *loved* to see a severum spawn and even get me some fry. I did have in
one oportuity several scalare spawnings, but I lost the male to
tuberculosis. the female has survived, fortunately, and has become rather
large (I would eyeball her size as half my hand) but she's developed a
_nasty_ character... fish-killing nasty. She's even taken a couple of swings
at my "big momma" but no more, I mean a severum as large as mine is
intimidating, especially when decked in war paint and all fins erect... qite
a sight, but I ramble though. Indeed your experience with the biotope
aquarium has proved invaluable and it will serve me to set up the biotope I
want. Thanks for the recommendations on feeding and plants, those are indeed
things I'll be trying in the near future, when I set up my aquarium on the
larger tank. I'm saving this post chain and will be referencing to it often.
I also do have home field advantage -- I am near the Orinoco and Caroni
rivers, so I can get without much expense both blackwater and normal water.
I might even collect a few gallons and use that as my base for the
aquarium... I really do appreciate your advise, I'll put it to good use.


"dfreas" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Yeah, same experience here regarding the plants - even if the severums
> don't eat them they tear them up enough to kill them. Rather than
> address all of your questions individually I'll just write a bit about
> my tank and let you extrapolate what you will.
>
> My aquarium contained 5 Green Severums and a Pl*co most of the time.
> Oddly enough the severums *always* moved out of the pl*co's way, maybe
> they know something I don't but he sure doesn't look threatening to me.
>
>
> My biotope did not always stay a biotope - as the severums got older
> and I discovered their penchant for killing fish they didn't like I
> experimented with some non-South American fish to see how it would go
> over. I knew they had to have dither fish to get them out and about but
> they kept eating all of the dither fish I bought so I tried putting a
> school of tiger barbs in the tank thinking the aggressiveness of the
> little guys would keep them alive. Not so - it took the severums longer
> than usual to eat them all but eat them all they did. In light of that
> I would suggest routinely buying half a dozen of whatever tetra your
> LFS has on sale with the expectation that they won't be in the tank
> more than a month or so. Still it is a neccessary purchase if you want
> your severums to come out in the open much.
>
> The severums also will appreciate having several hiding places. If you
> only provide one then your "big momma" will claim it as her own and woe
> to any severum that chooses to challenge her for it. Usually the
> smaller ones won't mind all cramming together in one cave but the
> biggest one or two will demand their own spot. Any dark wood will work
> very well for this - also rocks. Avoid sharp edges when you purchase
> your scenery and caves though - fights will break out fairly often and
> when the smaller severum bolts for safety they don't look where they
> are going. Sharp edges in the tank will result in your smaller severums
> perpetually missing a few scales and looking a bit beat up. They
> recover quickly but it's easier to just avoid the problem to begin
> with.
>
> I mentioned dark wood specifically because it will leach tannins into
> the water. Not usually a desirable thing in an aquarium but in this
> case it actually makes the environment much more natural for you fish.
> In the wild they swim around in water the color of tea so if your water
> starts to look a bit like earl grey don't worry - they like it that way
> and will come out much more often. You have to keep it under control
> with water changes though, it can easily get too dark in there if you
> get a good amount of wood for the tank. This also has the effect of
> pushing the pH down just a bit and making it easier to hold the water
> conditions where they would naturally be for severums.
>
> Which brings us to water conditions. Yeah, go ahead and shoot for soft
> and slightly acidic. But these guys can be messy eaters so don't go too
> soft or you'll constantly be fighting a loosing battle against pH
> crashes. Remember that they aren't discus - they won't drop dead or
> start swiming sideways like idiots if water conditions aren't perfect
> so don't sweat it too much. Do what you can and don't work too hard.
> They are very likely going to mess up any delicate balance you achieve
> anyway.
>
> As far as plants go, there is only one answer: Hornwort. They will
> either eat or chew up and spit out every other plant faster than it can
> grow. For hornwort to work you may need to get brighter lighting, but
> it's a cheap plant so go ahead and try it first and see if it works -
> if it slowly dies off then you need better lighting. With good enough
> lighting hornwort can easily keep your nitrates at 0ppm perpetually.
> Just buy a couple of bunches of it and scatter it across the top of
> your aquarium. If you try to root it or use plant weights to hold it
> down you'll only get frustrated as the severums tear it to shreds like
> every other plant you've tried. However if you just float it they don't
> eat it and even if they do tear it up then the individual pieces just
> keep right on growing as if nothing happened. Great stuff for a severum
> tank. It also has the effect of making the severums feel much safer so
> they come out more and providing a hiding place for your tetras so they
> last far longer than they would otherwise.
>
> I did 20% water changes weekly - mostly to get rid of the buildup of
> tannins in the water, but also because they basically ignore food once
> it hits the bottom (unless it's live of course) so the gravel needs
> regular vacuuming. With the hornwort growing you won't ever really have
> to worry about nitrate buildup, but they do grow faster with regular
> water changes so it's still a good idea to do it weekly if you have the
> time. You'll also need to thin out the hornwort pretty much every week
> when you do your water changes - it grows fast if you give it enough
> light.
>
> Speaking of food they ***love*** worms. And they are very cool to watch
> when you throw live food in the tank - their stripes turn dark black
> and the eyes and fins go blood red when they're in hunt mode.
> Earthworms and blackworms both have this effect, I never tried any
> other worms as I don't have access to them. They also like brine shrimp
> but the reaction isn't anywhere near as impressive.
>
> Don't bother with special cichlid pellets - they'll eat them but in my
> experience they like flake food better. Given the choice they would
> always go after flake first and eat it much faster than any pellets I
> threw in. Color enhancing food is worth the extra buck - the reds that
> show up in their fins are quite impressive. Live food and freeze dried
> krill will also help bring this out. I fed freeze dried krill, freeze
> dried daphnia, live brine shrimp, live blackworms, occasionally a few
> live earthworms, and tetra color tropical flakes. I usually fed flake
> for breakfast and dinner and krill for lunch with the other stuff
> thrown in as alternates once or twice a week.
>
> Anyway that's my experience - as always ymmv. I know there a lot of
> stuff in this post but don't work too hard. At times I would forget to
> test my tank for a week or two and when I did I'd find the pH had
> jumped to 7.6 and nitrates were up to 80ppm (before I found the
> hornwort) and the severums didn't seem to care a bit. So keep in mind
> the optimum conditions but don't stress over them - the severums won't
> really care all that much.
>
> -Daniel
>

[dfreas]

Very cool! I would deffinately suggest taking a trip out to the river
and looking around for some floating plants. I did this in the local
swamp (The Great Dismal Swamp if anyone wants to look it up) and picked
up a variation of hornwort, a local moss that looks and grows very
similar to java moss, and some frogbit. Those three plants have been
hardier and faster growing than all of the plants I've bought at the
LFS (with the exception of an anubias).

Especially living where you do the chances of you finding something
really unique seems pretty high. And collection runs are a lot of fun!

-Daniel