Fishkeeping - Softwater Cichlids

Severums are hardy, easy to care for (as cichlids go), and will thrive
in many water conditions. They may produce fry but that will take some
patience. If fry production is your main goal convicts may be a better
choice though I have less experience with those.

The nice thing about severums is that they aren't as aggressive as some
of the other cichlids out there (especially to eachother) and they have
amazing personalities. They can be trained to eat out of your hand
within a week or two of buying them. Also if you feed them live food
you can watch them change colors very quickly when they go into hunt
mode - really cool. Mine were always very colorful but anytime I
dropped live food into the tank their stripes would turn solid black
and their eyes would get blood red in a matter of seconds as they
darted around the tank eating whatever I had dropped in.

Don't believe their reputation as mild mannered cichlids too much
though. They don't beat eachother up much but if you have an
established pack of severums and you throw any other cichlid into the
tank you can expect to find it dead by morning. My personal experience
with this includes a couple of jack dempseys and an oscar - all of
which I was assured would kill my severums - what a joke that was! Very
effective pack hunters - I don't know if this is true in the wild but
it absolutely was in my aquarium.

They'll do well in a group of five or so but they will grow fast so be
ready with a larger tank by the end of the month. Within four or five
months you'll notice an obvious dominant fish that is quite a bit
bigger than all of the others and the rest will work out their own
pecking order which may or may not be obvious. Keep sharp objects out
of the tank because when the occasional fight does break out the
smaller fish is likely to make a run for it without looking to see
what's in the way. Mine got quite a few nicks and bruises off of the
edge of a log I had in the tank.

You should eventually get a pair, probably the dominant male and the
best looking female in the bunch. If you put a cave in the tank you'll
notice that the dominant male will take it over immediately and chase
everyone else away except the female he's chosen. Whichever three are
out in the cold take back to the LFS. This is the point in the breeding
process where my knowledge stops - I had no desire to breed cichlids so
I took all five to the LFS instead of just the three.

My severums always seemed to have a good memory too. They would come
swimming to the edge of the aquarium whenever I came in the room and
watch me, waiting for food. However I once had to take a fish out of
that aquarium and even though it wasn't them they all stopped trusting
me immediately and hid for a week. Still ate well but refused to take
anythying from my hand until I had built up their trust again. Water
changes always made them stop trusting me for a day too - but they got
over that much more quickly than the fish removal fiasco.

Maintenance is low. I did 20% water changes weekly but if I skipped a
week it didn't seem to matter much, nitrate levels usually stayed below
20ppm. A hang on the tank filter is fine, nothing fancy. Plants aren't
going to happen - anything you plant will get pulled up and torn to
shreds. They don't eat it they just kill it and scatter it around the
tank. Hornwort works well because it has no roots and if they tear it
up it just turns it into more healthy hornwort plants and when I used
it I could easily keep nitrates below 5ppm.

Hiding places are a must if you want them to be happy. Also some dither
fish make them come out more often. But don't buy any dither fish that
you like a lot - plan on them eventually dissapearing one night and
having to be replaced. Tiger barbs worked well for me because they
disappeared slower than danios and guppies, but they still eventually
disappear.

Very cool fish - probably my favorite that I've owned so far.

-Daniel