Severum Aggression... Can it work?

[zachpeed]

About two weeks ago, I picked up two severums from my LFS what were labeled Red Cheek Severum, about 3" and 4.5". They went into a temp 55 gallon with 5 2-3" spotted silver dollars. There was some aggression, so I put in a divider for the smaller severum could heal up.

Yesterday, I picked up a 2.5-3" severum labeled Orange shoulder, and put him in with the smaller red cheek. I woke up this morning to the Orange shoulder pretty beat up, and moved him to a 20 gallon hospital tank. Once I move my other fish into their 210 gallon home, I'd like to move all of these into my 90 gallon.

Do you think this would be possible?


Also, I've used the names given from the LFS, but they may not be right.

 

[zachpeed]

bump.. anybody?

 

[dent20]

Those common names aren't familiar to me. Are there other fish you're going to put in the 90? I don't have that much experience with Sevs, but the ones I own aren't that aggressive toward one another. When introducing the fish to the new tank, I'd definitely put the smallest in first. Any chance you can let them grow out a little in there first? Let them establish their territory.

 

[zachpeed]

In the 90 would be 5 spotted silver dollars, the 3 sevs and maybe 2 or 3 port hole cats. The largest sev is on the divided 55 with the sd's, and a ted top cichlid, and he doesn't bother either one of them. On the other side is the middle sized sev, and he's with some yellow tail acei fry (I'm running out of room lol) and he just ignores them... it all seems to be sev on sev violence haha

I may be able to put the smaller sevs in the 90 to grow out, and leave the bigger guy in the 55.. but that would mean buying extra filtration, which I'm trying to avoid.

 

[ryansmith83]

It sounds like you keep adding fish without the room for them. Severums can have high conspecific aggression depending on a few things, including the number of severums in a group, tank size, and sex ratio.

Most severums are going to fight when you first introduce them because they will attempt to establish dominance over one another. Eventually they will work out a pecking order but this will mean a week or two of fighting and chasing. It's best to have a larger tank and add them all at once to level the playing field.

A 55 is really too small for sub-adult or adult severums in my opinion. People will argue that point and say there's no reason why a 3 - 4" fish shouldn't fit in a tank that size, but it's not always about the size. It's more about how much space the fish will need to coexist without beating up or killing each other.

Make sure when you set up your 90 that you give plenty of hiding spots and things that break up their line of sight, then add all the fish at one time. Chasing and nipping are not a problem. If they are beaten to the point of losing scales or cowering in fear in a tank corner, you need to separate them.

 

[zachpeed]

Yeah, I think I just under estimated how much space they would need. I've kept tanks for awhile, but never had a tank with more than one or two of the same species, and those were usually male/female pairs. I'll keep them separated for now, and make sure I follow that advice.

None of them were hurt to a point that scales or fins were missing, but there was a decent amount of nipping. I think I also overreacted on how badly they got beat up.

Thanks for the input, and any other advice or tips would be appreciated.