How to Keep a Severum? A Detailed Guide to Practical Breeding Methods and Tips
The severum is one of the most ornamental groups of fish, also known as the gold severum, banded cichlid, and so on. It is a freshwater fish of the class Actinopterygii, family Cichlidae, mainly distributed in the Amazon River basin. Today most are artificially bred. Its ornamental value is very high, and its temperament is relatively mild. At the same time, it has no demanding requirements for its living environment. Let us take a look below at how to keep severums well!
Market Prices of Severums
The severum is an ornamental [fish], and its price is set according to its color, species and ornamental value. The severums currently sold on the market are basically fry, priced at about 10-15 yuan each, while adult severums can be priced according to their size, species and color. However, compared with other types of ornamental fish, the price of severums is still quite affordable.
Growth Habits of Severums
The severum has a broad and rather flat body, and its body is light yellow, with a darker head color. On the sides of its body there are stripes formed by small red dots, similar to pineapple patterns. Its size is medium, reaching 200 mm. Its personality is relatively mild, and it prefers to live in an environment with broad aquatic plants and gravel, and it also likes to swim in the lower layer of the water. It is suitable for group keeping, and it will automatically pair up to breed. During the breeding period the male fish is relatively ferocious, so good protective measures must be taken.
Selecting Juvenile Severums
1. The yellower the juvenile severum, the better. Do not choose those juveniles with pale body color. When selecting, it is best to turn off the lights and choose under natural light, which is more accurate.
2. For juvenile severums, choose those with short, round bodies, not long ones. Round ones look good when they grow up, while long ones do not.
3. For juvenile severums, choose the larger-bodied ones in a brood, not the small ones. The large ones are often males and will have bright colors when they grow up. Moreover, large juveniles often grow very big, while small ones cannot grow that big.
Raising Juvenile Severums
1. Water quality: Juvenile severums have poor disease resistance, so to ensure a high survival rate, the water for keeping severums is best "yellow powder water". The so-called "yellow powder water" means adding yellow powder (that is, furan-based drugs such as nitrofurazone) to the keeping water at the dosage used, keeping the water color slightly yellow, and adding an appropriate amount of salt. Practice has proved that small severums kept in yellow powder water have a very low chance of getting sick, almost never getting sick, while those kept in ordinary water get sick very easily, especially fin hemorrhagic disease (fins red and congested, dorsal and anal fins retracted).
2. Water temperature: Juvenile severums like relatively high water temperatures, best kept at 27-30°C. At this water temperature, severums not only grow fast but are also less likely to suffer from white spot disease. The best time to buy small severums is May and June.
3. Feed: Juvenile severums do not like artificial feed, and even if they eat it they grow slowly. Some fish keepers like to feed small severums with tubifex. Although they grow very fast, it is very unhygienic and they easily suffer from fin hemorrhagic disease and white spot disease. You can feed small severums with frozen bloodworms, and you can also feed them with fish eggs. Small severums love fish eggs, grow fast, and it also helps with color development.
Raising Adult Severums
1. Water quality: Severums have a relatively strong ability to adapt to water quality, not as demanding as parrots, but you should still pay attention to maintaining the water quality they like if you want to raise fish with a bright yellow color. They like weakly acidic soft water. Never keep severums in alkaline or hard water, otherwise the severum's color will turn pale and not yellow.
2. Water temperature: The water temperature required by severums is not as high as that of juveniles; they can grow well from 22-30°C. But if you want severums to grow faster, it is still better to keep it above 26°C.
3. Feed: Severums are not as picky about feed as small severums. Artificial pellet feed, bloodworms, fish eggs, shrimp, breadworms, and chicken and duck liver are all readily eaten, and they often eat very full and can eat a lot. But large severums love breadworms the most, and grow fastest when eating breadworms.
4. Color development: When severums are raised to 6 cm, you need to start paying attention to color development. Do not wait until they are raised to over ten cm to develop color, or it will be a bit late. Severum color development both enhances red and enhances yellow. The main feeds for color development can be fish eggs (enhance yellow), river shrimp (enhance red and brighten color), and artificial color-enhancing feed (such as Baozeng Hong). Severums that are fed fish eggs for a long time have a yellower body color than ordinary severums, while river shrimp have a strong color-enhancing effect on the severum's red eye rings and red spotted patterns on the body.
5. Mixed keeping: Severums are gentle large fish. Be careful not to keep them mixed with some overly ferocious large fish (such as flowerhorns and red devils), otherwise the severum's fins will be repeatedly torn and cannot recover, greatly reducing their ornamental value.