Courtship or aggression?

[BSM_81]

I have never seen this before but both my severums were either touching mouths or trying to bite each others mouths. They are separated now and no damage to either fish. Not sure on the sex of either.

 

[Colin_T]

It's a precursor to pairing. Potential partners liplock and push each other around. If the fish are evenly matched, they will usually pair up and breed. If one fish is noticeably weaker, then the dominant fish will chase it away and look for another partner.

Put them back together and monitor them. As long as one doesn't start attacking the other, they are fine.

 

[Metalhead88]

Agreed. As long as they are evenly matched and no one is obviously losing the fight, there isn't anything to worry about.

It could also be a dominance thing. Cichlids usually establish a hierarchy and lip locking is one of the ways the hierarchy is determined.

Rarely does lip locking do any damage, unless you have one fish with much more jaw strength.... Like a jaguar vs Oscar. The jag would rip his jaw right off eventually.

After the duel, if one of the severum is constantly harassing the looser, you may have to step in.

 

[Retired Viking]

I had 8 cichlids and saw this several times and agree with the above comments. I did end up with a tank full of young cichlids (over 50)

 

[BSM_81]

Thanks for the replies. Other than shrimp and live bearers a few years ago, never had any breeding happen.
If this happens, would i need to scoop up the fry and grow them out or would they fend for themselves? Also what would the result be of a green and red spot severum breeding be? Brown severums?

 

[Metalhead88]

It all depends on what you'd like to do.

If you want to keep the fish, you'll have to remove them.

Idk what else is in the tank, but I'm assuming you have multiple other fish since I see a firemouth and another cichlid in the pictures. It's likely the fry won't make it unless the parents have the take to themselves.

The result is likely going to be whatever gene is dominant. I'm assuming all the fry would be green severum.

I had a pink convict female and a male black convict. 100% of all fry were black convict......im not sure if that would apply to severum, but Id say that logic works for them as well.

 

[Retired Viking]

My cichlids would protect their young and scoop them up in their mouths to protect them. The down side was I had to remove all the other fish from the tank except a pleco. It was fun to watch but they over ran my 55 gallon tank. I had all the same type of African Cichlids so the babies were the same as the parents.

 

[Retired Viking]

I also made the mistake of having fry grass all over my tank and way to many hiding spots, that's why I had a population explosion of fry.

 

[BSM_81]

It all depends on what you'd like to do.

If you want to keep the fish, you'll have to remove them.

Idk what else is in the tank, but I'm assuming you have multiple other fish since I see a firemouth and another cichlid in the pictures. It's likely the fry won't make it unless the parents have the take to themselves.

The result is likely going to be whatever gene is dominant. I'm assuming all the fry would be green severum.

I had a pink convict female and a male black convict. 100% of all fry were black convict......im not sure if that would apply to severum, but Id say that logic works for them as well.

i have2 birchirs, angel fish, 2 silver dollars and a niracagua cichlid. I dont think they would last. A floating fry hatchery perhaps?

 

[BSM_81]

My cichlids would protect their young and scoop them up in their mouths to protect them. The down side was I had to remove all the other fish from the tank except a pleco. It was fun to watch but they over ran my 55 gallon tank. I had all the same type of African Cichlids so the babies were the same as the parents.

would that depend on the type of fish? Whether they would keep the fry in the mouth

 

[Retired Viking]

Not an expert on cichlids so I would not know, I had the same type for years, they were rescues that my daughter brought home from college.