Hi, some of you that have been on the forum will probably know about my Severum Lilly. Unfortunately over the past few days she has not been her self and then over the last few days she has deteriorated quite quickly. To the point where this morning she was on her side on the sand hardly breathing and her fins deteriorating. I noticed a few days ago that her back end seemed less active and her tail was held in a slightly low position, I tried to ignore it but as you may know this is often a tell tale sign of an elderly fish fading.
As for eventual cause of death, I am unsure if she was trying to lay eggs (she has laid eggs by her self every month, she started a few months after we got her) and became egg bound through complications from her age or if her loss of control of the back end made her breeding tube descend but I am reasonably confident that the death is age related.
As far as I know Lilly was 4 years old when I got her and her previous owner got her as a wild caught adult. He was a dedicated keeper with a fish house full of south american cichlids so I trust his word. And as I mentioned above we have had her just short of 5 years, so my best guess is that she is at least 10, maybe older as she was imported as an adult.
These are some pictures from a while ago, I didnt want to get any shots of her in the past few days.
She has been through a tank upgrade and a house move, when we moved we had walls knocked down to fit the tank in. She was the boss of the tank and full of personality with every Severum trait going.
Loosing her is such a massive blow to me and my partner, she was a real part of the family and will be sorely missed. She was like a dog to us, every morning when you turn the tank lights on you say morning to her first and at night we said night night and told her to be good.
Wills
As for eventual cause of death, I am unsure if she was trying to lay eggs (she has laid eggs by her self every month, she started a few months after we got her) and became egg bound through complications from her age or if her loss of control of the back end made her breeding tube descend but I am reasonably confident that the death is age related.
As far as I know Lilly was 4 years old when I got her and her previous owner got her as a wild caught adult. He was a dedicated keeper with a fish house full of south american cichlids so I trust his word. And as I mentioned above we have had her just short of 5 years, so my best guess is that she is at least 10, maybe older as she was imported as an adult.
These are some pictures from a while ago, I didnt want to get any shots of her in the past few days.
She has been through a tank upgrade and a house move, when we moved we had walls knocked down to fit the tank in. She was the boss of the tank and full of personality with every Severum trait going.
Loosing her is such a massive blow to me and my partner, she was a real part of the family and will be sorely missed. She was like a dog to us, every morning when you turn the tank lights on you say morning to her first and at night we said night night and told her to be good.
Wills
Oh Wills I am so sorry buddy 
So sorry for your loss Wills! She was gorgeous and very well taken care of, obviously.
