How To Encourage Severum To Breed With Blood Parrot

[Jackiee]

I have a 5 inch female blood parrot that is a few years old
I've been watching her lately, and she's been shaking around doing a sort of shimmy dance.

She'll shake/vibrate for a second, swim around for a few more seconds, and then shake again. She doesn't do it constantly, but every now in then she'll have a couple episodes of it in a row,
unless it is night time, then she does it usually all night long.

I have her in the tank with a 7 inch male Turquoise Severum, but he doesn't seem to be displaying any interest in her.

I'm almost positive this is spawning behavior. I also know for sure that she is a female. She used to be paired with a male parrot fish and continously laid eggs with him.
And even after he passed away she still continued to lay unfertilized eggs, so I know it was her.

She's been doing this behavior for a few days now.
She used to just lay eggs with or without her male BP, in this bell/cave decoration that she always sat in.

but ever since we moved her to the larger 90 gallon tank, she hasn't laid any yet. (the same decoration is in the new tank now)

It could be because maybe she doesn't feel "comfortable" laying them? because sometimes her and my male Sev bicker about who's gonna stay in the Bell decoration.
But I would figure she would just lay them anyways and just keep him out like she had before to my male BP... hmm, not sure.

I seen her acting extremely strange last night, I was watching her from the reflection off the back of the tank,
she was flailing around the back side of a rock that I have in the tank, doing the shimmy dance, and turning sideways almost as if she was trying to aerate eggs or something,
so I got up and got a flashlight and looked around the back of the rock, but didnt see any signs of eggs.

Now, she's seeming very restless again tonight, almost as if she's trying to find a place to lay eggs, and is being very explorative of every little inch of the tank.
She keeps constantly swimming around, shimmying/shaking, and also keeps returning to the back side of that rock.

At times, when my sev sees her shaking, he chases after her, nips her.
not quite sure what that's all about?

He still is not displaying any signs of spawning with her.

Is there any way I could maybe encourage him to take notice in her to breed with her?
And if so, could they produce actual offspring that could thrive?

 

[hamfist]

Realistically, there's nothing you can really do to make the fish more attractive to your sev. I have not heard of a sev producing viable fry with a BP either.

 

[simonas]

why would you want to breed those two types of fish?

 

[kaivalagi]

Me thinks you should post this sort of thing in the hybrids section

For me this sounds like it will never ever happen, because south american cichlids don't normally do mixing at all and I think breeding blood parrots have an issue with infertility, and even if you could get it to happen the outcome would be hideous wouldn't it!

For me personally I don't like the hybrid side of tropical fish anyway, and I find the blood parrot not to my tastes....so I can't see why you would even want to entertain breeding with one...what's wrong with a lovely natural pair of same species fish doing what comes natural to them? Just my opinion, each to their own and all that

 

[GShorty1981]

Blood Parrots are a cross between a Vieja Syspilum and a Amphilophus Labiatus, neither can produce viable off spring with a Severum.

 

[always4lora]

why would you want to breed those two types of fish?

2nd this , strange mix, deffo not my cup of tea.

 

[Jackiee]

I, on the other hand, love my blood parrots, but I understand not everyone sees them that way,

and I had heard before that since the true cross that creates a blood parrot isn't exactly known but was told once that
one of the origins thought to create Blood Parrots is a cross between a severum x midas, or severum x red devil.
But I didn't know if this was true, or if anyone else had heard of this?

So I wasn't sure if they could even breed or if it was recommended, but clearly it's not..

And most of the time, the male BP's are the infertile ones, that's why female BP's have successfully mated with other fish before and produced viable offspring.

And yes I know, but the only reason I didn't post it in the hybrid section is because even though the BP is a hybrid, the Sev is not and I'm morely wanting an opinion on the Sev
in this situation, thats all

 

[Inchworm]

This is a topic for Hybrids. I'll move it there for you.

 

[Jackiee]

This is a topic for Hybrids. I'll move it there for you.

Thanks.

 

[matt_storey]

have you tried crushing a couple viagra pills in the tank??

 

[eel]

I, on the other hand, love my blood parrots, but I understand not everyone sees them that way,

and I had heard before that since the true cross that creates a blood parrot isn't exactly known but was told once that
one of the origins thought to create Blood Parrots is a cross between a severum x midas, or severum x red devil.
But I didn't know if this was true, or if anyone else had heard of this?

So I wasn't sure if they could even breed or if it was recommended, but clearly it's not..

And most of the time, the male BP's are the infertile ones, that's why female BP's have successfully mated with other fish before and produced viable offspring.

And yes I know, but the only reason I didn't post it in the hybrid section is because even though the BP is a hybrid, the Sev is not and I'm morely wanting an opinion on the Sev
in this situation, thats all

I have to agree with you Jakiee as my Parrot fish is one of my favorites.
I'm not sure if your Parrot would breed with your Severum but I know they have breed with Convicts which are know as Jellybean Parrots
I'll pm you a couple of links which has some info for you

 

[FishFreak95]

Blood parrots Are a hybrid of Synspilum and red devil or midas. Some in MFK bred a Syn with a RD and few of the fry had the parrot head and body. Didnt have the exact color we see today but they are selectively bred. Ca cichlids can only hybridize with Central american cichlids and festae. And female BPs are usually quite fertile and make good parents. 95% of male BPs are sterile but every once and a while you get lucky and get a fertile male.

 

[kizno1]

I really dont see the appeal of hybrids so dont know why you would want to cross them but i dont see why there isnt a chance of it happening. After all Star4 did have a severum and a convict breed and the eggs hatched even though most people think its 100% impossible for central and south american cichlids to cross.

 

[Alan GGG]

Hi all I'm new to this forum....I have successfully bred a Severum male with a Blood red Parrot