Severum Care- Male or Female Helpful Advice

[Arollo]

Hello, I've used the forums many times, now I have decided to join because I do not see much on this topic. Anyways, 2 years ago I ordered four red shoulder severums. Out of the four, one passed away & another started beating up the other severums badly, had to move *him*, now I am left with 2 severums that are +4 inches in 75g tank. I would like help to determine if I have any female or males. Got them from Imperial Tropicals, so they are a hybrid between the true red shoulder (H. rotkiel) and green (H. efasciatus). I've went ahead and took clear pictures, including their vents. I have marked them as "1" and "2," hopefully that will be easy to follow. As a side note, "1" is a little bigger than "2" and has more color as you can see Also, "2" will get chased by "1" every blue moon and their stripes will darken, "2" is very peaceful.

Thank You for taking a look at my post, hope you can find this as educational as any of the other threads on here. -Arollo

 

[HoldenOn]

Very pretty, not a severum guy myself, however @Wills and @Metalhead88 can probably do the honors.

 

[Arollo]

Very pretty, not a severum guy myself, however @Wills and @Metalhead88 can probably do the honors.

Thank’s, Just want to let you know, I had Black Skirts in a 55g Once, they loved it when I gave them 2 or 3 cubes of bloodworms along with the loaches. Best part is, it never clouded the tank like brine shrimp. Cheers!

 

[Colin_T]

When the fish have their ovipositors (egg laying tube) out, see if there is a difference. Female cichlids have a shorter wider ovipositor and males have a longer thinner ovipositor.

Male cichlids usually grow bigger than females but it depends on how well fed the male is vs the female.

 

[itiwhetu]

fish 1 and 3 are males. 2 is a female. You can tell by looking at their dorsal fins. Females are shorter. and more rounded.

 

[Wills]

Yep I agree 1 is Male and 2 is female really stunning fish!

 

[Arollo]

When the fish have their ovipositors (egg laying tube) out, see if there is a difference. Female cichlids have a shorter wider ovipositor and males have a longer thinner ovipositor.

Male cichlids usually grow bigger than females but it depends on how well fed the male is vs the female.

@Colin_T: I do not think they are mature enough to show their ovipositors yet. Do you think it would be
more likely for a male to chase and nip at a female or another male that is all around peaceful? Not really good at wording this question, forgive me lol. This picture shows the damage on "2" fins from "3".

 

[Arollo]

fish 1 and 3 are males. 2 is a female. You can tell by looking at their dorsal fins. Females are shorter. and more rounded.

@itiwhetu: Thanks for your opinion, "2" is recovering from damaged dorsal fins (Picture in response above). They are the same age and "2" does appear to have a more rounded shape. Only thing that I can't understand is "2" has more red dots on the tip of his face compared to "1" and "3". I think it's because they are hybrids, not sure.

 

[Colin_T]

@Colin_T: I do not think they are mature enough to show their ovipositors yet. Do you think it would be
more likely for a male to chase and nip at a female or another male that is all around peaceful? Not really good at wording this question, forgive me lol. This picture shows the damage on "2" fins from "3".

Male fish usually chase and nip other smaller males.

With most South/ Central American cichlids the males have longer more pointed dorsal and anal fins but severums have always been harder to tell than most other cichlids because some females have long pointed fins too.

The best way to get a pair of cichlids from any species, is to buy a group of 8 or more young fish and grow them up together. When they pair off, you move the pr to another tank.

 

[Metalhead88]

Sorry, I'm late to the party.....

#1 is male. and #2 is female.

The vents on male are the same size, the vent on females are larger than the other hole.

Male severum also have much longer dorsal fins. I'm not such a fan of this method as there are a lot of other factors such as overall health and genetics that can factor in.

It's usually hard to tell from pictures, but I must admit, you took some really good pics.

 

[Arollo]

What @Colin_T says makes sense, "Male fish usually chase and nip other smaller males." I have had them for 2 years and no breeding behavior, "1" chases and nips "2" so I believe they are both male. A year ago I got 26 electric blue acara fry, and many pairs formed before I was able to sell all but 1 pair.

My point is, the behavior of my severums is nothing like the behavior of my breeding pair of electric blue acara.