The Saga Of The Gender Of My Severus

[Wills]

This is my Heros Severus

I got them from a local Severum "collector" who gave it to me as a spare female that was causing havoc in his male tank as she was a female with male markings so he put her in there thinking she was a male....

Skip on 6 months and I got an other female Heros Severus to go with the female that I had - no breeding, no problems right? Wrong! Came home one night a few weeks after adding the new female and I have eggs on the glass with the two of them protecting it..... Come home a few nights later and there has been an obvious fight between the two of the Severums The new female later died from injuries but the first one pulled through and is still with me today and is in the picture above.

So at this point I assume the Severum I was given as a she was a he and changed her name from Lilly to Riley and assumed it was a male and I was given the wrong fish all along.

Skip on nearly a year from those eggs and its last week. My "male" Heros Severus lays eggs by "himself" nothing came of them and the same has happened this week a big batch of eggs on the same rock.

So I guess I need to start calling "him" Lilly again haha!!

God why are fish so difficult
Wills

 

[demented pea]

OMG I thought sexing apistos was hard!

 

[CrazyAirborne]

wow! thats just bad luck! I guess you finally have old Lilly figured out now huh?

 

[england]

Hello mate, she is looking Hot...Two females can and do go through all the motions, right down to spawning, fighting is usual in cichlids, esp around breeding time, maybe its one of those chicks with s

All the same a hot little number

 

[coldcazzie]

So I guess I need to start calling "him" Lilly again haha!!

God why are fish so difficult
Wills

Maybe it's a shim?!

Ps, maybe you should pick a non-gender-specific name, like Alex, or Frances, or Sam?

 

[Monty-2010]

funny story

 

[Athena]

LOL - I had a similar thing happen...had a small female short-bodied pink convict that was paired up with a male, they spawned, had fry etc. Then the male began bullying her badly to spawn again and she didn't want to and in order for her to stay alive I had to rescue her and put her in a separate tank without any other convicts.

As the months went by, she began changing - she grew slightly bigger, developed a nuchal hump (yes!!)... and when I moved house I amalgamated both tanks during an upgrade in size, so "she" went back in with all her convict pals - "she" then paired up with a definite female...and they have spawned and had fry (several weeks old now)!!

I couldn't believe it had happened! She completely changed sex somehow.

Strange goings on eh?

 

[M Bourne]

Its quite difficult to identify the gender of Severum but genarally the males have pointed fins as compared to females just like yours has pointed fins. It is generally advised to keep a single male with many females to avoid conflicts. Thats what the experts have to say otherwise each Cichlid fish is a different personality of its own and very very difficult to predict.

 

[Wills]

Its quite difficult to identify the gender of Severum but genarally the males have pointed fins as compared to females just like yours has pointed fins. It is generally advised to keep a single male with many females to avoid conflicts. Thats what the experts have to say otherwise each Cichlid fish is a different personality of its own and very very difficult to predict.

Thanks but this is definatley a female as I have had 5 lots of eggs from her in the past month Pointed fins are a good indication in most cichlids but in Severums I find the facial markings to be more accurate - though that said this is a female and she has loads of facial markings but the eggs are a give away that its a girl

Also not all cichlids are best kept with multiple females. It depends on what kind of tank you want but often singletons are best but in the case of Severums they are quite a monogamous fish so if you have a tank with 1 male and 2 or 3 females all that will happen is one female will pair with the male and then that pair will then beat ten bells out of the remaining females (depending on tank size etc etc)

Wills

 

[acreteos]

thats awesome i've had other fish that kept doing this to me, sometimes you can be fooled for years, luckily not as tricky as african cichlids |Nice looking severum btw