Vicious Severum

[metalcherry]

i have two red severum which have been together for a good year or two and they usually chase each other but never been bad together.

But today - right now - i have been watching for the past 10 mins as the two severum have latched onto each others lips and they are not letting go - they are actually playing tug of war but it doesnt look playful.
#
They have went from the top of my tank down to the bottom without letting og and they are still struggling at the bottom.
They wont let go even when i go near them, i believed they were maybe fighting over something but it is just them grabbing onto each others mouths.

they are still latched on and one is dragging the other about.
I have had to move the little one as it appears it was them who was biting the others face and dragging them about but i have never seen that sort of reaction before.

I have taken video and will post it up soon - please, ignore my shreaking lol

 

[mike os]

either thinking about breeding or 2 males

 

[minxfishy]

Hmmm yep sounds like breeding ritual, looks nasty, but usually a way of testing the others strength/suitablity for a partner. Or if its two males, they have decided they dont like each other and are squabbling over territory, hard to tell unless they lay eggs.

 

[ox5477]

Determining breeding Vs territorial liplocking (what this is called). As part of a breeding behovior, you will also see them swimming together and cleaning off any flat rock in your tank or cleaning out a pit in the substrate to contain their wigglers. If territorial, they exhibit none of the aforementioned behavior as well as they will do the liplocking continuously until one of the sevs backs down.... when it does, the dominant fish will continue to attack the other nipping at its fins and sides, trying to force it out of its territory.

If the Juwel Delta 150 is a 150ltr tank... not close to being big enough for two severums.... IMO atleast a 400-450ltr aquarium is needed to house two of them together for life.... this gives enough room to claim their own territory and with enough decor, so that they rarely have to run into eachother....

Even if they are breeding (which it could possibly be as well), this will not end well, as cichlids are extremely protective of their eggs and offspring and will damage or kill all other inhabitants of that small tank....

Best thing is to is rehome one, if not both, of the sevs to a much larger tank or see if the lfs will take them/look after them until you can procure a larger tank.

Sorry if this is not the news you wanted, but its the truth...

 

[metalcherry]

sorry, never realised i typed the tank in wrong - its a delta 300 now
They have plenty of space and plenty of places to hide and thy ahve never been that rough with each other - the worse they have ever done is chase each other however the smallest one which is the one which liplocked the other is normally seen with a couple of ragid fins but just a tiny bit, never anything to really worry about

I have put the smallest one in my quarentine tank for now and the largest is acting normally now.
just never seen them act that way before

 

[Tobigara]

if you can post decent pics of them we might be able to tell you their genders. at least we might be able to tell you if it's 2 males, 2 females or one of each