Severum Food

[SpidersWeb]

Hey guys,

I know this could have probably been put in a better section, but I wanted a bit more traffic to help get some opinnions quickly.

I bought an adult green severum, he's about 20-25cm long and very wide. When we bought him he had 'hole in the head and lateral line disease' (HTH for short). The holes on the top of his head started to heal up, however now a large section above his left eye is becoming a problem.

So we're going to move him out of the oscar tank and give him his own 200L tank with better filtration, so water quality and stress - check and check, this only leaves food.

What do you guys feed your severums, or what do you recommend as a healthy diet? I feed my young golds flake, bloodworms etc and they're fine, but this big guy has been eating mostly brand-x cichlid pellets and the occasional bit of mince.

I've got a contact who I'll talk about vet prescribed meds with when I get around to it, but environment + food are my first ports of call.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, in paticular advice on food

Thanks in advance,

Jono

[Ira]

They'll eat practically anything. Some spinach would be a good idea too. All your standard live food.

[quack]

yeah i just feed mine pretty much everything. all types of flakes, pallets, frozzens, fresh veges, ox hart,

[sharn]

you dont mean live fish do ya guys?

if his HITH is healing i would hold off on the meds for now unless that bit above his eye continues to get worse (i obviously dont know how bad it is). as you know a good well rounded diet (human multivitamins in the food work wonders) and super clean water often clears up all but the most persistant HITH. it can be a very slow process though and may take months for the holes to fill in, if it was pretty bad you can expect some lasting scars.

you guys use the homemade recipies for your O dont you? perhaps mix up the sev his own batch full of goodies and vitamins and feed that along with the above foods mentioned?

[SpidersWeb]

Awesome

Exactly what I was after.

The vitamin tablet in the food idea is gold, I never thought of that. I've got some multi vitamins I dont take because the pills are the size of a small truck. I'll use those. Any vauge ideas on quantiy? or do I just chuck some in when I'm making the food?

And yeah we make our own food, have been slack lately as we had to throw our last batch out, important to note to RINSE the meats before mixing in, especially the chicken liver, the liver run off was seriously making the water go eww and the fish couldn't breath, had to throw it out. We've got a food processor and freezer space dedicated to it, so another small batch can't hurt

He settled in to his new tank alright, got up this morning and he was attacking the heater, then came up to say hello when I came over. He used to attack the heater in the other tank to, and never does it when I'm watching, so I'm worried I've accidently taught him to use it as a bell :oops:

[SpidersWeb]

Oh and yeah we know live fish is bad

... much to Helen's dismay lol

We were at Animates last weekend and she goes 'would Jimmy eat tadpoles?', lady serving us wasn't too impressed.

[sharn]

just checking mystic :lol:

im unsure exactly what type of vitamins to use, i have read of the womens (no mention of mens vitamins for some reason?) once a days being used on the discus forums. i beleive discusguru has experience with adding human vitamins- might be worth pming him? im not sure if certain minerals/vitamins will be harmful to fish in the quanitities the pills contain so its best to be safe than sorry.

i know what ya mean bout chicken livers- theyre really watery so they do mess up your recipie. i used them once and i wont use them again :lol:

[becc4]

Had a gold severum bout 9 years ago who had ugly HTH ulcer like thing. Treated it with liquid betadine. Took fish out of the water, dabbed the stuff on then back into the water. I didn't think it would do much because going back into the water wouldhave washed most of it off, but it cleaned it up and the fish lived on

[SpidersWeb]

Thanks sharn

becc4 - thanks for the info, if it gets worse I'll definately give that a go. Hopefully don't need to because applying meds to fish this size isn't really my forte, was hard enough moving him in to the other tank haha

[Scuba Sam]

Hi there, I feed my large golden Severum on "Cichlid Sticks" - which are JBL brand I think. He initally didn't eat much in the first few weeks, but a drop in pH, and getting used to a new Mum made the difference. I feed a variety of other things, but that is what he races for.

I understand that they are almost vegetarian, and their digestive tract doesn't cope that well with meat, especially red meat. Others on here will correct me if I am wrong. They are supposed to uproot plants in the aquarium, but mine leaves them alone.

Cheers,

Sam

[SpidersWeb]

Cheers We've been giving him these generic cichlid pellets, probably be a good idea if we go get some proper cichlid sticks, interesting question though, they're american BUT they're mostly vege so would an african cichlid pellet be best I wonder?

We're going to make up a vege mix for him. Sevs certainly love their greens. He hasn't eaten for a couple of days, new tank etc, he still loves attention and hates the heater.

First day in the new tank he was wacking it against the glass, now I've stuck it on with suction cups so he can' t do that. 30 minutes ago I snapped him picking gravel up, and spitting it at the heater!

Temp is on the high side, perhaps I should turn it down a little, maybe he's trying to tell me something.

These fish are such characters, cracks me up.

Need to find a big girl for him.