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I am hoping someone can give me some insight....
We have a 55 gallon, temp 78F, with a gold and a green severum, one blue pea**** (a little out of his element! LOL) and one pl*co. There is an emperor 400 and mag canister along with two bubble wands.
It was never our intention to breed the sevs, but they have taken it upon themselves to spawn and we now have a number of eggs on the clay pot, just under the 400 intake.:eek:
Since this was not planned (although I suspected we had a male and a female, never expected them to pair as I have heard this is difficult as they can be very temperamental about mates), I am uncertain what to do...
If someone can help, here are my concerns:

1> Some of the amber eggs are turning white and I can see some formation within, are they preparing to hatch or fungusing?

2> Turned off the bubblewand behind the clay pot, as I thought it was creating disturbance, but could they have placed the nest there for more aeration?

3> What about filtration? Should we turn it down or cover the intake with anything? If so, with what?

4> What about tankmates? They seem to be keeping them very much at bay and will let them no where near the pot. I have heard other aquarists spawn sevs in community tanks....

5> Fry food? We have 3 tanks of betta fry and they are currently on freshly hatched bbs and microworms, is this something sev fry can indulge in as well? I am sure they will be MUCH larger than betta fry.

It is interesting how protective and attentive they are, the mouths that used to feed from my hand, are now trying to eat my hand!

Any help appreciated!

conrats on the eggs, heres my 2cents on your ??
1. yes its normal to lose some eggs
2. they be letting the circulation for the bubbles fan the eggs, i would say if they picked that spot they had a reason
3. you might want to cover the intake with a piece of nylon stocking or something to keep the fry from getting sucked up(seen that happen with some of my fry)
4. the pleco might be a problem, he'll eat the eggs if he gets the chance
5. the same food should be fine, once they get a little bigger i useally switch them to crushed flake food
good luck!

Thank you very much for the reply!:)
Should I remove the fry when they are freeswimming? I have heard you can leave them with the parents and they will care for them for several weeks....would this be suggested considering the environment and tankmates? This is of course assuming they hatch.........
I am both excited and nervous about this unexpected spawning..............it really is amazing how they tend the "nest", taking turns and guarding, fascinating! Very unlike my bettas, where I remove the female after spawning and the male once they are freeswimming.

Originally posted by Kporter
Thank you very much for the reply!:)
Should I remove the fry when they are freeswimming? I have heard you can leave them with the parents and they will care for them for several weeks....would this be suggested considering the environment and tankmates? This is of course assuming they hatch.........

i've never had breeding severums (i do have a couple young ones now) but if they are like most cichlids they are good parents and will defend their young, if you like the way they take care of the eggs you will love the way they interact with the young, very enjoyable to watch, probably the most danger to the fry are the parents though sometimes new parents get alittle confused and eat their own, just have to watch and see