Heros efasciatus - Severum | Tropical Fish

Heros efasciatus - Severum

Magyarul / Hungarian

Scientific name: Heros efasciatus
Synonyms: Chromys appendiculata (Castelnau, 1855), Heros appendiculatus (Castelnau, 1855), Chromys fasciata (Castelnau, 1855), Uarus centrarchoides (Cope, 1872), Cichlasoma severum perpunctatum (Miranda Ribeiro, 1918)
Common name: Severum
Group: Cichlids
Distribution: South America; Peru and Brazil, in the Amazon River basin
Size: 25-30 cm
Biotope: Inhabits the slow flowing rivers and lakes and their floodplains. Usually found in calm waters with a lot of submerged tree roots and branches.
Social behavior: Méretéhez képest viszonylag békés, csak szaporodáskor válik területvédővé. Társas akváriumban nagyobb testű, békés dél-amerikai sügérek mellé is tehetjük.
Diet: It is a fairly peaceful cichlid, despite its size, only become territorial during spawning. It can be kept with other larger peaceful cichlids in a community tank.
Breeding: Quite easy
Tank: Minimum 250 litres
Population: 1 pair for 350 litres
Decoration: A biotope setup would be very simple to arrange: use river sand as substrate and place some roots and tree branches into the tank. Aquatic plants are not a feature of its natural waters, so it is not necessary. Filter their water through peat to imitate the black water conditions. Lighting shouldn't be too bright.
Temperature: 22-29 °C
pH: 5.5-7.0
Hardness: 1.0-8.0 dGH
Lifespan: 10-10 years

Description: Heros efasciatus has an oval, laterally compressed body with large red eyes and small mouth. The coloration of the male and the female are basically the same, but the female is usually paler and lacks the pattern on the head. The wild color form usually have a brownish-green body with 8 to 9 vertical, dark bars on it. These bars are more pronounced on the juveniles and generally fade as the the fish ages into maturity, only the last one is still really visible, it ties together a large black spot on the dorsal and anal fins. On their flanks each scale marked with a brown-red dot giving the fish a beautiful pattern. The head of the males has a pattern of red, brown and blue-green markings. The caudal fin is yellow-green to gray-green. There is also a captive bred Golden color morph, where the bands are very washed out and most fish lack them entirely, and the whole body and the eyes are yellow in color. In addition there is another color form, which was selectively bred from the golden morph to augment the red coloration present on the fish. This is the Red spotted severum, which has golden body coloration with red spotted pattern all over its body.

Males are larger than females, and have markings on their head and gill cover, and also have more pointed and extended anal and dorsal fins.

If we want to breed them, the best method is to buy a small group, and let them pair up. The female will lay the eggs on previously cleaned flat surfaces. Both parents take care of the eggs and the fry. The number of the eggs can vary between 200 and 800, and it highly depends on the size of the female. The eggs hatch in 3-5 days and the fry will be relocated by the parents to a more safe place in the aquarium, that is usually a pre-dug pit in the substrate or under a root. Usually the female takes care of the fry, while the male defends the territory. They can be fed with small live foods or powdered flake foods.

Sources:
https://www.fishbase.de/summary/Heros-efasciatus
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/heros-efasciatus
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile22.html
https://www.aquariumdomain.com/adSocial/index.php/red-spotted-severum