Hi guys,
I thought i'd get my O' a new tankmate, a severum of similar size to Dexter so he wont eat it.
I know NOTHING about severums and could easily be sold a tiger shark and if I was told it was a sev, i'd probably believe it.
Which is of course what happened to me today,I ended up with a black belt cichlid, not the best picture, but thats him [or her]
I was told they can have a nasty temper and are close in temperament to a red devil, but after about 10mins of chasing its ass all over the tank to show dexter is the boss, things have calmed down and everything is cool now.
Can anyone give me some info on these fish? can you tell what sex it is, are they really agro [comparable to a devil] and anything else of interest?
thanks for any help.

OK, here we go.
Before i start i must say that i've become pretty biast as to the combo of oscar and Vieja for things worked out wrong in my case.



I kinda got my Vieja (Synspillum) as a replacement for my green sunfish that died.
I got my Vieja at allmost 10", while my O was the same size.
I got a 180Gl tank, but the territory proved to be too small for 2 big cichlids.
My Vieja started to threaten my O all the time, charging at him and chasing my O through the tank.
My I stayed on one side of the tank and was cautious all the time.
After several months of thinking things were gonna turn out fine i was watching my fish at night, when the Vieja charged at my sleeping Oscar.
My O spooked and knocked himself out on the lid.
Floated around for some minutes, but regained conciousness.
Just after Xmas last year i wake up and go to check out my fish.
First thing i see is my O messed up pretty bad.
Several chunks of flesh missing from the top of my O's body, fins severed and bitten of to the base. Bad situation and i rehomed the Vieja one day later.

Your's is probably a female but could be a young male too.
The males will grow the typical lump on the head.
Mine had an incredible appetite and would eat half of any food that was thrown in the tank.
Everynight the Vieja would fight my Pleco over the zuchinni and allthough i didn't like that behaviour but the Vieja displayed his best colours when fighting!

Keep an eye out for aggression.
Like i said i had bad expieriences and that's why i don't advice the combo, but i know other members have had the combo, and things worked out fine.
Totally depends on the personality of the individual fish.

Noddy wrote:

Hi Noddy,
Thanks for the advice,
as I mentioned previously, as soon as I put the new fish in the tank, my O' bullied it mercillesly for about 10mins and then backed off.
they seem to have a respect for each other but after what you have said, I will definatly be keeping an eye on it.
My O' is about 11-12" and about 3 times as thick, the Vieja about 6-9", the vieja has shown no agro yet and prefers to hang with my SD's, it looks slightly differeant to your pic, yours is more colourfull where mine is more grey on the body, without the blue colouring, but i'm shure its the same fish, maybe a differance in sexing or age, either way I will definately watch it carefully,
thanks for the advice.

its not as colorful because its not wearing its dominant pants. i see that with my own fish. like my lil convicts are black and gray only when around fish bigger than them. you put them in another tank, with fish smaller than them, and their colors really pop out and you see blues greens and orange and red hues. kinda wierd huh? of course i could be completely wrong about my theory, ive never kept the fish you mention.

Win wrote:

You're totally right.
Like i said mine displayed the brightest colours when attacking my pleco.

And both fish are the same genus, just a different variety.
Vieja Back belt vs Vieja Synspillum

Noddy wrote:

Hi Noddy,
It seems my Vieja only had a black belt in being a pansy!
I came down this morning and found water all around my tank, even though it is virtually totally sealed with glass on the top, Dexter [my o'] still wasn't ready to accept him and was ramming at him with an open mouth.
So now my so-called black belt is on his way back to the LFS, since they said they'd take it back if it caused to much trouble for dexter
I shouldn't laugh, i'm just glad it wasn't the other way around like your case, and dexter didn't end up hurt!
He has a habit of changing his fin colour from jet black to light grey when he's pissed off, he was so agro with this vieja that his fins were nearly as clear as glass! the funny thing is, he gets on just fine with my 6 SD's.
I guess they'll be the only tankmates he ever gets.

maybe try and trade him for a severum....... many people keep them with O's and I haven't heard of bad stories (yet:). I have one and it's a lovely, peaceful fish that gets along great with the O's. they're from the same regions - so their water parameter requirements are compatible

check out the video that Goob just posted - two different severums (one yellow and one very young - the striped one)

www.oscarfishlover.com/oscar-fish-advice...up-and-fish-complete

here is a photo of mine - very young (a few months old) - they look basically the same as adults, but their coloring will change



search the recent forum activity - there are multiple posts about severums you may find useful in your research as well

good luck

MeghanR wrote:

Thanks Meghan,
In my case, it wasnt the vieja that was a problem, far from it, the fish was well mannered and didn't even try to start a fight.
From what I saw the Oscar was just making it clear that its his [and the SD's] tank and no other fish are welcome at all, unfortunately I get the feeling he'll beat up anyone I put in so it would just be unfair on other fish to even put them in.
thanks anyway.

w66 wrote:

lol,very true.
Better to have the rehome because the boss in your tank sais so, instead of the O getting beat up.
My O's health and happiness come first.
Let me tell you i was looking into severums before the Vieja, but they were not available.
On the other hand Oscars can make it pretty clear when they do not want anymore tankmates and you might be doing the right thing keeping your stoch as it is.
Mind you my O allready has a new huntingmate and they never ever hassled eachother.
So i'm not adding any other fish as they are all happy now.

Noddy wrote:

That gar is a real beauty, I wish we could get them here, but I think they'r illegal over here.
My LFS has a few pike about 12", I wouldn't mind one, but there all teeth .
and like I said, I get the feeling trespassers arent welcome in Dexters tank, although it'd probably be the pike that one the fight from the look of em'.

Hi, i have the same combo in my tank, but i had the black belt first then intrd 'o'.
At first bb was very bossy and was nipping at o. A quick feed with some live worms took his mind off the new tank mate. Both settled now.

In addition the bb coloration changed dramatically when o was inrod.
Black bands were appearing all over his/her body especially round the face and head, bitlike veins popping out of our foreheads when were angry i suppose.lol