Finfern honest freshwater care

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Severum Vet-Prep Sheet

Fish vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it and keep it by the tank.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it's a vet trip yet? Run the symptom checker or the water-parameter interpreter first — many worries turn out to be a water or husbandry fix.

Finfern honest freshwater care · finfern.com
Severum — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find an aquatic / fish vet — before you need one

  • Search the WAVMA aquatic-vet finder (the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association) — or search "aquatic / fish / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you treat fish?" Few vets do — and ask the exam fee while you're on the phone.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of a crisis.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it by the tank.

My fish vet
My severum
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

Act promptly — starting with a water test — if you notice any of these:

  • Gasping at the surface, clamped fins or sudden listlessness: stop feeding, test the water for ammonia/nitrite (should be 0) and nitrate, and do a water change. In a big messy cichlid this is usually a water-quality problem first.
  • Rapid or laboured gill movement, or all the fish hanging near the filter outflow: check temperature and oxygenation, and confirm the tank is fully cycled.
  • White salt-grain spots (ich), fuzzy patches, or a fish rubbing/"flashing" against decor: early disease. Quarantine if you can, check temperature stability, and seek reputable treatment guidance rather than guessing.
  • Torn fins, missing scales or one fish constantly hiding in a corner: aggression, usually from overcrowding, too few hiding spots, a too-small tank, or a spawning pair. Add sightline breaks/space or rehome the odd-one-out.
  • Hole-in-the-head style pitting on the face, bloating, or a fish that stops eating for days: escalate. Review diet and water quality and consult a fish-savvy vet or an experienced fishkeeping community, this record triages, it does not diagnose.

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Test your water NOW — ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature — and correct the obvious (a big source of trouble is ammonia / nitrite).
  • Keep the fish in its own stable, dechlorinated tank water.
  • Move it to a hospital / quarantine tank if you already have one set up.
  • Keep the tank calm and dimly lit — stress makes almost everything worse.

⛔ Don’t

  • Don’t tip in OTC, aquarium-shop or forum “cures” blindly — many are harmful or just mask the real problem.
  • Don’t make a big sudden water change or swing the parameters.
  • Don’t add salt or medication without knowing the cause.

🎒 What to bring

  • A recent water-test result — ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature. Water quality is the root of most fish illness and the first thing a fish vet asks about.
  • Clear photos and a short video — it may not show the behaviour or symptom in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Only if the vet advises transporting the fish: the fish in a bag or tub of its OWN tank water.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
22.2-28.9 C (72-84 F); most keepers settle around 26-28 C (79-82 F).
pH
5.5-7.0 (soft and slightly acidic; this is a blackwater/whitewater Amazonian fish, NOT a hard-water Rift-lake cichlid)
Hardness
Soft: 1-8 dGH. Aim below about 5 dGH if you want them to spawn.
Minimum tank
Footprint first: SeriouslyFish sets the floor at a 120 x 45 cm base (48 x 18 in), about 243 L / 64 US gal, for one fish. In practice most keepers go bigger: roughly 284 L / 75 US gal (a 4-foot tank) for a single severum, 379 L / 100 US gal for a bonded pair, and 750 L / 200 US gal or more for a group of six. Bigger is genuinely better here, because floor space and broken sightlines are how you manage a deep-bodied territorial cichlid, not a number printed on a bag.
Filtration & flow
Strong biological filtration sized for a messy, large-bodied fish (over-filter rather than under-filter), but keep the current gentle to moderate. As a slow-water Amazonian, a severum dislikes being blasted, so aim for well-oxygenated water with turnover you can baffle down, not a river.
Diet
Omnivore that leans herbivorous. A good-quality cichlid pellet is the staple, plus regular vegetable matter (blanched courgette/zucchini, peas, spinach, spirulina) and occasional meaty treats (bloodworm, chopped prawn/earthworm). They will also eat plants and small tankmates given the chance.
Tankmates / temperament
Semi-aggressive but famously mild-mannered for its size, genuinely peaceful outside of spawning, when a bonded pair will fiercely defend a territory. Kept alone long-term, some individuals turn grumpy as they mature.

⚕️ Most fish illness starts with water quality, not infection — bring a recent water test; it's the first thing a good fish vet will ask about. Fish medicine is specialised and few vets treat fish, so call ahead. Many aquarium-shop and OTC 'cures' are harmful or simply mask the real problem, so tell the vet exactly what (if anything) you’ve already added, and treat a sick fish in a separate hospital tank rather than dosing the whole display.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you treat fish? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my water or setup be the cause?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?