Are festivums easy to breed

[dwarfgourami7]

I would like to add 2 festivums to my tank and was wondering if they are easy to breed if i have 1Male and 1 Female. I would really like if if i could do that.

[liv2padl]

Breeding pairs are best developed through the raising of six or eight young together. Even at relatively young, small size Heros severus may be sexed by the absence of markings on the gill covers and smaller body size of females.

Pairs should be either housed with other Severums (in a large enough system for two or more territories), other cichlids of equal aggression and size, or at least some fast, aware ditherfish, to reduce intraspecific and pair aggression.

trying to 'force' pairs from adult fish is not easily done; best to raise a group together and let them sort each other out. Males of this species are decidedly larger with prominent nuchal humps.

Many commercial breeders utilize dividers that the pair can see each other, but not get to each other, to accommodate fertilization w/o risking loss of the adults from fighting.

For proper hatching and development, softer, more acidic and tropical water is required. Though the serially tank-bred specimens will tolerate pH's approaching 8.0 and 300 ppm of total hardness, and temperatures in the seventies F., conditions of pH in the 6's, up to 50 ppm total hardness maximum and the mid to upper 80's are best for breeding.

Heros are partial or delayed mouthbrooders. After hatching, the young are taken into the parents mouths. Periodically they are released to hunt for foodstuffs that can include freshly hatched brine shrimp, ground flake or pelleted foods. Most pairs of Severums prove to be good parents.