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Thread: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

  1. #1
    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    At the end of March 2015 I made my first import order with Oliver Lucanus in Canada. He posted some pictures of a severum on his Facebook that I decided I had to have.

    Severums are probably my favorite cichlid, maybe even edging out discus and angels for the top spot. They're colorful, fairly peaceful for their size, easy to raise and keep, and make all-around good additions to larger tanks. I've kept and bred every species, both described and undescribed, that I can get my hands on.

    A few years ago, two pictures appeared online of a fish that looked like a Photoshopped severum. It had the red neck and chest of a rotkeil severum, dramatic facial markings like a snakeskin discus, spotted gills and the yellow/green body of a notatus severum, and stress bars overlapped with a mottled iridescent pattern that I've only seen in mouthbrooding severums from the Orinoco basin. I was skeptical of the pictures when they surfaced because there was no source and no information. This was 3 or 4 years ago. Here is one of those pictures:



    Nothing ever came of it and people quit talking about it. Then in March, Oliver listed a new severum on his Facebook with the following picture:



    They were real!

    So after spending way too much money, and a 15 hour round trip to Miami International Airport, and a three-week battle with a nasty bacterial infection that included $160 worth of Furan-2, I think I can safely say they are here and doing well.


  2. #2
    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    This fish comes from somewhere in Venezuela, probably in the southwest near Colombia. This fish is most likely an open substrate spawner but they share rivers with a mouthbrooding severum known as Heros severus. If that name sounds familiar, it's because this was the "original" severum. Old literature refers to all severums under this name. It was decided later that the open substrate spawners common in the hobby were Heros efasciatus, the green severums. The mouthbrooding severum has been known as the true Heros severus for a long time. This is partly because they come from the location cited in the original description.

    That may now change again. These new fish I got may in fact be the "true" Heros severus. In addition to fitting the location in the description, they have one very distinct feature that sets them apart from the mouthbrooders and all the other severums: a half seventh bar. If you look through my videos, you'll see that they all have it. The seventh bar starts in the middle of the body and extends down into the anal fin. These are not misbarred fish -- they're all that way. This diagnostic feature is mentioned in the original description of the fish. So that means these are probably the first described severums, and yet they're only coming into the hobby now.

    There are two females in my group and the larger one has darkened up and gone into pre-spawning mode. She's showing the characteristic dark body and bright eyes which is typical of severums (and one of the characteristics they share with discus). The female is courting the largest male. They have been doing this for a couple weeks but I don't think they're settled enough to spawn yet. I thought about moving them to their own tank but the male is so large and boisterous that I really don't want to risk him in anything smaller than a 6' tank.


  3. #3
    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    For comparison, I did snap a couple of crappy cell phone pictures of my mouthbrooding severums from the Orinoco basin. These fish are found in the same waters as the new severum. Oliver basically confirmed this when he imported them and they were all mixed into the same order.





    You can see that these fish also have a spangled blue iridescence that overlaps the stress bars, giving the bars a mottled appearance. I've only ever seen this characteristic in the mouthbrooders and the new severums from Curare.

  4. #4
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    These guys are very pretty Ryan and definitely have some pairing happening with these two. Do you think it would help to turn the opening of the pot towards the back of the tank since they appear to favorite the back corner? Glad you were able to turn these guys around and make your first import experience a success.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


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    Registered Member John_Nicholson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Nice. I love the way they look. Great job.

    -john
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    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Quote Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat View Post
    These guys are very pretty Ryan and definitely have some pairing happening with these two. Do you think it would help to turn the opening of the pot towards the back of the tank since they appear to favorite the back corner? Glad you were able to turn these guys around and make your first import experience a success.
    Pat
    Severums usually don't spawn inside the pots. They tend to prefer a slightly vertical surface so I put the pots in there for them to spawn on the outside of. They dug a bunch of pits in the sand and cleaned the bare glass bottom, but then I found the female last night cleaning the overflow cover which is totally vertical. I have no idea what they'll do. I really want them to pick something removable so I can pull the eggs and hatch them.

    Quote Originally Posted by John_Nicholson View Post
    Nice. I love the way they look. Great job.

    -john
    Thanks, John. They're very showy. If they didn't get so belligerent during spawning they'd look nice with some discus.

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    Registered Member Discus-n00b's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Excellent Ryan! Those are beautiful fish
    -Matt


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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    They are nice! I hope you get some fry. I'm not to far away from palm coast so I would love some fry. What other Severums are you working with?

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Amazing Ryan! I love the darker face on some of them. You said this was a mating thing where their face gets darker?

    I'm so glad you were able to get your hands on these. I remember you mentioning them a while back. I won't ask the price tag, but I know they weren't cheap. Good luck with breeding bud.

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


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  10. #10
    Registered Member Crockett's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Very Nice Ryan, every time I look at and read up on some nice severums, I feel like I want to get some. These are the only other cichlids that get me going like Discus do.

  11. #11
    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Quote Originally Posted by Discus-n00b View Post
    Excellent Ryan! Those are beautiful fish
    Thanks Matt. I'm really enjoying them. I turn all the lights off in the fish room at night and sit about 10' away so I can watch them all interact. They're definitely more pushy than my other severums but I think it may be because the pair is trying to form. Lots of really vibrant red, blue, and green on display though. It's awesome.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrandyK View Post
    They are nice! I hope you get some fry. I'm not to far away from palm coast so I would love some fry. What other Severums are you working with?
    Right now I just have these and the mouthbrooding pair. I lost the female to my wild notatus pair, and culled the male a few months ago because he was getting old and starting to get thin and develop HITH. I do have an individual female rotkeil floating around that I wish I could find a male for because she has tons of very bright, cherry red. She's small but it'd be a shame not to spawn her.

    Quote Originally Posted by rickztahone View Post
    Amazing Ryan! I love the darker face on some of them. You said this was a mating thing where their face gets darker?

    I'm so glad you were able to get your hands on these. I remember you mentioning them a while back. I won't ask the price tag, but I know they weren't cheap. Good luck with breeding bud.
    Thanks Ricardo. Severums usually go dark when spawning or guarding fry, and their eyes turn bright orange/red/yellow. This is usually accompanied by a bright white chest. I knew they had gone into pre-spawning mode because the female was tan one day and then dark emerald green the next with bright eyes. She totally transformed overnight. I'll include a video of my old Heros notatus pair spawning so that you can see their brooding colors.

    The price actually wasn't bad -- they were $100 each if I remember correctly. It's pricy for a severum but not ridiculous compared to the prices we pay for discus. I was especially surprised when I opened the boxes because they were all around 6" (except for the smallest female) and the big male is at least an 8" fish. I had only set up a 55 for quarantine and I quickly had to re-think that. I was expecting 4 - 5" fish.

    Here are the notatus with fry.



    Quote Originally Posted by Crockett View Post
    Very Nice Ryan, every time I look at and read up on some nice severums, I feel like I want to get some. These are the only other cichlids that get me going like Discus do.
    As long as you have the space they're great. They're fairly undemanding and usually have a pretty laid back personality. As you can see in the video above, they make great parents. The mouthbrooders are fun too because it's neat to see them signal the fry all back into their mouths.


  12. #12
    Registered Member Ardan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Very cool Ryan!!

    Ardan

  13. #13
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Ryan, I noticed that the male(?)in that last video shows a broken 7th bar, but not the female. Could this be similar to the Curare's you just got?

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


    http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
    Want to look like Al did at his ACA talk with his white Simply Polo shirt?(You can catch Al's awesome Discus talk HERE)
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  14. #14
    Platinum Member Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    Quote Originally Posted by rickztahone View Post
    Ryan, I noticed that the male(?)in that last video shows a broken 7th bar, but not the female. Could this be similar to the Curare's you just got?
    She's just a mis-barred fish. You see it with discus a lot. Sometimes the bars fork or fuse. But as you can see from her mate, and from the two unrelated mouthbrooders that I posted pictures of earlier in the thread, they all have the normal 9 bars. So it's just a flaw on that one fish, not a characteristic of the whole species.

    I also learned something really odd about the mouthbrooders when I bred them. Here are some pictures of their F1. Notice anything odd?







    If you count the bars, almost all the fry had 11. Most severums have 9, except sp. Inirida and sp. rotkeil which have 8. When I first noticed it, I thought something had gone wrong. I wondered if maybe some mutation occurred that caused them to have more bars, sort of like 14 bar snakeskin discus. But then as they grew, the bars expanded and fused together, and 11 bars became 9. Really interesting and bizarre because I have not seen that on other cichlids I've bred.

  15. #15
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    Default Re: Heros sp. 'Curare' - potentially the real Heros severus

    "I do have an individual female rotkeil floating around that I wish I could find a male for because she has tons of very bright, cherry red. She's small but it'd be a shame not to spawn her"

    Would you like to sell her? Do you have any Severums for sale?

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