Severums keepers?

[brewmaster15]

Anyone keep severums here.? I have a group of Rotkeils in a 75 gal tank I am growing out for breeding...

What do you have? and better yet...what fish do you keep with them.. I have a group of Rubber lip plecos and Oto cats in Qt I am thinking of adding... alittle worried that the OTOs will be lunch though!

-al

[Discus-n00b]

I've always loved the Rotkeils Al, unfortunently never had a chance to keep them though. None for me now, but i've kept general greens and golds in the past.

[Moon]

Al
I did have a group of 9 Rotkeils for about 2 years. Got them as 1" fry and grew to about 9". Quite peaceful for chiclids. I raised the fry in a 30g tank and moved them to a 125 when they were about 4". My well water is quite hard and they did well with some Geophagus Altifrons. Unfortunately all of them turned out to be males. I talked to the breeder and he mentioned that this might have to do with the ph of the breeding tank. His fish were bred in lake Ontario water. This water is also hard with a ph of 8.0
After keeping them for 2 years I sold all of them because I needed the tank space to breed the Geophagus.
As for feeding, they do require some veggies in their diet. So I made up a batch of paste food based on Lee Newman's recipie. It was shrimp and peas. They did well on that diet.
Good luck with your project.
Joe

[brewmaster15]

Thanks Guys,


These are my group of 7..They are F1 from wilds...Given to me by a good friend .They are still young though I have at least 2 females, as I have seen them lay eggs and theres a lot of sparring.. I really need to thin the herd for that size tank or move them up to a 125g....

They currently share the tank with a group of my home bred F1 Festivums.

-al

[brewmaster15]

a few more pics...

-al

[brewmaster15]

Afew shots of juvie f1 festivums....

-al

[manitu]

i like those mesonauta and the rotkeils

i had those but had to sell to go back to discus shame where really nice

theres a pic mine where nicer cloured than yours though :D

photobucketnot working will try later

[wreck]

hey al, i have 2 severums, not sure the technical name, they are yellow , and the one is starting to get nice red spots all over. my 2 severums are housed with 5 angels, some cory's , a few tetras , and a bristlenose.
severums are my wifes personal favorites.

what other cichilds could a person put with severums?

[Tito]

Very nice Severum Al! Severum are my favorite - I started out with them before I discovered Discus. They are quite peaceful for a large fish. I think the Ottos should be safe. Makes me wish I had another tank.

[brewmaster15]

ThanKs Guys!


what other cichilds could a person put with severums? Wreck, I've had these with festivums,port cichlids, and geos so far.

hey.. These don't a chance in this tank if they are fertile but look what I found this am...

-al

[Eddie]

ThanKs Guys!

Wreck, I've had these with festivums,port cichlids, and geos so far.

hey.. These don't a chance in this tank if they are fertile but look what I found this am...

-al


Awesome! Huge spawn too.

All the best with them Al!

Eddie

[wreck]

hahaha that is awesome al, keep me in mind if they pan out!!!! i wouldn't mind a few of them.

[markandhisdiscus]

i love severums it was with great reluctance that i sold my green sev and my red spotted sev to make way for my discus project . here they are .

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp336/markandhisfish/handsome.jpg

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp336/markandhisfish/grnsev1.jpg

[wreck]

wow those are very nice!!!!

[markandhisdiscus]

thanks . i sold them to a friend who also keeps cichlids so i can get to see them anytime i like . this way i get the best of both worlds :D

[brewmaster15]

Excellent Severums Mark! Very beautiful specimens! Sorry you had to sell them but glad you have visiting rights!:)

-al

[Eddie]

Excellent Severums Mark! Very beautiful specimens! Sorry you had to sell them but glad you have visiting rights!:)

-al


DITTO!! Some of the nicest I've seen! Thanks for posting pictures of them Mark.


Take care,

Eddie

[markandhisdiscus]

thanks eddie high praise indeed!! i raised them both from tiny little juveniles. the red spotted is now around 7" and the green smaller at around 4" but the green is younger .

[Ryan]

I'm working almost exclusively with severums now. I'm currently raising out several batches of F1 Heros notatus. I purchased the wild adults at the end of 2009 and they loved my tap water. If you've never seen notatus, I highly recommend Googling them. They're gorgeous fish. Here are some of the 11 week olds I'm about to sell:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_7c4f8a3d.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=7c4f8a3d.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_3a6c4727.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=3a6c4727.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_39f5717b.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=39f5717b.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_125f33dd.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=125f33dd.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_624633d8.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=624633d8.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_db61e7ca.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=db61e7ca.jpg)

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_dfd8d99c.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=dfd8d99c.jpg)

And here's a video of them devouring beefheart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXAam-hzGw

[saltydog]

I love the severums too. The red spotted severums are very nice but not easy to come by around here

[Ryan]

A couple more of mine. Had to dig through Photobucket. :D

Female Heros sp. 'Atabapo' (mouthbrooding severum)
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_d44a60ba.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=d44a60ba.jpg)

Male Heros efasciatus (this is a turquoise severum, which used to be classified in their own group as Heros appendiculatus, but are now lumped in with the greens)
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_3ee78690.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=3ee78690.jpg)

Male Heros efasciatus 'Super Red'
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_113d4a0f.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=113d4a0f.jpg)

Male Heros notatus (wild-caught dad of all the fry I posted earlier... I need to get better pictures of him now that he's conditioned and settled in)
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/th_ea341536.jpg (http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/ryansmith83/?action=view&current=ea341536.jpg)

I also have some young rotkeils growing out which are showing lots of red, but I need updated pictures of them.

Severums are becoming one of my favorite cichlids. Each fish has a unique personality, but most are very personable and outgoing. My super red loves to be petted.

[tcfish]

AHHH Severums, one of my first big chiclids I owned when I was a kid, had wild and then when the gold came out I had to have them ,owned them, bread them ,moved on to other fish like salt fish and full time discus.Have not had any in a while but I got back into them again, beautiful nice fish .
I lost two out of four do to a malfunctioning mag drive pump which I posted about in the product review section ,If you own a mag drive you should read it.
I house mine in a 140 with 6 large festivums and three pair of rowdy harmless rainbow chichlids the orange form, which I have about 500 2 to 3 inch babies .I really need to get them to the wholesaler.Would just like to say Severums are a really nice fish !!!

[Crockett]

al,

I am thinking about getting into Severums. I read your post and really liked the pictures of the ones you are growing out. Do you have any pictures of mature Rotkeils? I also wanted to know if Rotkeils are the Green strain of Severum with the most red coloration on them. My LFS store has offered to get them for me, however I am not sure which variety I need to request to ensure they have as much red on them as possible. The LFS called them a red shoulder Serverum, is this a different name for the Rotkeils. I like the super red strain also. The owner of the LFS is trying to convince me that the spotted green strain is by far the most attractive. Maybe you can direct me to a good website to help bring me up to speed. Thanks for posting the pictures al. I think that Serverums are perfect for my life style currently as we have a young family (a 1 year old and a 5 year old) and I am a CPA, so the demands of water changes and Discus care is too much currently. I plan to get back into Discus when our children are older, but for now I want to get some quality Severums.

al, I would also like your opinion on which Severum strains you think is the most attractive.

Thanks al

[brewmaster15]

al,

I am thinking about getting into Severums. I read your post and really liked the pictures of the ones you are growing out. Do you have any pictures of mature Rotkeils? I also wanted to know if Rotkeils are the Green strain of Severum with the most red coloration on them. My LFS store has offered to get them for me, however I am not sure which variety I need to request to ensure they have as much red on them as possible. The LFS called them a red shoulder Serverum, is this a different name for the Rotkeils. I like the super red strain also. The owner of the LFS is trying to convince me that the spotted green strain is by far the most attractive. Maybe you can direct me to a good website to help bring me up to speed. Thanks for posting the pictures al. I think that Serverums are perfect for my life style currently as we have a young family (a 1 year old and a 5 year old) and I am a CPA, so the demands of water changes and Discus care is too much currently. I plan to get back into Discus when our children are older, but for now I want to get some quality Severums.

al, I would also like your opinion on which Severum strains you think is the most attractive.

Thanks al

Well,
I am definetly not an expert on Sevs..The ones I got were supposed to be rotkeils...but I've been told by someone much more informed on them that they look like Turquoise ones...and I tend to agree... I still like them though..
My favorites from Pictures are rotkeil adults and I've seen some spotted severums that were just plain gorgeous to my eyes.

I need to split my group up..I have 3 pairs in there and they are laying like crazy and the aggression level is getting high.

-al

[Ryan]

Crockett,

"Red head" or "red shoulder" are common names for the rotkeil variety of severums. Some think they are a separate, undescribed species from the rest of the Heros family while others believe that they're merely a wild color morph of the green severums, Heros efasciatus. They are often listed as Heros efasciatus cf. "rotkeil".

Al's fish are not rotkeil. Sorry, Al. :( Rotkeils show bright reddish-orange anal and pelvic fins, even as youngsters. The confusing thing about Al's pictures is that they exhibit this trait but lack the red shoulders. This leads me to believe they're possibly hybrids. Greens, turquoise, and notatus usually have yellow or dark red fins.

To complicate matters, turquoise severums used to be listed separately as their own species, Heros appendiculatus. That classification was recently removed and the turquoise got lumped in with the greens as Heros efasciatus. Though they are clearly different in color, they're said to be the same species, just color variants.

There are several other types of severum, including true Heros severus which are mouthbrooders (the Heros sp. 'Atabapo' I posted above fall into this category somewhere) and Heros notatus, the black-spotted severums.

Golds came from selectively breeding greens and turquoise, so they're considered Heros efasciatus. Super reds came from golds.

The problem is that turquoise, green, gold, red, and notatus severums will all interbreed and produce fry, so the domestic tank-bred strains of severum are probably all mutts. Unless you get wild stock or you know the lineage of your tank-bred stock, there's no telling what it's really made up of!

Here's a brief video of some of my various severums in my 210 gallon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC6K2ZuU_kk - The black spotted fish you see at the beginning is my male notatus. He's really pretty in the right mood. You can also see my gold, super red, turquoise, and Atabapo in this shot. (You'll also see my young male parrot cichlid, Hoplarchus psittacus, who is a great shade of blue/turquoise. I love him.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpoujHJr2OY - Here's a young wild female notatus guarding fry. You can see how severums turn black during fry-rearing, similar to discus, with bright fins and white belly.

Sorry about all the crap floating in the water; I had just fed shrimp pellets and the fish make a real mess with them. :mad:

[nc0gnet0]

Aren't severums reportably one of the fish used to make Blood Parrots (without starting a mutation argument)? Also, do severum fry attach much like those of discus (excuse my ignorance).

[Ryan]

Severums are one of the fish used to make the parrot fish hybrids. There is speculation as to what the other species are, but it's fairly established that severums are one of them.

Severum fry don't attach to their parents. The only other cichlid that seems to exhibit this behavior are Uaru, which are similar in size and temperament to severums and do well as tankmates.

[nc0gnet0]

Why is the "other" fish such a mystery? I thought that the blood parrots were all sterile, and as a result, wouldn't the only way of keeping them in supply would be to keep crossing the two species to make more?

I have a pair of King Kong purple blood parrots. They are a rescue from a LFS in which the owner brought them in for store credit (they out grew there tank). The GF wanted them and it allowed me to get an additional tank for more Discus :D. And I had a 200 gallon that suited them just fine.

I'll admit I didn't know much about them when I got them, but, I must admit, there kinda neat fish.......very intelligent. I know alot of Purist think they are an aberration, and I am not looking to start that argument, but it has me interested in severums as well.

[Crockett]

Well,
I am definetly not an expert on Sevs..The ones I got were supposed to be rotkeils...but I've been told by someone much more informed on them that they look like Turquoise ones...and I tend to agree... I still like them though..
My favorites from Pictures are rotkeil adults and I've seen some spotted severums that were just plain gorgeous to my eyes.

I need to split my group up..I have 3 pairs in there and they are laying like crazy and the aggression level is getting high.

-alAl, the LFS store owner has also said the same thing about the spotted severums, I think I will try them and maybe a few rotkeil's if the they are available when I order. Thanks for your input.




Crockett,

"Red head" or "red shoulder" are common names for the rotkeil variety of severums. Some think they are a separate, undescribed species from the rest of the Heros family while others believe that they're merely a wild color morph of the green severums, Heros efasciatus. They are often listed as Heros efasciatus cf. "rotkeil".

Al's fish are not rotkeil. Sorry, Al. :( Rotkeils show bright reddish-orange anal and pelvic fins, even as youngsters. The confusing thing about Al's pictures is that they exhibit this trait but lack the red shoulders. This leads me to believe they're possibly hybrids. Greens, turquoise, and notatus usually have yellow or dark red fins.

To complicate matters, turquoise severums used to be listed separately as their own species, Heros appendiculatus. That classification was recently removed and the turquoise got lumped in with the greens as Heros efasciatus. Though they are clearly different in color, they're said to be the same species, just color variants.

There are several other types of severum, including true Heros severus which are mouthbrooders (the Heros sp. 'Atabapo' I posted above fall into this category somewhere) and Heros notatus, the black-spotted severums.

Golds came from selectively breeding greens and turquoise, so they're considered Heros efasciatus. Super reds came from golds.

The problem is that turquoise, green, gold, red, and notatus severums will all interbreed and produce fry, so the domestic tank-bred strains of severum are probably all mutts. Unless you get wild stock or you know the lineage of your tank-bred stock, there's no telling what it's really made up of!

Here's a brief video of some of my various severums in my 210 gallon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC6K2ZuU_kk - The black spotted fish you see at the beginning is my male notatus. He's really pretty in the right mood. You can also see my gold, super red, turquoise, and Atabapo in this shot. (You'll also see my young male parrot cichlid, Hoplarchus psittacus, who is a great shade of blue/turquoise. I love him.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpoujHJr2OY - Here's a young wild female notatus guarding fry. You can see how severums turn black during fry-rearing, similar to discus, with bright fins and white belly.

Sorry about all the crap floating in the water; I had just fed shrimp pellets and the fish make a real mess with them. :mad:
Ryan thanks for the great information, much appreciated. Now it’s clear to me why the Severum strains I have seen at the LFS never seem to be consistent in their appearance from one shipment to the next, even though the LFS say that they are the same strain as the previous shipment. I really wish I could get my hands on some quality wild stock. Also great video of the 210 gallon tank. Thanks for sharing.

Crockett

[Crockett]

These are what I am after, not sure if the pictures uploaded large enough, this is my first time posting a picture.

Crockett

[Ryan]

It's pretty tough to find rotkeils of that quality. Your best bet is to do what you'd do with discus -- buy a small group of 4 - 6 and raise them out, then keep the nicest looking ones. Rotkeils should start showing some faint red coloring on their sides around 2 - 3", so if your LFS sevs don't display it, they might not be rotkeil. My current rotkeils are about 4" and the males are very much showing the red. Females may show less.


Why is the "other" fish such a mystery? I thought that the blood parrots were all sterile, and as a result, wouldn't the only way of keeping them in supply would be to keep crossing the two species to make more?

It's been speculated that there are several possible species that you can cross to get something similar. Here's some info from Wikipedia:

The Blood parrot cichlid (also known as parrot cichlid and bloody parrot; no binomial nomenclature) is a hybrid cichlid. The fish was first created in Taiwan in around 1986.[dead link][1] Its parentage is unknown, but the most commonly speculated pairings are midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus) with the redhead cichlid (Cichlasoma synspilum), or the severum (Heros severus) with the red devil cichlid (Amphilophus labiatus).[2] Blood parrots should not be confused with other parrot cichlids or salt water Parrotfish (family: Scaridae).[3]

Because this hybrid cichlid has various anatomical deformities, controversy exists over the ethics of creating the blood parrot. One of the most obvious deformities is its mouth, which has only a narrow vertical opening. This makes blood parrots hard to feed and potentially vulnerable to starvation. Some cichlid enthusiasts have called for their removal from the market and organized boycotts against pet stores that sell them.[3]

Also, there have been reports of fertile blood parrot spawns. I'm not sure how the fry turned out or what they were, but apparently not all blood parrots are sterile. I think there was an article about it several years ago in one of the big fish magazines. It was also said years ago that gold severums (and more recently, red severums) were sterile, particularly males. That also isn't the case. A lot of people spawn gold and red severums.