Severum

[Superspecs]

Hi Everyone,

Im new to tropical fish keeping but ive been doing a lot of reading up on this forum on tank cycling, fish types, stock quantities etc. I have come to the decision that I would really like to keep a few Red head (RotKeil?) Severums and would like to ask a few questions before i make my mind up completely.

First of all, is this variety widely available in the UK? Ive been doing a bit of window shopping at a couple of LFS's and they only seem to stock the golden variety which are'nt particularly to my tastes.

I wouldnt mind some smaller "dither" fish in there too, what would be suitable? I just love sidthmunki but they are very small.

I am aiming for a 4ft+ 200litre+ natural looking tank, possibly with some plants but I have read conflicting views concerning Severum and plant compatabilty. Anyone have personal experience either way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[minxfishy]

Welcome, for a single severum, you need a 75g tank IMO (and its the general consensus amongst severum keepers), so 4ft is ok, but it will depend on the width of the tank. 200Litres is definately not large enough im afraid.

Rotkeils arent the easiest severum to find and generally command a higher price tag than the usual green/gold varities. Same goes for the red spotted gold severums that I, mark(andhisfish) and a couple of other members here have - look thru the severum appreciation society pinned topic at the top of the NW cichlids forum for photos.

Dither fish would depend on the size of the tank again, in a larger 5ft/6ft you can go for some larger tetras, larger rainbowfish (which is what I have), barbs etc. If you want a planted tank, then you dont want severums, as they will rip up, eat and generally re-arrange the tank to their liking, but you can have fake plants, wood, rocks etc for scaping.

 

[Superspecs]

Thanks for the information so far, keep it coming!

Plants are not a must have for me, as long as the tank looks natural/interesting and as little like a glass box with a fish stuck in as possible. As far as I am concerned watching the fish interact with its environment is just as compelling as the fish itself.

Im going to try and have as bigger tank as my other half will let me get away with, which I am currently working on. She's got this strange idea in her head that hearing the running water is going to make her need the tiolet all the time (sigh)

What alternatives to severum would people suggest that are maybe smaller?

 

[minxfishy]

So long as the 4ft was 2ft wide x 2ft high, that would be good, that would be large enough, just not a 12"/14" wide tank which is more standard for 4ft tanks. Something like the juwel rio 300 is 75g Doesnt take up anymore space lengthways if thats the space you have available.

Cichlids for a standard 4ft approx 55g, are the smaller dwarf species, like german blue rams, bolivian rams, apistogramma, keyholes. Or the slightly larger cichlids - rainbow cichlids, blue acaras, thorichtys species - meeki (firemouth), ellioti, aureus. Nicaraguan cichlids, sajica, jade eyes, flag cichlids.

Avoid green terrors if you want anything else in the tank as they are very aggressive, same with texas cichlids and jaguar's. You could have a jack dempsey, but again pretty aggressive so you would need to watch tankmates.

Those are the more commonly kept SA/CA cichlids.

Then there are the geophagus species (eartheaters).

 

[Superspecs]

Some great fish there, I especially like the rainbow and flag cichlids. I will keep them in mind as alternatives. I tend to lean towards the bulkier fish like Jack Demsey's as I have this thing against transparency in fish.

Are JD's smaller than Sev's? I always thought they were larger?

 

[minxfishy]

JD's max out around 9", Severums around 8"/9", its more the 'width' of the fish, severums are particularly bulky/fat chaps.

Saying that, I have not seen a full grown JD, but I have a severum and boy do they need their space.