Severum keepers help

[Adoinc]

I have a 180 gallon set up and I added TSS and some bloodfin tetras and serpaes to cycle instead of fishless cycling because I wanted to see some action in the tank since I've waited so long. The problem is, I am not planning to keep these fish long term. I wanted to take them back to the store and get my other stock. I've tried catching them but 2 landed in the overflow box and 1 even in the sump. I have decided its virtually impossible for me to catch them without removing everything so I wanted to know if a severum would consider them as food if I get a small/medium sized one as it gets bigger.

The tank would also have a bgk and some angels. Would they be able to eat them? I don't want to keep any of the tetras long term and although I don't like to see them killed its better that way than having them harass my angels or tearing my whole tank apart.

 

[jeaninel]

Those tetras should be ok with severum and angels. Mine leave my Rummynose alone. But I'd be worried that the BGK might eat them once it gets big.

 

[o5b0rn3b]

He wants the fish to eat them because he can't catch them. I feel your pain, you might have to drain your tank to make things easier on yourself. My 2 7" Severums havent been able to catch any of the 20 barbs in their 75gal. So I'm gonna venture and say no a sev wouldnt help. Drain the tank down to a couple inches and get more than one net. Maybe more than one person too

Good luck

 

[fishfanatic80]

Serpae tetras should be fine with angels, I don't think you have to worry about them tearing up the fins of the angels. If the one fish is in the sump he'll never get back into the main tank on his own. The two in the overflow boxes probably can't get out either. Severums don't really eat tetras especially if well fed. Ive only seen a severum eat a danio before but they're smaller and slender than most tetras

 

[jonclark96]

I have a pair of heros liberifer that were very shy and spent most of the time I was near their tank hiding. I put in a large group of tetras as dithers to help them feel more comfortable. Within a matter of a month, the pair had eaten all 20 of them. If it doesn't happen right away, as the severums get bigger, eventually the tetras will be in trouble.

 

[ragin_cajun]

Turn out the lights, let the fish go to "sleep". Walk in in the middle of the night, turn lights on, and net the fish out. It takes em a little while to adjust to the lights being on and they don't move.

 

[neutrino]

What I do when I want to catch challenging fish is herd them to one end or into a corner with a tank divider, expandable window screen or anything along those lines that won't do anything harmful to the water. Of course draining to lower water level makes this method even easier, but not required. In any case, once you herd them into a small enough area it's much, much easier to net them.

 

[Adoinc]

alright, I'd rather net them than have them eaten anyways. I'll try draining the tank to like 20% and netting them out that way. I got the fish back into the tank btw, the 3rd fish landed in the sump and I netted him out finally and the others i netted earlier and put into the tank. ty for all the responses, I didn't think of the divider thing, but sadly I don't have one right now or that sounds like a good idea. These guys are insanely fast and cute