How many Severums in a 350g aquarium?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Used to be a really good lfs in Shrewsbury, Mass, was late 80s, early 90s when I lived in the area. They had a 300 gal tank they'd do different displays with. One was a group of huge gold severums. Don't remember how many in the tank but they acted like well adjusted discus, peaceful, curious, follow you around the room, typical minor spats but nothing serious. Between the fish and aquascape it made a memorable tank.
do you remember the name of the lfs?
 
Used to be a really good lfs in Shrewsbury, Mass, was late 80s, early 90s when I lived in the area. They had a 300 gal tank they'd do different displays with. One was a group of huge gold severums. Don't remember how many in the tank but they acted like well adjusted discus, peaceful, curious, follow you around the room, typical minor spats but nothing serious. Between the fish and aquascape it made a memorable tank.
do you remember the name of the lfs?
 
*sigh* guess I'll just keep the angels eggs and keep selling the Severums ...
I wouldn't consider it an issue really that maybe sometime in the next few years some of the severums might pair up. It's an annoyance but that's about it. Mine aren't that aggressive about it either just chase the other fish away if they get too close. They gave up on trying to chase off the redspot and goldspot after a few weeks. Probably realized he doesn't react at all to them.
Wait don't these things love plants? Crypts won't stand a chance :(
If the plants are established and growing well and fairly solid they'll probably be ok. Mine shred anything new but tge plants that are established justvget occasionally nibbled or a leaf yanked off.
 
do you remember the name of the lfs?
Don't remember the name, long time ago. Think it was on Rt. 9, at least as I remember it. Tropic Isle in Framingham was another one, but this one in Shrewsbury was a little smaller and had some higher end fish, like some rare, expensive discus.
 
Never know for sure until you try. I have crypts living in a tank with hericthys and cryptoheros right now. I have kept severums with plants as well. I think it would be worth a shot if they wanted to.
One of my 125g tanks (mentioned above with 1 severum and 2 angelfish, 1 of those being the stunted one) is heavily planted and was just 2 eels (1x black spot; 1x peacock) and a featherfin cat until adding the cichlids. They destroyed my stem plants in a heart beat, but they barely acknowledge the crypts. Also have Anubius and trident fern, but again, they don't touch them. I think Severus just hates stem plants lol
 
I wouldn't consider it an issue really that maybe sometime in the next few years some of the severums might pair up. It's an annoyance but that's about it. Mine aren't that aggressive about it either just chase the other fish away if they get too close. They gave up on trying to chase off the redspot and goldspot after a few weeks. Probably realized he doesn't react at all to them.

If the plants are established and growing well and fairly solid they'll probably be ok. Mine shred anything new but tge plants that are established justvget occasionally nibbled or a leaf yanked off.
I plan on having the plants well established before any stocking, I want a nice colony of shrimp established (mostly for future food for the eel/BGK) and the eel and BGK will also be in there well before any top/middle dwellers. So hopefully that helps, I'm also over filtering the tank by almost 200% even counting the stocking. So my hope is that if I over feed a little, it'll keep their mouths off of my plants
 
As a secondary thought, I know angelfish are a little more gentle to plants and I DO also have a lot of them across various tanks, thoughts on how many angels I could possibly just consolidate to the 350 if I decide to go that route instead? Really I just want some larger top/mid dwellers that I don't have to pay for, and I have the main choice of severums and angels lmao (dark zebra; golden; koi; black varieties) also I've been trying to get out of breeding the angels or severums (both is too much right now) so whichever ends up in that tank is going to be the ones I stop breeding. They can breed all they like in the tank, but I just want to take down some of these extraneous breeding tanks... too much work at present...
 
The shrimps will 100% be eaten by severums, probably by angels as well. I agree that stem plants will probably be shredded. Anubias, java fern, and crypts are what I have luck with when dealing with big cichlids.
You could do a whole lot of angels in that tank.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Covetous
The shrimps will 100% be eaten by severums, probably by angels as well. I agree that stem plants will probably be shredded. Anubias, java fern, and crypts are what I have luck with when dealing with big cichlids.
You could do a whole lot of angels in that tank.
Yea the shrimps are really just there to help the plants get established and fully intended to be food once the main fish get big enough. I've got a couple 10g tanks for ghost shrimp colonies getting ready, going to probably have some cherries growing because they're more effective than ghosts at actually cleaning, they're just more expensive so I'll be slightly more sad when they get scarfed lol.
 
The shrimps will 100% be eaten by severums, probably by angels as well. I agree that stem plants will probably be shredded. Anubias, java fern, and crypts are what I have luck with when dealing with big cichlids.
You could do a whole lot of angels in that tank.
I think I've probably got about 40-50 angels of various color strains that I could put in there, way too many, plenty, or safely keep some more fry to up the number?
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com