How personable are severums?

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My 2 are middle of the road. They're usually out and about then take cover when you approach but if you don't move too much or too suddenly they'll come to tge front and say hi. Not nearly as personable as my melanurus thats always front and center watching my go about life.
 
^ Severums who are comfortable shouldn't be lurking near the bottom or scared. Mine are always out, front and center, ready to greet me when I walk in a room. I haven't kept adult oscars so I don't know how "personable" they are, but severums are definitely sociable and friendly most of the time. I don't imagine they'll be doing tricks or anything, though.
+1. Never got into oscars, so I won't try to compare them, but most severums I've had have been fairly sociable, some individuals very much so. Rotkeils a little less sociable than greens and golds ime, but still not a fish that hides or hangs at the bottom or anything like that. Even the wild rotkeil I had for years was reasonably sociable. Severums are likely to work with a wider range of tankmates imo... plants and severums, maybe not so much.
 
My green sev always tried to steal my indo dats favourite plant pot hiding space, good effort from a 6" sev against a 9" dat, haha. And he was the only fish to survive when my heater malfunctiond and cooked everything else.


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My severum is the biggest in the tank.

He hides when i first go up to the tank but comes out for food. He does chase other fish but nothing to bad.

Not sure i would class him a wet pet those.
 
Severum are definitely cool fish and like stated before, their personality varies greatly from fish to fish. I've had/have 2 Sevs and 3 O's and I would not classify the Severum in the same category as my Oscars as far as wet pets.

Sure, they are more personable than say tetras or mollies but ime, they are not the wet pet, food begging drama queens that Oscars have proven themselves to be.

As stated before I have 2 Sev's, one Rotkiel and one Turquoise, the Rotkiel is a female and she stays in the shaded areas of my tank quite a bit, not skittish but not what I would call sociable. My turquoise male is a people watcher, he comes to the front and swims around quite a bit and even waits in the open to catch food at feeding time but I wouldn't call him a wet pet.

My 2 Oscars on the other hand are always in my face every time I walk up to the tank, wagging and dancing, begging for food and attention. They will happily snatch food from my hands and even splash me every once in a while; much more what I would consider a "wet-pet".
 
My 2 Oscars on the other hand are always in my face every time I walk up to the tank, wagging and dancing, begging for food and attention. They will happily snatch food from my hands and even splash me every once in a while; much more what I would consider a "wet-pet".
I've had severums like that, but not all of them. My wild rotkeil, while not the most pet-like of severums I've had, would definitely dance for food (as did my other rotkeils), not a wagging motion like a lot of other fish, but they'd snap their head back and forth at me. If you've had rotkeils you've probably seen it. But I've had severums that were always staring at you, even from another room, always at the end of the tank nearest where people were, etc. Not to say they're as pet-like as oscars.
 
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