mixing gold severum and rotkeil severum

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R

rnocera

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 1, 2008
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New Castle, Pennsylvania
www.herpfamily.com
I have about a 3" and a 4" gold severum in a 60 gallon with an 8" Florida gar, and some small bichirs (senegalus, 2 albino senegalus and 1 delhezi). By this fall I'd like to have them moved up to my 90 gallon, but we're not real sure when it will happen because we may be moving within the next few months.

We just got a beautiful Rotkeil severum in at work. This one is about 6-7" long- a good bit bigger than either of my gold severum, and large in comparison to the gar. It's not aggressive at all, and spends 90% of its time in the mixed cichlid tank at work hiding. It also has some nipped fins where other fish have been picking on it, so I'm guessing it's a docile animal.

Would it be OK to add it in to my 60 gallon, or does this sound like a bad idea? The price on this fish is great, and I REALLY don't want to pass up the opportunity to have it, but I'm worried about it picking on my other fish, even though severum are pretty peaceful. If not, I may be able to set up a 20 gallon for him until the other fish are larger. But that brings up the question- when they're larger, would I be able to mix the different types of severum? I'm kind of debating about what I'm going to do with my severums, but I think they're going to end up staying in the 90 gallon with a mix of larger cichlids (maybe a dempsey or green terror, if I could find one that wouldn't pick on them). Would it be OK to mix species of severum in a tank that size? I'm thinking a rotkeil or two and maybe a turquoise and a plain green severum. Any suggestions?


thanks!
Ronnie
 
You could set up the 20 gallon, then buy the fish and put it in the big tank, see what happens. If it goes bad put him in the 20 gallon.
Maybe you could make a deal with the LFS to hang on to the fish while you let the 20 gallon tank cycle.

EDIT: Well I can't read... I guess you work there so maybe you could keep it at work while the 20 gallon cycles lol.

I think you can keep the different severums together. From my understanding they're usually peaceful so I don't see the issue.
 
90 may be a bit too small for the stock you have in mind - two rotkeils, two golds, one green, one turquoise, one GT, one JD, the gar and the bichirs.

back to the question at hand - if the rotkeil doesn't get along with the two gold severums, who are you going to keep? ;)
 
Sorry, I wasn't real clear there- I'm not positive on what I'm doing for adding more fish, but the severum will not be staying with the gars permanently. The gars will eventually be going in a native species tank/indoor pond. The bichirs may or may not go with them- they may stay in with the severum. Depends on what else I end up putting in with the gars (actually focusing on natives, or who knows what).

The gars and bichirs will be moving up to a 90 gallon ASAP. The severums will be staying in the 60 gallon they're in now until they're much bigger. As a permanent stock for the 90, for right now my stocking list includes the severums, and that's about it. I have my two golds, and I'd like to add in a couple more severum. The question is how many could I add, and do the different types generally get along or fight?

And I said maybe a JD or a GT. And that I'm debating about what types of severum to go with. Not both and all of the severum.
 
Severums can have a whole range of personalities. I had always heard that they were super peaceful. My rottie was the same as the one you discribed....in a tank with other fish and hiding all the time. I added him to my tank and he became a holy terror. It took a while for me to get the tank stabilized and establish a good balance between tankmates. Now everything is great, but it took me a few months to get there. I would say go for it, just have a back up plan if it doesn't work out :)
 
If you keep multiple severums in the same tank, and they are the largest fish, you'll almost always have a dominant one that chases others around. Sometimes a subdominant will grow faster and becomes the dominant - it's quite fun to watch.

The key is not to let it focus on any single fish.
 
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