Should my Rotkeil Severum be taking this long to show Red? He is probably a year and a half old and 4.5”. Not much red on him
---
---
Rotkeil Severum
- Thread starter MattyV55
- Start date
According to what I have read, it seems to be normal. However, it could also be the quality of the fish, really only time will tell. Not sure what the difference is, but my Rotkiel compared to my Gold and Turquoise varied DRASTICALLY on growth rate as well as coloration. I have had my Rotkiel for 6 months, got him at about 1.5" and he is only at about 2.5" to 3" now. Probably the slowest growing fish I have ever had.
I agree, mine is growing very slowly as well. He has gone from 2” to around 4” in a year. Every other Severum I’ve had has grown faster. But I look at others peoples Rotkeils and they have bright red on them at this size or smaller. I know it can depend on individual fish but it’s still crazy to me
The rotkeils I had grew from the size of a quarter to 6"+ within a year. Mine also showed the red at around the 3-4" mark though. It's all going to boil down to genetics for the red. Just being honest I don't see yours turning out with much red on the head. How many do you have together and do you know the sex? All mine were males so that could also have something to do with color and growth rate as well.
Don't know what you have there, but I've had a lot of them, and for me rotkeils typically reach 5-6 inches in a year, max out about 8-9 inches, getting close to max by year two. They can vary in how much red ime, but by 2-2.5 inches I would certainly see red in their pelvic and anal fins, and red starting to show up on their head/shoulder around 3-4 inches.
Water looks great, I assume your parameters are reasonable, only other thing is what are you feeding? Otherwise, it doesn't look much like a rotkeil to me for its age or size. Suppose it's possible it's an odd individual, which I didn't see with mine, but it can happen in some species. Also possible it's just faded for some reason. Otherwise, could be hybrid as already mentioned.
But the more I reflect on it, I keep coming back to either what are you feeding or what else is in the tank as possible reasons it could be faded out-- as worth considering before being dogmatic on what it is or isn't.
Water looks great, I assume your parameters are reasonable, only other thing is what are you feeding? Otherwise, it doesn't look much like a rotkeil to me for its age or size. Suppose it's possible it's an odd individual, which I didn't see with mine, but it can happen in some species. Also possible it's just faded for some reason. Otherwise, could be hybrid as already mentioned.
But the more I reflect on it, I keep coming back to either what are you feeding or what else is in the tank as possible reasons it could be faded out-- as worth considering before being dogmatic on what it is or isn't.
Last edited:
Mine show around 4”+
But they were grown out with regular
Efasciatus- and were clearly different species. With yours it looks like a faded notatus (spelling)
But they were grown out with regular
Efasciatus- and were clearly different species. With yours it looks like a faded notatus (spelling)
It’s not a notatus. The fish clearly has rotkeil blood — I can see the red shoulder and the eight bars are present. It’s either washed out, genetically inclined to have less red, or it’s a hybrid.
Right my point was that with the spotting and light colors it may be part notatus- not that it’s a purebred
