Severum Confusion

[Bonzo1]

We were lucky enough about a year ago to come across an exceptionally nice notatus which we jumped at the chance of buying. Unfortunately we lost it within a short space of time as the tank it was in had an airline for extra oxygen as well as the filter to accommadate about 300 young geos and our damned cat decided to pull the airline out in the middle of the night. We were devastated losing it along with half of the geos

As you can see the spotting on this fish is very red. Most notatus I've seen online seem to have black spots. I've seen photos of heros sp Inridae which have red spotting. I bout this fish as a wild caught green sev

 

[ryansmith83]

^ How big is the fish? It's interesting because my notatus have dark red spots on the face and cheeks but the actual body spots are black. They also have pretty full coverage whereas yours doesn't have much spotting in the back half of the body. My F1s that I spawned didn't spot up fully until maybe 4" or so.

I would swear based on its face that it's a notatus. In addition to the red spotting, it has the yellow cheeks and the black chin strap mark. But then everything behind the pectoral fins suggests otherwise.

 

[Bonzo1]

It was about 3-4 inches Ryan and as you can see a bit battered when we got it. It had just started to heal up nicely when it died. It was also very aggressive towards other sevs hence why it ended up in the growout tank

 

[ryansmith83]

Maybe his spots just hadn't filled in yet? Too bad you lost him; it would have been interesting to see how he turned out.

 

[Decker504]

Usually the fish commonly referred to as "turquoise severums" had the darker blues and purples, with maroon anal fins. I had a male who didn't look genuinely green either, but that's still what he'd be classified as.

Here he is in the background with my male notatus in the foreground.

In the flash he shows up green, but under natural lighting he was a dark indigo blue color with bright blue iridescence in the face/cheeks. You can also see dark maroon spots and lines on his face.

They were called turquoise when I got them. One of my turqoise and my notatus have been inseparable lately, they swim together and display. I will have to get a good pic of them together for comparison. Hoping to get more info on the sp. Inridae order tomorrow at or meeting.

From DJ/MC Decker

 

[Bonzo1]

The one we had only had 8 bars on it. Am I right in saying notatus have 9

 

[ryansmith83]

They were called turquoise when I got them. One of my turqoise and my notatus have been inseparable lately, they swim together and display. I will have to get a good pic of them together for comparison. Hoping to get more info on the sp. Inridae order tomorrow at or meeting.

From DJ/MC Decker

A lot of people still use the Heros appendiculatus label. Several of my local stores (both chains like Petsmart, and independent dealers specializing in cichlids) sell their severums as turquoise. I do believe they are different, but I don't know enough about species classifications to know whether or not they're different enough to warrant a whole separate species. *shrug*

Be warned -- efasciatus types will spawn with notatus types. My female notatus spawned with my turquoise male. I ended up separating them -- there's enough confusion out there as it is with severums, I didn't need to contribute to it by selling a bunch of hybrid fry.

I know Wet Spot was selling some F1 iniridae last year but the pictures looked just like notatus. So do the videos I've seen of them on YouTube. Here's a thread we had about it:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...sp-quot-Iniridae-quot-quot-Super-Severum-quot

The one we had only had 8 bars on it. Am I right in saying notatus have 9

You're right -- good catch. Now I need to back and see if I can find the Wet Spot pictures to count the bars on their iniridae.

 

[Decker504]

This is what they are calling sp INRIDAE, opinions?

From DJ/MC Decker

 

[ryansmith83]

Apparently the Heros sp. 'Iniridae' do have eight bars. After some research online, it looks like they're the only other eight-barred severum aside from rotkeils. Their coloration is very similar to notatus, except they seem to have more green-blue in the body than green-yellow like notatus.

Apparently some were exported out of Venezuela this year, mixed with H. severus. The Inirida is in Colombia but it's not too far from the Venezuelan border, so that makes sense.

Decker504, that is indeed one of the eight-barred fish labeled as H. sp. Iniridae. Notice that it has mostly notatus features in the front half of the body (yellow chin, maroon chest/belly, maroon and black spotting) but look different in the back half. They certainly don't have the large black spots throughout like notatus, and they seem to have more blue-green in them. Beautiful fish.

Bonzo, I guess that means you had Heros sp. Iniridae. Maybe you can find more.

 

[Bonzo1]

Its taken me 4 years to find notatus so my hopes of finding another Iniridae are slim. I was depressed enough thinking it was a notatus and died but now I'm devastated that it was something quite rare. Damn cat