Severum stocking

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james99

james99

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What would be considered a safe amount of severums for a 125? I know it will depend on fish's personality and if they try to breed, but let's say I work to get them all the same sex and everyone gets along. The rest of the stock will be 10 mascara barbs, and a vampire pleco, not sure what else. I'm really interested in rotkeil severums, since I just recently saw a picture of one, but the reds, greens, and golds are nice too.
 
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james99 said:
What would be considered a safe amount of severums for a 125? I know it will depend on fish's personality and if they try to breed, but let's say I work to get them all the same sex and everyone gets along. The rest of the stock will be 10 mascara barbs, and a vampire pleco, not sure what else. I'm really interested in rotkeil severums, since I just recently saw a picture of one, but the reds, greens, and golds are nice too.
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ryansmith83 ryansmith83
 
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james99 said:
What would be considered a safe amount of severums for a 125? I know it will depend on fish's personality and if they try to breed, but let's say I work to get them all the same sex and everyone gets along. The rest of the stock will be 10 mascara barbs, and a vampire pleco, not sure what else. I'm really interested in rotkeil severums, since I just recently saw a picture of one, but the reds, greens, and golds are nice too.
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If you can get all males, 6 - 8 would be a maximum number. You can always grow out more and then keep the nicest and thin the herd once they're reaching sexual maturity. Obviously if you throw females into the mix you'll end up with pairs and a single Heros pair will take over half of a 6' tank, pushing and crowding all the other fish into the other half. The spawning can happen every 7 - 14 days so basically there is chaos in the tank most of the time once a pair is established. There's rarely severe damage done but there will be plenty of split fins, missing scales, etc. I don't find all-male tanks to be too bad as long as there's no female to fight over.

I used to have about 10 - 12 in my 210 and it was a lot of upkeep because of the bioload. Here's an old video showing some of them.

 
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I kept 6-8 rotkeils in a 135. (same floor dimensions, little taller than a 125). This included a breeding pair. It made a nice tank. The pair would take over one end of the tank every so often with no particular drama-- I scaped the tank to make a partially secluded area at one end and the others knew enough to stay out of the way of the pair.

I say 6-8 because I started with 8, then after a while a second pair formed, which I moved to another tank, leaving the 6. Imo rotkeils are a better fit for such a tank than some other Heros types, most rotkeils I've had (and I've had quite a few) have been fairly mild. They also tend to stay smaller than some other Heros ime.
 
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Go to know I can have a few. I forgot to ask in the original post, but how would having a chocolate cichlid in the mix work with severums?
 
Forgot to mention an interesting point, the rotkeils in that tank sometimes displayed shoaling behavior when the pair wasn't spawning or preparing to spawn. More so as a group of 8 than 6 and not to the same degree as discus or a school of angelfish, but it was observable and apparent. A behavior indicating they enjoyed or (were comfortable) being in a group, though I wouldn't automatically extrapolate that to all Heros species or types or to a tank of mixed types.
 
james99 said:
If I did the chocolate, would 4 severums be a good number?
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You may want to start with 6 at least. They go through a rowdy phase when they’re young where there will be lots of nipping and picking. It’d be best to have more individuals to spread out the aggression. You can always downsize later.

If you can add them all at the same time that would be great. They’re less likely to go after each other if none have established territories yet. It puts everyone on equal footing.
 
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