shy super red gold severum

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Hi. I recently rescued 4 sevs each about 5 inches big and put them in my 120 gallon with my adult koi angel, a school of rummynoses and some bns and a small rott sev which I purchased a week before the rescue.
I had heard they were shy but my tank had plenty of driftwood and some plants left from it being a discus tank previously. Boy was I suprised LOL.. Not only are they pigs when it comes to feeding, but in less than 2 days they ate the 30 rummynoses (before I could rescue them). They stalked them at night and during the day when my lights went out. They also beg for food like puppies at the front of the tank when I am in sight. They are very owner interactive and even nibble my fingers when doing water changes.:D:D
I recently also added 5 pearl gouramis to the mix and after the initial attempt to "taste" the new additions, everyone is getting along great.
So I think, as with all cichlids, alot depends upon the individual fish but also that the size of the tank and the fact that there was a school of 5 sevs as well as a very aggressively eating angel, maybe made a difference. Whatever the reason everyone is doing great. The rescued sevs fins are even starting to grow back a little bit.
Don't know what temp your tank is but I find that if I keep mine up a bit around 82/83, and the fish can handle the higher temps, they seem to do better and are more active and eat better etc. They also like hunting for food and blowing my pool filter sand substrate.
While I still miss my discus:(, the sevs are very entertaining fish. Good luck with yours. They grow pretty fast so if you can only find smaller golds and really want to add one to the tank, the size difference might not matter so much.. you won't know till you try and see the individual personalities.. also most lfs can order larger sevs when you are talking greens and golds. Just ask them. HTH Sue
 
I'd be VERY interested to see your "red line" severum.

If it is indeed, what i think it is, their incrediblly rare throughout the world.

In a tank that size, your going to struggle with tank mates for 3 sevs.

Try and keep all the posts in one by the way, makes it miles easier to keep track of whats going on... and stops you having to repeat yourself ;)

Some deep bodied tetras, some robust cats would be a nice addition.

Craggy
 
Not a red line Severum then ;)

wallago035.jpg

This is one of mine (deceased unfortunately)
 
Craig's got good advice. Although the only luck I had was bad when I had my male & female Severum together. She had to hide all the time or get beat up after the 1st 2 wks. My advice? Don't do anything to the tank for a full month except for water changes. You've got to be patient. You've changed the tank yet again and the fish just need time to get used to things. No new fish, no new anything for a full month. If you're able to do that the Sev will come around.
 
Got a pair, suffered an ammonia spike (i got lazy with a temp tank), they took a REAL kicking from my big pair of H.Efasciatus (those are H.Severus) and bit the big one.

I agree with Twisted though. Give it some time before adding more fish. Just keep up on tank husbandry and slowly add your new stock over the coming year.

Best of luck
Craggy
 
If all else fails, try a different approach -

Think about what the fish needs: 1. a sense of security and 2 a strong motive. All you need to do is to add a few fish that are 1. not shy and 2. beg for food at the first sight of you. Do frequent feeding with very small amount each time, so that if your sev doesn't come out, it doesn't get to eat.

It might take a few days but it worked extremely well for me - all my sevs rush to the front of the tank whenever I get close. The problem is that I have to sneak up to see what they are up to "naturally" :)
 
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