WHat dithers with Rotkeil pair in 70g?

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GS1981

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 26, 2012
466
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England
What dither fish can i keep a Rotkeil Severum pair in a 4ft 70g? also what plants can i have? (i'm guessing i won't get away with any other cichlids?)

Prefer to keep it amazonian.

Current stock is...

2 x Heros sp. Rotkeil
2 x Bristlenose plecs (m & f)

want to add 8-10 dithers, some kind of tetra

Also interested in...

Electric Blue Acara
Keyhole Cichlids
Festivum
Geophagus Red Head Tapajo
Other plecs
 
I'd get something high bodied and sturdy. I kept serpae and lemon tetras, and even those would sometimes slowly disappear.

Heros will usually eat most plants, or at least shred them. If you have plants you'll want something with thick, tough leaves.

If your fish are a pair I'd avoid other cichlids, mainly because your Heros pair will want to breed frequently and they'll just make life hell for other cichlid tankmates.
 
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I had some silver dollars with my severums. High bodied as mentioned above and they’re always active. I’d do something smaller for your tank though. Spotted or tiger variety. No-go with plants though. Maybe some hornwort.

Edit:
I’m now keeping geos and I like them a lot as a tank addition.
 
I'd love to keep some Tapajos but i can imagine that when my sevs breed they will beat them up pretty bad.

I think i might go with Colombian or Lemon tetras.

I had Silver Dollars in my old 90g bow front and they got huge, like dinner plate sized and i had to get rid of them and it was not easy to do so lol.

How about Java fern? will that be ok with them?
 
Yeah here in the farming area of England its pretty limited to red hooks or standards so i would rather go with something thats going to stay small and i can just sit back and enjoy without concerns of them developing into monsters :D

I may go with

2 x Rotkeil
2 x Bristlenose
10 x Lemon Tetras
Any other fish i can look at adding?
ie: any other small plecs that don't need major care or specialist diets other than the standard algae wafers and scraps or any other cool fish else cool from the amazon?

Java Fern/thin roots as decor, black diamond sand/black background
 
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rubbernose or clown plecos stay pretty small. I don’t know how common they are in your area. The plecos will munch on the plants if they’re not fed enough though. I had some bristlenose breed and the babies are starting to eat my anubias since they’re eating more than I’m providing.
 
I assume it's a 4ft. tank?

At one time I had breeding rotkeils and red head geos, had so many for a while that I had some in a 75 (breeding rotkeil pair with breeding red heads, congo tetras as dithers) Mine were fine, each seemed to understand to respect the other's space, especially with the occasional relatively mild reminder. I arranged tank décor so there were potential nest/spawning sites at the ends of the tank. Also had breeding rotkeils with guianacara. Another similar geo possibility would be parnaibae.

Can't guarantee how yours will act, but I had no problems. I agree on plants, rotkeils I had liked to variously, eat, tear, and uproot plants. Tough leaved plants weren't eaten, but they had to be anchored well if you didn't want to rearrange them every few days.
 
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...Ime rotkeils are generally pretty tolerant, peaceful to other fish in a 4ft tank or larger. Less than 4ft not so much. One of mine was a wild I got when they were still new to the hobby-- got her cheap because they thought it was a killer fish, killed anything they put with her... too small a tank, I took it home and it was immediately fine in my tanks.

Again, this is my experience. Btw, that rotkeil lived about 15 years.

One thing I've seen some rotkeils be unfriendly to is another fish with bold bars (no problem with angelfish, though), but that's another story. :)
 
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