wild rotkeil questions AND 180 stocking thoughts

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petspoiler

petspoiler

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2011
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rural Calif.
gonna try a varied community in my 180G. Contrasting sizes, down to good schoolers.
thinking of sevs for some of the larger fish. Love rotkeils with top notch colors. Also, wc's are available at larger sizes & I don't want a huge wait for all my fish to start showing their potential.
Are wc rotkeils very much more difficult to keep?
and, if already at 4-5 inches do wilds remain more spooky &/or stand-offish?
I want beauty and personality.
Tap is 7.8, too high for wc' rotkeil?

Fish I already have for this tank are 7x tapajos redheads (will move spawners at times), 2 heckelii, 1x 8"black ghost, some lemon tetras.

Would like to find Gold red spot sev,
a showy amount of small colorful schoolers,
contrasty angelfish,
maybe rams?
something for the top level, maybe fw archers microlepis / blythii ,
Leopard Ctenopoma interests me,
might even toss in some Xiphophorus helleri Lg wild type swordtails.

Does that sound nuts? I'd really like variety & contrast of both looks & behavior.
don't care much about biotape, as long as they're compatible.
 
I have a wild caught rotkeil from Wetspot Tropicals for 2 years now and my pH is 8. More skittish than my other fish but always out front for food and if I am still will come out readily. Just my experience. Mine is a beautiful male. Have fun.
 
Sounds great, as I love the look of small schoolers amongst big fish. My rotkeils were no different then any other severums i had kept.
 
Tahoe, what size was your rotkeil when you got it?
 
I had some nice Rotties a while back and loved them, They are not very diffacult to keep but dominant males can be agressive with lesser fish IME. I love lemon tetras too Right now I have a nice school of 25 Serpae Tetras that contrast well against my wc Peruvian Scalare. I have RH Taps in the tank too so it's a good combination. Sevs and Festavum is another option. Love Festavum!
 
Aquanero said:
I had some nice Rotties a while back and loved them, They are not very diffacult to keep but dominant males can be agressive with lesser fish IME. I love lemon tetras too Right now I have a nice school of 25 Serpae Tetras that contrast well against my wc Peruvian Scalare. I have RH Taps in the tank too so it's a good combination. Sevs and Festavum is another option. Love Festavum!
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more conspecific aggression, or might bully peace-nic Geos? love my cheery redheads.
I thought about festivum, but not sure about the pizazz factor. might depend on the variant?
 
When my dominat male was the top fish in the tank it was agressive towards both conspecifics and the other fish in the tank. Once it was no longer top fish in the tank the agression was only conspecific but to a lesser extent. IME and I'm not a severum expert the Rotkeil might be the most agressive of the severum. Maybe Ryansmith will jump in with some information.

Festavum aren't colorful but great fish as far as the whole SA Discus, Angelfish, Severum, Festavum, Uaru clad goes Festavum might be the least celabrated but one of my all time favorites.
 
yeah, there are too many to choose between! discus are too needy for me. I'd like uaru but they need to be in groups & take up a tank, true parrots are Awesome but need more space + limited tankmate choices & sometimes too aggressive for them. I originally leaned toward Lyonsi in this tank, but when it comes down to resources I'm going for the most variety I can combine now. Angelfish will add contrast, but I've never wanted them as stand alone fish.
 
I have my WC female in a tank with my big EBJD with no problems. I don't notice any difference between caring for tank raised and wild caught Rotkeils.( I have both)
 
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