Latest Additions - Baby Rotkeil Sevs

[Verminator89]

So over the last month i've been restocking my Rio 300. I was stuck as what to have as a centre piece fish. Well, after much deliberation Lesley (Star4) inadvertantly convinced me Rotkeil Severums where great. Thats a small lie, she knows i've been tempted to take some off her hands for quite some time now, and last night i took a drive up and came home with 3.


I must say the parents are utterly spectacular. They were in spawning colouration, but still majestic! Upon bringing home my 3 new additions, hopefully 2 female 1 male i've let them settle for 24 hours. They do however still seem quite washed out, but they are feeding well. So another few days i'll get some better pictures up. Untill then here are some pictures of my 3 new rotties


+ a few others of the rest of the tanks inhabitants. Tank is a Rio 300 Bowfront, currently filterted by an internal Fluval 3 (i think) plus an external Fluval 205 (untill ican upgrade to an FX5 in January (soon to upgrade this tan to 6x2x2).


First off two pictures with flash to show their colouration. You'll have to excuse the bittyness of the water as it was feeding time. Its the only time they all come out to play to get photos!

Then some without flash as they werent so keen on the light.

Group photo, and checking out their new best friend Baz the Bichir

Now for some quick photos of their inhabitants also


Baz the Armoured Bichir

Then we have my Pim Pictus Cats, absolute buggers to get a picture of!

Then to finish off we have 2 FTS for you to see the tank, and two randoms of my RTBS and a molly my potential father-in-law dropped in from his tank. To note the other inhabitants are 3 Boesemani Rainbows, 13 Tiger Barbs, and a golden nugget plec. All of which dislike being photo'd so no pics

Thank you Lesley for the wonderfull Rotties. I've fallen in love with them already, truely wonderfull fish. I can't wait for them to grow up and show mature colouration


Hope you like the pics!

James

 

[Westwood]

Great looking tank there Steve.

 

[ian]

who is Steve?

You've got some great wood in there! I can see it all planted now!

Great looking fish as well.

 

[Westwood]

Haha sorry about that, Steve is my brother, and I'm using my phone so I did't want to scroll all the way back to the top. Just me being lazy.
Thanks, much prefer your tank as its bigger

Sorry about that James

 

[star4]

They are looking really happy James, their colour should start coming back up in a couple of days once they are fully settled, they are probably a little spooked at seeing some different fish.

 

[Skeuer]

Lush tank, id like to have a rio 300 someday.

 

[star4]

Whats the gravel you have used? looks very nice.

 

[karin]

I'm getting ready to order one of these. I think the current size is around 2 inches. Can you give me any tips to sexing at that age to pass on to the supplier. Since I'm only getting one, I assume I want a male if possible.

Yours look fabulous.

karin

 

[star4]

They are very hard to sex, the females tend not to have any spots or only a very few spots on their gill plate, males tend to have lots of spots.

 

[Verminator89]

Great looking tank there Steve.

Lmao, that made my day. Thank you for the compliment anyway

who is Steve?

You've got some great wood in there! I can see it all planted now!

Great looking fish as well.

Yes, i would ideally love to plant it with tall vallisneria at the back, with sweeping waves of Anubias growing up and along the wood in all directions. However, with the tank being at my gf's not mine i'm not round there enough to keep ontop of live plants with this one. So i've ordered 13 plants from Hong Kong, which should arrive any day now

Whats the gravel you have used? looks very nice.

The gravel in this tank is Unipac Large Grain Sand (Silica Sand possibly?) I'm very pleased with it. Looks great as you can see and is also very easy to syphon during maintenance. I highly recommend it.

I'm getting ready to order one of these. I think the current size is around 2 inches. Can you give me any tips to sexing at that age to pass on to the supplier. Since I'm only getting one, I assume I want a male if possible.

Yours look fabulous.

karin

As Lesley mentioned, and also taught me. The supposed way of sexing them is the spots on the gill plate. Females having little to none, with males having more going farther up toward the underside of the eye.


Have you not concidered getting some of Star4's (Lesley) rotkeil sevs I've seen the parents in the flesh and they are magnificent. Colouration is simply awesome.

 

[star4]

James, I dont post to the states

 

[Verminator89]

Haha, i never checked that Everyones allowed a blonde moment, there goes my daily allowance

 

[AmazonFTW]

Wow, they look lovely - I can see them growing up to be big and colourful You guys are lucky being able to keep sevs. Out of interest are these the same http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/fish_detail.asp?id=5763&fishType=tropical ? and if so is the size of 5.5" correct as one of my LFS has these in stock and I could handle 1 more 5.5" fish Also is their temperament to smaller fish OK?

Thanks
AmazonFTW

 

[Verminator89]

This Severum i have is Heros sp "Rotkeil", slightly different to the one you sent in that link i think. I don't know anything about the size of the one you posted. I can tell you that between 6-8" is common for a rotkeil though.


Certainly the parents to the ones i got were certainly closer to 7-8" for sure.


From that link you sent there are some similar pictures coming up with that scientific name to those of the known "rotkeil", so could be another name for same fish, however not enough similar pictures come up on google image to make me believe this. I could be wrong though.


From what i've seen of mine so far (2" juvi's) and Lesleys adults they seem to be ok with smaller fish, just not extremes i guess. Quite a few other people on the forum have her baby Sevs also, with no noted problems. So i would assume they are ok

 

[star4]

The parents temprement is lovely, even when they have fry they are not overly aggressive, yes they chase the others away from the fry, but nothing really nasty, except to the common pleco who is really determined to eat the fry, I watched the mum grab him by the tail and drag him up the tank