Rotkeil Severums

[VickiandKev]

I am dreadful - nipped into Maidenhead the other day for some bits and bobs, and spotted they had a huge shipment of red spotted sevs and a few rotkeil sevs too (they called them red-necked or something). Now, I've never seen them in the flesh before and they are stunning - not even completely coloured up.

I am considering what can go into my 1200L tank (as am going to be upgrading tank this year from a 500L) ... I currently have 6 geophagus altifrons, 1 ruby shark, 1 flying fox, 1 synodontis eupterus, 19 clown loaches, 3 congo tetra (but will be a bigger shoal), 5 gouramis and a pair of swordtails. Would rotkeil sevs fit into this mix?

Also, what height tank would they require as adults?

I have found someone advertising 4cm rotkeils very locally and I would rather buy privately than from Maidenhead but I wanted to know whether they would be right for the setup first?

I'd have them in a separate grow-out tank until the upgrade, not in the 500L.

 

[hamfist]

IMO, any sevs should fit in fine with your current species, given that you will have plenty of extra room in the new tank.

 

[snowflake311]

They should be fine . Do you have plants? You have a lot of loachs .

 

[VickiandKev]

They should be fine . Do you have plants? You have a lot of loachs .

I only have amazon swords, anubias and java fern plus a few moss balls. I tend to go for plenty of bogwood and then just whatever plants survive best with least attention lol!

And yes, I do have a hell of a lot of clown loaches - I am clown loach mad!

 

[snowflake311]

Thoes plants might be ok with a severum. Mine will nip at the sword but not too bad. The moss ball might not make it with a severum around.

Your loach crazy now but if you get a severum you will be severum crazy. They are the best fish I have ever had.

 

[VickiandKev]

From browsing this forum, I can see how unique severums can be with proper attention. I bought 6 tiny geophagus a few months ago as my very first cichlids ever - and I do adore them. They're very funny and I love that they look at me!

I'm going to a local breeder of rotkeils tomorrow who has some 4cm babies for sale and I'm very excited. I'm going to see the parents and hopefully everything will be good and I'll be coming home with some new additions!

I will always have a thing for my clown loaches but I gotta say that my geos have really struck something up and I think I'm going to be in love with the sevs.

Problem is, I'll probably get a fair few babies rotties to try and get a pair or two but then I won't be able to sell or rehome any of the others. I know what I'm like!

 

[hamfist]

Thoes plants might be ok with a severum. Mine will nip at the sword but not too bad. The moss ball might not make it with a severum around.

Your loach crazy now but if you get a severum you will be severum crazy. They are the best fish I have ever had.

I don't have real plants, but my red-spotted gold sev tries quite hard to eat the plastic plants !!

 

[kaivalagi]

I don't have real plants, but my red-spotted gold sev tries quite hard to eat the plastic plants !!

I just got some silk plants for a geo/severum safe tank...I'm hoping to get some rotkeils off Star4 when they're a little bigger, awesome fish!

 

[VickiandKev]

I came back with 10 babies! They're all smaller than 4cm but I'm happy with them still. I probably won't be able to keep them all to adulthood even with a 1200L tank but for now I'm very happy with them. They are the cutest little punky fish ever!!

I'm chuffed to bits with them ... and to top it off I found some rather weirdly coloured ancistrus in with a load of standard bristlies yesterday too and bought them all up for £2.99 each. Still doing research but they look a lot like they may be melanistic bristlenose - which is very exciting!!