# Tankmate for severum



## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Tank is 75 gallons with 4-5 inch super red yellow severum of unknown sex, 2 S. eupterus, and 14 Bunos Aries tetras. My origional plan was to add an EBJD and some other cichlid such as a firemouth. Well I had 5 EBJD and over the past several months two have survived to 2 and 2.5 inches. They are growing so slow and I am not liking their behavior. They are super scared of everything. One has a bad eye at the moment and the other just got over two bad eyes after having the condition for months. I am almost sure they are injuring the eyes since nothing seems to heal the conditions. I am kind of loosing the grove with these guys and was thinking about ditching the initial plan and doing something different. I LOVE my severum but want to add something more to the tank. What should I add? I really like the looks of Aequidens' sp. "Goldsaum" and regular dempseys. I would like another largish fish and then a smaller one or two but do not want my severum to be injured by a fish too aggressive for it to handle. What should I do?


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

Severums are kind of like big cows. You have to be careful what you put in there.

Go to a sand bottom if you haven't already, keep your synos, keep your tetras, and get something mellow. You could go for a pair of angel fish and a group of bolivian rams, for example.

You'll possibly need to trim your group of sevs to a pair or trio but you can easily get away with a pair of adult sevs, a pair of adult angels, maybe seven bolivian rams, your synos, and the tetras. That's going to be a tank you'll want to over filter and do water changes on every 2 or 3 days though. Otherwise you'll want to trim the stocklist.


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Thanks for the reply. I was kind of thinking the severum was a bit to mellow for the JD or GT. I would love to put another severum in the tank but would be worried that at 4.5 inches, mine would not accept a conspecific. It would not be so bad if I could readily sex them, but it is so hard to tell male from female. My severum has the fins of a male, about an inch of anal fin past the tail but also does not have a full squiggle face- about 60% of the face is covered in squiggles. Looking at the genitalia, I would guess female, but again very hard to tell. I would not care about keeping fry but would enjoy watching mating behavior. Then again, two of the same sex that got along would be just fine. Another problem is that I will not be able to obtain another super red spot-mine was a very special order and I will not be able to do that again. I can get other variants though-green, red head, or red spot, just not gold. I can get a nice 5" wild red head severum locally and babies of the other two variants are readily available. Should I get one big one and just throw it in there? I want to end up keeping the one I have-very cool-comes to the surface and takes pellets from my hand.

I already have an angel tank, so I would most likely not be adding angels. It is proving very hard to plant this tank anyway. Between the severum and the synos, I can not keep anything alive in there! Rams are a good idea, and I even have a couple that I could start a colony with but what else? I like the looks of HRP's, rainbows, and macaw cichlids. I can also get some flag cichlids locally. Or of course I could go with the good old firemouth.


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

ladybugzcrunch said:


> Thanks for the reply. I was kind of thinking the severum was a bit to mellow for the JD or GT. I would love to put another severum in the tank but would be worried that at 4.5 inches, mine would not accept a conspecific. It would not be so bad if I could readily sex them, but it is so hard to tell male from female. My severum has the fins of a male, about an inch of anal fin past the tail but also does not have a full squiggle face- about 60% of the face is covered in squiggles. Looking at the genitalia, I would guess female, but again very hard to tell. I would not care about keeping fry but would enjoy watching mating behavior. Then again, two of the same sex that got along would be just fine. Another problem is that I will not be able to obtain another super red spot-mine was a very special order and I will not be able to do that again. I can get other variants though-green, red head, or red spot, just not gold. I can get a nice 5" wild red head severum locally and babies of the other two variants are readily available. Should I get one big one and just throw it in there? I want to end up keeping the one I have-very cool-comes to the surface and takes pellets from my hand.
> 
> I already have an angel tank, so I would most likely not be adding angels. It is proving very hard to plant this tank anyway. Between the severum and the synos, I can not keep anything alive in there! Rams are a good idea, and I even have a couple that I could start a colony with but what else? I like the looks of HRP's, rainbows, and macaw cichlids. I can also get some flag cichlids locally. Or of course I could go with the good old firemouth.


Why are you planting the tank then?

You keep wanting to put velociraptors with your cow. It's not gonna work. It's a big fish but it behaves like a cardinal tetra.

For absolute guaranteed safety, stay with mellower stuff. If your tank is big, you can perhaps do a group of geophagus tapajos with your lone severum, which looks fantastic, or you could do a group of bolivian rams. If I couldn't sex the fish I wouldn't risk adding more severums.


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## bostonjon (Sep 2, 2003)

had a oscar,severum and JD in tank that was stable for about 4 years....severum held his own no problem...they can be tough if need be...........90 gallon.......


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

aquariam - I am having a hard time interpreting your reply. I tried to plant the tank because I like the looks of live plants. I was going on your pair of severums suggestion in your first post but it sounds like it may be a risk if I get the incorrect sex, right? After searching online I found several mellow (or so the profiles say) cichlids that I liked including bolivians and geophagus tapajos. What about the T-bar cichlid? Is it mellow enough? Initially my plan was to have 3 cichlids all of different genus in this tank. Because rams are small, I could do a group instead of one only. If I could find those geos locally I would definitely pick them up! Maybe I will take a picture of my cow later and see what you guys think about the sex. Thanks for your help by the way


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Help me sex the severum please. I posted pics in the SA forum.


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