# rotkeil severum color?



## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

I ordered 4 and this one is the best looking. They are all around 2.5 inches and I was wondering when they usually start to color up. Is it possible this is something other than rotkeil?


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## neutrino (May 4, 2007)

From my experience you can't expect much red yet. Several years ago my original rotkeil was a very nice wild male that I bought something like 7 or 8 years ago. In certain moods he looks almost electric. Something like three years later I bought the complete spawn from someone as tiny fry and grew them out. Picked them up on site where I could see parents and fry together and the parents were nice. If I hadn't seen the parents myself, by the time mine were 2-3 inches I might have worried I didn't really have rotkeil, they still looked so much like regular green severums at that point, but shortly after that the red started coming in.

So I'd say it will probably be between 3-4 inches before you start seeing any rotkeil color starting up on them, depending on food, water, etc. At about a year old you see enough red to feel better about them, but at that point mine still didn't compare to my wild-- ultimately they did, though. By the time they're about two they'll look pretty good. Give them more or less another year after that to look like the photos that made you want them in the first place and you'll be glad that you got them. 

Similar with rotkeil growth ime, they take a little patience.


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## bluejack23 (Jan 23, 2012)

Thanks. I'm glad to get someone with first hand experience. I have 4 in a 75. I understand I won't be able to house four in this tank for life. I have another "male" that looks like the pic here and 2 "females"(no facial worming). Any suggestions on which I should try to keep? Or would a male/female combo be the only way to keep 2?


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## neutrino (May 4, 2007)

I've found you can keep a _group _of them in a tank but just two can be dicey, at least in a 75, unless they're a bonded pair. Thing about it is just putting a male and female together won't guarantee a pair. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, they may or may not like each other or even tolerate each other, which is why it's often recommended to grow out a group then let a pair form naturally.

Whether you can get away with just putting two in a tank and, even better, having them pair up, will just depend on the individual fish. I've actually done it and had it work before I knew as much about them, but I've also seen someone I know try several male/female combinations without getting any pairs-- all he got was fights. Thing is he kept putting pairs alone in their own tanks; if he would have put males and females together in a larger tank they would have more likely paired up on their own.

Since I grew out over 100 of them and progressively kept trading them as they grew, in order to keep manageable numbers for the available tank space (until I got down to the six I've got now), I've had them in various combinations in various tanks. Had two pairs in a 75, not ideal but not that bad, actually, though two pairs worked better for me in a 6 ft. tank. I've also had a small group of 2 year olds in a 75 for a while and that was ok, but keeping a group is more comfortable in a 6 ft. tank, where I've kept varying numbers of adults without much trouble.


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