# red headed severum



## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)

I just got a new red headed severum!! He looks awesome. Will post pics of him when I get a chance


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

:thumb:


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## spxsk (Mar 29, 2006)

You are going to love this fish! I am looking forward to the pics!
opcorn:


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## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)




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## shef (Oct 3, 2004)

hmmm, beautiful fish but I don't think it is a red headed severum.


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## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)

uh oh. lol thats what lfs dealer said it was. lol i ordered from their list. What kind of sev then?


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Looks like it is a very nice gold "super red" severum. How big is he?


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## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)

he is still a juvie, maybe 2 inches or so


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

Very nice for two inches. :thumb:


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## spxsk (Mar 29, 2006)

A red head severum is what you see in my avatar. Yours is a super red and a good looking guy at that! Nice pick up!


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## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)

alright so the dealer had wrong name for the fish then. Oh well What can ya do. I still like the guy though. Think he is pretty cool lookin. Thanks for settin me straight people.. Is it possible for the super red severum and my green severum to breed together??


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Yes they can breed together. Some people will say it's not a good thing for the hobby though.


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## nhra_20 (Mar 22, 2010)

so that would make a hybrid then? Isn't a super red sev already a hybrid?? I am not trying to breed them or anything and would not sell any if they did though.


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

Are the super red severums a hybrid? That is the question. If it is, then my advice is to never buy one. But hey that's just me.

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about what a hybrid is. A hybrid, in fish terms, is a fish whose parents are two different species. Now the parents can be from the same genus or from diferent genuses. Everyone knows there are two main species of Angels within the genus Pterophyllum, P. scalare and P. altum. So if an Angel has a parent of each, it is then a hybrid, even though it still looks exactly like an angel.

However if a single species has a few different colour morphs with in it, and you cross two of them, this is not a hybrid. This is how some of the line bred variants of some fish are created. But it does raise another issue. Quite often colour morphs occur in different locations, and are called locational variants.

A couple of classic examples of species that have many locational variants are Geophagus altifrons or Apistogramma agassizii. Now some of these locational variants are recognised as the same species and you will the fish will have the location in it's name, e.g. G. altifrons (Rio Xingu) or G.altifrons (Rio Tapajos), or Apistogramma agassizii "Flamenco" (Rio Tigre) or A. agassizii (Rio Tefe). However, you will also find some fish labled as follows, Geophagus cf. altifrons "Aripuana I" which means it's a geophagus that looks very similar to Altifrons from the river Aripuana and _I_ signifies that it is the first of two similar looking variants found in the river system.

Now while crossing two locational variants isn't hybridising a fish, it does raise some ethical issues. It's quite easy for these crosses to make thier way into the aquarium trade and dilute genuine gene pools. Many serious hobbyists are reluctant to even mix fish from different import batches, even if they have the same river location as the collection point. There could be two hundred miles between actual collection points for fish labled as Apistogramma cf. agassizii ("TapajÃƒÂ³s"). And while as sub-adult fish they can look identical, once they are full grown, they can have subtle variations.


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## Chromedome52 (Jul 25, 2009)

The 'super red' is suspected of being a hybrid between the wild type _Heros severus _(it has a unique pattern of red spots on the flanks which appears to be a component of the 'super red') and the domestic 'gold' form, which is a mutation of either _H. efasciatus _or _H. notatus_. I don't see it as a big deal, it's like all the Discus variants that are crosses between _S. aequifasciata _and _S. discus_. There's a fairly good chance that some older lines of domestically bred 'Severums' are _efasciatus _x _notatus _hybrids, anyway.

They do seem to have a lot of fertility problems, but so do standard 'Gold Severum'. The amount of color on very small fish makes me suspicious, as young _Heros _are not normally very colorful; they may be getting fed hormones, which can also induce sterility while enhancing the color.

They do not suit my taste personally, but I can certainly see the appeal of a brightly colored juvenile 'Severum'.


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