# severum with colombian tetras?



## the village idiot (May 6, 2008)

I have a 55 gallon planted aquarium that I'm looking to restock. I currently have a school of 9 Colombian Tetras (Hyphessobrycon colombianus) and I would like to add a gold severum (heros severus), or possibly a pair. I understand that fish are all individuals, but am I likely to experience success with such a setup?


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## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

any severum will make short work of your 'planted' progress. two severum that are 'paired' will dominate your 55 totally, IMO.


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## the village idiot (May 6, 2008)

Thank you for the quick reply, lloyd. Any suggestions for larger tankmates for the colombian tetras? I'm a little tired of angelfish...looking for something a little more substantial.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

I keep Guianacara geayi in my planted tanks. They aren't super colorful but are kind of neat. I also have Geophagus altifrons in my tanks and they are really colorful. However their sand sifting is a problem with plants. I solved the problem by isolating my plants behind walls of driftwood and pebbles where the Geo's can't get to them. I also left a lot of room in the front for the Geo's to swim and sift.

Andy


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## DeadFishFloating (Oct 9, 2007)

G'day *the village idiot*,

Like your avatar. :thumb:

You could go for a dwarf cichlid community tank. I think a 55g would be suitable for 2 pairs of dwarf acaras and a trio of apistogramma or checkerboard cichlids.

You could also increase the size of your current tetra school, add a smaller second school of tetras, then throw in some 6+ corydoras and 6+ otocinclus catfish, fianlly add in a bn or small panaque pleco.


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## the village idiot (May 6, 2008)

Thank you all for the replies. I like the idea of the geophagus, but the tank has a planted "carpet", so I don't think anything that digs will work.

DeadFishFloating - Thanks for the compliment...I love your screen name. LOL I'm looking more for a large fish than for a bunch of smaller ones. I appreciate the dwarf acara suggestion, as it brought to mind the blue acara. I did a bit of research on this fish that had completely escaped my mind and it seems a suitable choice. From what I've read they tend, with some exceptions, ot be rather peaceful, the like live plants (big plus there) and get about 8", which I think would be a great size.

What does everyone think about a single blue acara? (I'm assuming a pair will usually be asking for trouble)


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

I kept severums with columbian tetras with no problems whatsoever - I did raise the tetras to beyond 'bitesize' before putting them in the tank...

I also had severums with java fern, anubias, and pennywort with great success... I think they munched some of the plants but I had so much javafern I never noticed and the penywort grew so bloody fast it wasn't an issue...

That being said your mileage may vary and I wouldn't really try keeping sevs with expensive, delicate, or hard to grow plants - I've just heard way too many accounts of the damage done by hungry or mating sevs!


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