# Severums, eartheaters and true parrots



## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

severums - the gold is about 7" and the rotkeil is about 5"

































































jurupari and brasiliensis - both about 4"

























h. psittacus growouts - they range from 1" to about 2". they've been in a 20g long for about 1.5months and next month they are going in a 55g


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Wow! Way too beautiful. Where did you find your parrots?

Totally jealous!  
-Ryan


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

a local guy was breeding his F0 and F1 pair and got some at a great price


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

wow, amazing. great pictures, fish and setups. thanks for sharing.


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

beautiful!!

How long did it take the sevs to grow to 5-7"?


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

i bought them about this time last year when they were 2". the female seems to have slowed down greatly in growth but they have been spawning since last january when they were about 3-4"


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

uuh, aren't they two different species??


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

peathenster said:


> uuh, aren't they two different species??


Depends on your definition of "species". :lol:

-Ryan


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

I guess the normal definition - they can breed and the F1s are fertile too.

And how do you manage to keep sevs in a planted tank......mine are gobbling down all the plants...


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

you can definetely tell the sword on the left in the first pic is starting to get nibbled on. my sev eats plants too, but im excited cause i have anubias that have been in for about 2 weeks and he doesnt touch it. im gonna stockpile, keep my fingers crossed and see what i can do with it. everything else... waste of money


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Yes, they are currently thought to be two differant species ... but the f1's being fertile isn't a big species determiner anymore. After all, cichlids in differant genus can produce viable young.


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

That's interesting - please keep up posted. I haven't tried anubias and the only plant they haven't eaten in my tank is water lettuce....but those are not "in" the water...


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

there is a big difference between being able to produce F1s (horse x donkey = mule), and the F1s being fertile (mules are sterile).


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Ayes, I meant those F1's being fertile ... like convict/sept crosses being fertile as an example, or texas/convict.


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

im not sure if the offspring are fertile, they all get eaten by tankmates. alot of cichlid genus cross breed all the time with fertile offspring. this is how speciation occurs.

they do nibble on the swords since i feed ever other day. they tore up my java moss that i had on the driftwood. *** hear they dont like java fern fyi.


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

peathenster said:


> there is a big difference between being able to produce F1s (horse x donkey = mule), and the F1s being fertile (mules are sterile).


So true... the "biological" definition of a species. There's also the "evolutionary" definition that would call the regional variations (like in different tributaries of the Amazon... or in our fish tanks) of a "species" as different species... which is where _Heros notatus_ likely comes from. It's officially a different species of severum based on the second definition. 

My understanding is that the gold severums are just the recessive form the regular old severum, so you'll wind up with the recessive gene getting mixed up with the dominant.

-Ryan


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

HiImSean said:


> a local guy was breeding his F0 and F1 pair and got some at a great price


So jealous. I've been reading up on parrots lately, and for some reason, I've decided that I must have a pair. I dunno why. :lol:

Your sevs are just plain beautiful as well. The red on the rotkeil is just soooo intense. The gold is your male?

How big is your tank? I just love that set up.

Thanks,
-Ryan


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

yeah I heard from a breeder that red sevs are hybrids of gold and some other sev species, but another breeder said they are just line bred in Singapore.... I haven't heard anybody successfully breed red sevs here yet....got me all worried.


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

the parrots that the guy had were beautiful. the wild caught one was from brazil. they were huge, about 14" and about 2yeas old

the rotkeil is a female and the gold is a male. all the fish are in 55g now. im picking up another 55g on sunday and i have a 125g that i will be setting up in december. i will be thinning down my stock of parrots to one. my 125g will have a parrot, argentea, brasiliensis, and my flagtail. keep the sevs in 1 55g, and bichirs and jurupari in the other


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

*** heard what ryan said is true about golds and reds, they are the recessive genes that produce the color morph.

its just like EBJDs are the same species as regular JDs. you breed a EBJDxJD and you get EBJD carriers in the JDs. then breed a JD carrier with an EBJD and you get EBJDs.


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## peathenster (Oct 7, 2008)

I fear that the recessive mutation in reds is linked to a sterility mutation, such that all reds are sterile...that would explain why they are so rare....you need to cross two heterozygotes (both appear gold) to get a quarter of the fry to be red.....which means we'll never be able to breed reds if we don't have the "original" heterozygotes.

The breeder told me about a guy with a pair of reds that spawned three times, but no fry...as much as I want to, I'm not going to get any more reds before I figure this out...


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## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

all i can say is good luck with them. what temp do you have your reds at and how big are they? mine first spawned with the temp at 82F and they were about 4" at most. *** read with severums it will take a few trys for them to "get it right." i guess i got lucky, i bought 1M and 1F and after 2.5months they had eggs.

the eggs have hatched everytime but like i said before, the tank mates eat them after about a week. i tried to pull them and grow them but they wouldnt eat what i dropped in the tank and died. i may try again when they're in their own tank


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