Red Shoulder Severum.

Anyone have experience with these? I'm mainly interested in how they are with plants. Will they eat Java fern and bolbitis?

Do they become pugnacious if kept as a single specimen?

 

@Broder, I have some in my tank , for about 5 months now

Its my first tank which I converted from plastic t live plants as my first attempt...

Used Anubias, java fern, bolbtis and amazon swords
Amazon swords.... is a no, no.... gave hem all to Cesar for stingray's tank

The rest have survived and growing nicely but.... I put a piece off cucumber, quash.. in the tank EVERY night
Both the Severums and loaches feast on it, clean to only skin left.
At the moment there are red shoulder, one green and one red spot

Cesar does same in his tank and they so leave his plants alone

 

few more

 

Thanks very much Maria. I only have gets, so think I will give it a try. Do you know if you have a female or male?

 

Haha... I wish I knew for sure...

They still fairly small... The LFS says I do but you know how accurate that could be..
They say you can tell by the squiggly lines on their heads.....?

Between this tank and the one with my other Oscars, I have few different severums and there I think I have a male and female of stunning blue/greens...
Guess only time will tell for sure...

 

Hmmm... I thought as much. Gonna be hard to identify a male at the pet shop. I wonder at what age they start looking like this..

 

these are in the other tank

 

judging from the ones that were very small when I got them I would say at a year?

 

Nice fish! Thanks for the pics. Of the last batch, it looks like the first 2 have some lines on their face, the last not so much. Really keen to get one now. Are yours quite peaceful?

 

Get one with lots of lines and one without so many lines... I have also read the same theory on other internet sites so maybe there is some truth to it...worth the try

With other fish they have been very peaceful and don't bother them at all.

Amongst themselves they have also been fine, they have their favourite spots amongst all the driftwood and sometimes they will chase another one that intrudes yet other fish are allowed to share their spot. but its not in a vicious way

 

You have put it perfectly... they like kids...
I find the youngsters are a bit timid still but the 2 greens and the reds are quite big already and they now come right up to my hand to feed
I have grown very fond of the severums

Do you have a big variety of them freely available in the UK?
Here we mostly find the red spot, yellow or gold and the green.

Red shoulders are not freely available, rotkiels have never seen them although I have ordered 4 which I was promised would arrive at end of the month... we will see...

 

Do they plough up the substrate?

 

+1 @Reedfish!!!! My severums also dont but Cesar's Geos... hahaha.. they move the earth!!!!

 

@Broder saw some today, pretty fish, although juvies, so not coloured up as yet, not cheap R200 a pop

 

Yup... I'm pretty much buying on the strength of pics I've seen on the www. Slide the saturation down a few notches, and it's still a pretty fish. The juvis look quite dull.

 

They are dull when small.
When I got my little ones they looked mostly grey and for a few weeks I really had doubts if I had been sold the right fish
After about 6 weeks the colours start showing
Also remember that Severums except for the reds and yellows, change colour if stressed or unhappy with something like water changes or you rearranging the tank
They go grey... once they happy again their colour comes back

 

Incidentally, up here they were labeled as "red neck deacons" same fish right? at least thats what they said.