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Greetings and a Query


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Hey guys. Severum Keeper here, named after the favorite fish I've kept. Unfortunately, I don't actually have my severum anymore - but more on that later.

I kept fish since I was a kid - first in a tiny bowl when I really didn't know any better, and later in a 10 gallon tank (that died when my dad scrubbed the tabk because he thought it was too dirty!) And then a 28 (which I still have as a quarantine tank) which originally was a community but became overrun with convict cichlids breeding after I got some bad advice at Petco....

Today, I have a 75 gallon South American community tank. I've got five angels, five* kinds of tetra (Red Serpae, Black Serpae, Lemon, Rummynose, and Neon), a handful of corydoras, and a rubbernose pleco.

One shows my tank as it was in January.

Unfortunately, in hindsight, you can also see what would kill my severum. On his side you can see the very beginning of a stubborn case of hole in head. Things got worse, and I first realized the scale of the problem right around the start of quarantine. I wasn't able to save him.20200130_162023.jpg.dcfb7c8a45cc99b3ed2048fb3d4cf553.jpg

 

The next image shows my tank as it is today. I'd lost my passion for the tank and gone into maintenance only mode at some point after my severum died - he was by far the coolest fish I'd ever kept, and survived a move (I actually didn't lose a single fish during a move or for a few months afterwards. I was incredibly proud of that!). I did water changes and fed the fish but I didn't maintain my plants or buy new fish at any point. My tetras were dwindling (the lemons hadn't lost a single one! But I had lost a number of the others, I hadn't been replacing fish since before the move as i anticipated it being a pain). But the aquarium hobby ALWAYS ropes me back in, and eventually I fixed up my tank, pruned the plants (leaving those alone for months was actually the best thing - they grew out of control and I was able to propagate them), and got everything up to shape.

The other image shows two of my angels squaring off. One downside to spreading out the plants is that while there are more of them they are lower down, and provide less of a mask, so I've been having more angel aggression lately. Nothing terrible, but they square off more than usual. 

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That was another benefit to the severum in that tank - whenever the angels got boisterous he'd go swim over and they'd break it up.

*the Neon tetras are so inappropriate in this tank that they must be explained.

As part of the move we also had to take down a tank my wife had in her classroom, a 10 gallon with a beta and some Neon tetras. The beta had died years ago and eventually one by one so did the Neons, but two survived alone in that tank, preventing us from tearing it down. But we really didn't want to move TWO tanks, and I'd recently planted the 75, so we said: maybe they'll have enough places to hide that they'll survive. And somehow, more than a year later, they're doing great! I'd even considered getting them some friends but I don't want to push my luck.

Now, to my request... I fixed up the tank a fee months ago. Since then I got a new batch of red and black tetras and a few more corydoras. I figured I'd get their schools up to par before introducing anything else.

 

But now I think it's time for a centerpiece fish once again. As my username suggests I'm very partial to severums. So I was leaning towards one of those, either another super red or a green natural morph this time.

But I'm wondering if there are any more wild ball options out there.

One idea would be to get geophagus. But I'm worried they'll destroy my plants once and for all.

I saw people recommending Threadfin Acara? I'm nervous about Acara in general because early in this tank's life I got a Blue Acara - supposedly a peaceful fish - and it BIT THE HEAD off an angelfish right in front of me. Back to the store it went.

Another idea would be to do rams. I'd kept 3 rams in the tank at One point but Ive never had great luck with them. However I understand they do well in big groups... I could get a bunch of rams instead of a big fish.

I'm taking a friend who doesn't know much about fish to some aquarium stores tomorrow and just might pick something up. Anything unique I can look for?

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So we must have gone to like 7 or 8 fish stores (I went with my friend to fish stores in his area as I'm trying to get him into the hobby). Real slim pickings at all of these stores. All except the last one, where I found a natural morph severum!

I got one of those, and some dwarf cichlids (keyholes and flag acara) and cories. There was a snowball pleco I just had to snag. And some nerite snails!

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11 hours ago, Colu said:

I would go with Bolivian rams they are great fish really colourful and one of the more peaceful dwarf cichlids

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Rams are cursed for me. They never color up and they die early. I've tried too many times... they'll die while everything else is doing great. I think they just hate me 😞 I went with some other dwarfs of similar size this time to shake things up.

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23 minutes ago, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Post pics! Post pics!

Pics incoming - but I have to make a quick disclaimer. I know the importance of quarantine and I do it whenever I can. Until today, I had the 28 gallon, which is where these fish were intended to go. However... I gave the 28 and all of its equipment to my friend who came with me. Since my only other tank is tiny, and I got fish who wouldn't get along in the 5.5 I had left... I had to add the fish to the main tank right away. 

If something bad happens I'll eat the expense of having to medicate the whole tank and consider it a cost of getting a new person hyped about the hobby.

So... pictures!

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Like I said, we went to 7 different stores looking for the relatively simple wishlist I had: a severum, some SA dwarf cichlids in the under-5-inches range, a large number of corydoras, ottos, and plecos.

Stocking was really thin due to COVID. But finally I found this last store, which had an amazing selection. The moment I saw those severum, I knew I wasn't just going with dwarfs. I knew I needed a new severum. But I didn't go with one of those.

 

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Packed up. I went with a natural color morph green severum, some keyhole cichlids (not pictured), some flag acara cichlids, and some corydoras (I already have about eight, but I want to see their fabled schooling behavior).

 

I also got some equipment, like an airstone (went with this wall of bubbles one, not sure how much I like it yet) and flipped the background on my tank from the blue open water side to the river roots side. I also picked up some plants - I'll have to look up what kind.

 

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Acclimating...

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While the fish were temperature animating, I made this little shelter out of some rocks I got at the store, and planted my new plants.

For some reason all the pictures from now on have their color balance thrown off - everything looks very green, and pretty blurry. I'll have to figure that out for future pics.

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Adding my new SEVERUM!

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There he is inside the tank. I purposefully picked the most active and large severum of his kind at the store, and he's already established himself against the top angelfish who rules the tank (the Koi) as someone not to be messed with. I'm hoping they'll establish their pecking order over the next few days.

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A horrible picture of the flag acara. At one point all three of them came out of the foliage right at the front of the tank but I didn't get a shot. I'll post more later (especially if I can get the color issue fixed) but for now I'm leaving the lights off to let the new fish establish themselves. My wife is getting back from a trip later tonight and will probably want to see the fish, so new pictures may not wait for tomorrow, though 😉

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One of the keyholes. I've seen them hang our together at times and nip territorially at others.

I'm very interested to see how the dwarf cichlids establish themselves. I kept rams here before, but never as many as I have now (four keyholes, three acaras). I decided to go with more of these smaller guys over something like a Geophgagus. Maybe they'll even start breeding? Probably unlikely in a big community like this!

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Ok, I couldn't help it, I turned the lights on for another peek.

 

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Flag Cichlid

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Severum chilling with the angelfish

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A couple of the new corydoras!

Of course there are also some new nerite snails. I'll take a picture of the snowball pleco as soon as I can, but I don't expect that to be very soon, LOL

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@SeverumKeeper Wow! What a tank, thanks for sharing! Keep posting! (no judgements here, I just added 8 new black neons to my tank that had 6 (lost one within a few days), but they came from the same store only days apart- no signs of illness on the one that passed- thought maybe it was stress due to low numbers and they were way more jumpy before I added to their numbers?- anyway so far so good with mine)

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I really, really did! Last time I got a severum I was looking for months. This time it was one day, but seven stores!

The other thing I did today, and this is part of a larger story that deserves its own thread really, is use up the rest of my fert tabs. I'd really like to boost growth on my plants to give the angels line of sight breaks in the upper water column. I think if I provide that I might get two couples laying eggs!

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So I decided to sit at the table across from my tank for my morning coffee today, and already the tank is much more interesting in behavior, which is exactly what I was hoping for. 

Between moving and COVID it has been over a year since I've gotten new fish, until a few weeks ago when I got some serpea tetras, rummynose tetras, and corydoras.

All these fish were part of the initial stocking I had but over the years their numbers dwindled. I hadn't bought any tetras in probably 3 years, maybe 4? So my first buy was to get those numbers back up.

All the serpeas made it through quarantine but sadly all the runnynose and some of the corydoras didn't. I suspect despite me getting very small serpeas that they were bullying the rummynose too much in quarantine even though I gave them some plastic plants.

With these fish, the tank was fairly active. The angels would swim at the top half of the tank, above the foliage (that's why I got these new taller plants - I hope they'll get nice and thick, and and angels will swim within those). The tetras swam right at the middle of the tank, schooling up and down between the plants. (I now have schools of red and black serpea tetras as well as lemons, plus a couple runmynose and Neon survivors. They actually all shoal together now, which I didn't expect, but us nice for for rummynose especially). And the corydoras would like in and out of the plants occasionally. 

But there wasn't much interaction between them. And the angelfish had formed two pairs - the dominant koi and blue, the black and yellow, and the orange on his own. For the most part the Koi was the jerk of the tank, bullying everyone on the right half of the tank.

 

These new fish are shaking all that up. The dwarf cichlids hide in the foliage whenever I'm near the tank, but when I sit far away, they come to the front of the tank. I saw three of the keyholes and three of the acaras at the front all at once! And some wavy fins in the back that didn't look like any corydoras that I'd ever seen, so I assume was the last keyhole.

 

No schools of corydoras out and about yet, but that's OK. I've got quite a few of the Sterbai in there now - a handful of full grown ones and I think 13 little guys - so I'm hoping they'll start doing their interesting group behaviors soon.

 

The angels meanwhile are so shaken up by the severum that the couples broke up. Right now the koi is strutting around, fins fully extended, but she's out of her original territory, basically running off to wherever the severum isn't. The other angels stick by him, all shoaling together.

 

In the past events like this have broken up angel couples and got new ones formed. I wonder if that will happen here. I kinda hope so - this koi has been the top angel for a long time now, and she's much more vicious at it than other alphas have been in the past, claiming a larger territory and more aggressively pecking at other fish. I wouldn't mind seeing her fall from the top spot.

 

Speaking of pecking, she's been ensuring ensuring dwarf cichlids stick to the bottom - even at the top of the foliage level the koi angelfish will leave them alone, but if they come up higher she'll chase them back down..

 

she's mostly given up on going after after severum. When he comes near she'll dart at him, but he turns his side instead of running away and she turns around and runs off.

The only thing that worries me so far is that one for the keyholes has a somewhat cloudy eye. I didn't get to see all of the fish closely as I put them in, so I'm not sure if he got it in the bag or overnight. It doesn't cover his whole eye so I'm hopefully not too worried, but will monitor.

I'm loving the flag acara cichlids. I don't gave any good shots yet because they get so shy unless I'm across the room, but their colors are very subtle, very understated, but beautiful.

 

The keyholes are a lot plainer, but I never got much color out of rams, so I'm not too upset about that.

 

Sorry about the wall of text - what you're all here for is a picture, right?

Lots of the dwarf cichlids out in this pic:

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1 minute ago, CalmedByFish said:

When a tank even looks good upside-down, you know you're doing something right! 😂

Bah, for whatever reason it looks like when I used pictures to this forum it doesn't like it if I used my left hand to snap the photo, LOL. My last post has one of each - I purposefully tried both to get to the bottom of this, LOL 

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Personally, I'm not one of those internet people who can't read beyond a sentence I suspect there's lots of others here like that too. I can tell that you've fallen back in love with your tank, and I think that's really cool.  That''s due in part to the many fish you got- but I also liken it to the return of your personal Monarch fish- the one that rules your passion for the hobby, welcome home Severum. 

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2 hours ago, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Personally, I'm not one of those internet people who can't read beyond a sentence I suspect there's lots of others here like that too. I can tell that you've fallen back in love with your tank, and I think that's really cool.  That''s due in part to the many fish you got- but I also liken it to the return of your personal Monarch fish- the one that rules your passion for the hobby, welcome home Severum. 

I'm glad you (and I hope others) are cool with the longer form posts. It's what really drew me to this forum in the first place. I can ramble about fish to my heart's content, haha.

 

Yeah, there's a lot that's got me excited about the tank. Part of it is the severum of course. Part of it is that it feels like a real slice of a South American River again, with the dwarf cichlids and the corydoras.

 

I realize I haven't really sat and watched it like this in a long time.

 

Speaking of which, I just did some watching. 

 

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The Severum greeted me - he's not shy at all, but the store he came from was very high quality and the owner had been doing this for 35 years. So that doesn't surprise me.

I'll be feeding him later today - breaking out the frozen foods in case anyone is a little food shy in the new tank.

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Corys are hanging out in the plant cover together. Old and new. I'm excited for when they're all full grown...

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There's the keyhole with the white eye. I'm not sure how worried I should be yet. Though I did have a ram who was blind in one eye and lived a very long time.

The keyholes dont stick very closely together, and they're pretty shy, so I haven't seen all 4 at once yet, which I always like to do every so often. Maybe they'll come our when I'm feeding.

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The flag acaras on the other hand are out a little more, and they like to hang out together. I've seen all 3 a few times.

I know they're too tiny to reliably sex, but it seems like one of them has much longer fins than the other two. Could I have a male and two females? That's almost too ideal to hope for.

I'd love to establish colonies for either fish in this tank. Anyone have any experience with establishing dwarf cichlids colonies in a community tank, or are there any threads about the topic on this forum?

 

 

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So I was pretty determined to confirm that all of the keyholes were ok. I went through the whole tank looking for them, from the sides and from above as well as the front. One was easy to recognize - the one with the white eye. He is a actually by far the most active.

I saw at least one other active keyhole, but more than that I couldn't confirm, until I spotted two of them at once - both were dark, on the ground, and moping. One was at least actively moving his fins. The other wasn't moving at all.

 

I got a bit nervous so I decided to feed. I figured that might shake them up. I still want to feed frozen foods later today but for now I stuck with flakes, pellets, and wafers. And oh boy, did that wake the keyholes up! All four (and the other new fish) ate voraciously. I fed the usual amount, then added more food because that was gone in seconds.

 

I hope the corydora got enough. The tetras ignore anything that hits the ground, but the keyholes are obsessed with the algae wafers.

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So I was pretty determined to confirm that all of the keyholes were ok. I went through the whole tank looking for them, from the sides and from above as well as the front. One was easy to recognize - the one with the white eye. He is a actually by far the most active.

I saw at least one other active keyhole, but more than that I couldn't confirm, until I spotted two of them at once - both were dark, on the ground, and moping. One was at least actively moving his fins. The other wasn't moving at all.

 

I got a bit nervous so I decided to feed. I figured that might shake them up. I still want to feed frozen foods later today but for now I stuck with flakes, pellets, and wafers. And oh boy, did that wake the keyholes up! All four (and the other new fish) ate voraciously. I fed the usual amount, then added more food because that was gone in seconds.

 

I hope the corydora got enough. The tetras ignore anything that hits the ground, but the keyholes are obsessed with the algae wafers.

 

Eta: still no sign of Mr snowflake pleco, but that's par for the course. I'll see if I can surprise him at night. Maybe the reason I spotted Rubbernose is that Snowflake took his old spot?

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