Severum pics - juvie to adult

fisheatfish

Aimara
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Mar 19, 2008
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Mating pair of wild caught rotkeils. Males (back) have a blue along with distinct pattern or markings on face and females are not as bright or intense in color. The sure way to sex them is the thick vent on the female as seen here.
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Heros Liberifer Male. My female died from an injury. Mouth brooders.
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Heros Notatus Male:
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Pair of Red Spotted Severum. Again, females (left) not as distinct with markings & color as the male. Female was a good egg layer but couldn't find a fertile male to do the job.
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This is a 150 gal community where I had a few severums in. Very peaceful...considering the little parrots could easily fit into the arowana's mouth and there's a 4 inch dovi. Even the pair of jags got along with everything.
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magpie

Potamotrygon
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Thank you so much for the photos and the M/F demonstrations here. At what size can you sex them generally?

Inridae and Notatus confuse me. I can't seem to be able to find a good resource that describes, with photos, the different severum types... I can piece it together but it would be really great to have a sticky here with that info.
 

The Mother Confessor

Candiru
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Feb 3, 2017
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Severum smaller.jpg

This is my gal, she's still a youngster, she is around 6-7 inches and a bit over 1 year old here.

I find it's pretty easy to sex them once their colours start to show, the males usually have larger and more prominent red spots between the eyes, where as the females are smaller and less frequent. Also, the males tend to have rather long flares on the dorsal and anal fin, where as the females are rounded and shorter. They can get a little nasty when paired, but in my experience it's usually with other Severums. Having said that, I keep mine with much more aggressive fish, so I have no idea how they would react in a more peaceful community tank. They are one of the most peaceful fish that I keep.

If your going to keep red spots, I recommend feeding Hikari Cichlid Gold for the colour enhancing ingredients, and some white bulbs. I actually used white marine bulbs for a long time, they really bring out the red. This pic was taken with 14000k marine bulbs. Try to avoid blue bulbs as they wash out the red.
 
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fisheatfish

Aimara
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I have been very confused because both appear to have the maroon colored spots as in my pic but the number of bars helped clarify.
 
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magpie

Potamotrygon
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