Eartheaters and Severums

[Bianca Luna]

Most of the Geophagus species that I've been researching are listed as peaceful and many of the Severums that I've been looking at as well are listed as semi-aggressive. Is there a possibility of these two species co-existing in a peaceful community tank or no?

 

[Woefulrelic]

Works perfectly fine in an appropriately sized tank in my experience. The severum will be top dogs because the geos usually only fight with eachother, but severum are relatively peaceful although breeding can make them a bit more aggressive.

 

[Bianca Luna]

Works perfectly fine in an appropriately sized tank in my experience. The severum will be top dogs because the geos usually only fight with eachother, but severum are relatively peaceful although breeding can make them a bit more aggressive.

Ok, thanks! I'll keep my fingers crossed then, cause I like them both.

 

[Woefulrelic]

Aggression is fine as long as the geos can eat and don't end up with too much fin damage. You should see some chasing.

 

[neutrino]

Has been a good combination of complementary fish ime. Mainly you need an appropriate sized tank, as mentioned above. Severums don't like to be crowded into too small a tank and some turn mean under those conditions. "Eartheaters" covers a number of different fish of different aggression levels, from meek to fairly aggressive, from pairing fish to harem breeders. Most will be compatible with severums, but not all, and they can fall on either side of sevs in terms of temperament.

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

I have three red shoulders and 8 Geos in a 265 with loaches and they all get along.

 

[Bianca Luna]

neutrino I was aiming only for the peaceful Geos, because I'm trying to build a peaceful community tank with fish of varying sizes and I want to make sure that no one is going to get bullied.....or worse....

 

[Bianca Luna]

JasonsPlecosCichlids Great! I'll try to keep the ratio of Severums less than Geos with that in mind.

 

[neutrino]

neutrino I was aiming only for the peaceful Geos, because I'm trying to build a peaceful community tank with fish of varying sizes and I want to make sure that no one is going to get bullied.....or worse....

Works well ime. Each mostly minds their own business. In fact, I've had spawning sevs and spawning red head geos in the same tank and, while the sevs were the more dominant in terms of taking and protecting their preferred spawning site, aggression didn't amount to much beyond the periodic chase away from the sevs territory.

I know some people say they've had mean severums-- I haven't, and I've had a lot of of them. Not saying it can't happen, but it's not my experience with them. When I have seen severums be aggressive it's been in small tanks. My first rotkeil severum was a wild one I had for years that I bought cheap because it was killing everything they put in the tank with it and they wanted rid of it-- tank was a 29 gal if I remember. Same 'killer' fish was a perfect citizen for me in the 75 and 135 gal tank I kept him in. Knew a guy years ago who thought he'd make big $ breeding rotkeils when they were new and expensive, but he couldn't keep his pairs from fighting or killing each other-- he was a discus breeder and was trying to breed the sevs in 29 gal tanks.

I've also had severums with wild angelfish, growout 1" congo tetras, 1.5" growout guianacara, 1.5" growout geos, 2" queen arabesque plecos, and other similar fish with no problem. So, at least from what I've, seen an overly aggressive severum would be the exception, unless it felt crowded or in too small a tank.

 

[Bianca Luna]

neutrino Perfect! So, given enough space, there shouldn't be a need to worry. Now my next question would be does it matter if the tank is longer than it is tall for them....because I certainly have enough gallon space for them, but the tank itself is far taller than it is long.