What Severum Species?
- Thread starter Silvertongue700
- Start date
This is off the internet. I’ve seen tiger Severums before but I am new to severums in general. What species have the black markings/stripes all the way up and down their body?
All species of Heros have black vertical bars like this. The fish is in stress coloration. It will have to settle before you’ll be able to see any coloration or markings clearly.
It doesn’t appear to be Heros severus (the proper name for “red tiger”) based on the number of bars and the shape and pattern shown, but mis-barring is common in severus so you can’t rule it out completely until its coloration comes back.
It doesn’t appear to be Heros severus (the proper name for “red tiger”) based on the number of bars and the shape and pattern shown, but mis-barring is common in severus so you can’t rule it out completely until its coloration comes back.
Right so all Severums have the vertical bars but perhaps the tiger Severums or Heros Severus have it more distinctly most of the time?
Sort of. In most cases, Heros that are comfortable don't show full, solid dark bars like the one in your photo. The only time this tends to happen is if they're the submissive fish in a tank or are being bullied (or sometimes if you have very dark substrate/background and they're trying to camoflauge themselves). In relaxed coloration, the bars either disappear or change appearance.
Mouthbrooding Heros, H. liberifer, tend to show their bars, but they lighten and darken depending on their mood and surroundings.
H. severus show their bars but they take on a mottled appearance because the green-yellow coloration overlays them.
In Heros notatus the bars turn into black blotches along the flanks
In Heros appendiculatus and Heros sp. rotkeil, they only show the bottom half of the bars. (H. appendiculatus the top picture, rotkeil the bottom picture)
In H. efasciatus types, the bars tend to disappear completely, except for the 8th bar which sometimes shows as a solid black vertical band running just in front of the caudal peduncle.
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As juveniles, it is common for most to have those strong black bars. I’ve noticed on my turquoise severum, he will sometimes show no barring, and sometimes it’s like a convict.
This is the sort of post I was looking for. These are all the true, not man made species I’m assuming? Trying to figure out what species I like the best. What about personality differences? Is there such a thing and does each species tend toward certain behavior or are Severums universally similar in personality?
H. efasciatus are probably the most hybridized of the sev's making it hard to determine exactly which sp. H. Liberifer is the only mouth brooder sev. All tend towards aggressive, especially after pairing. My H. Liberifer and my H. Notatus won't tolerate any other sevs in their tanks. Both are solo sev's with SD. The other sev's I have are a mix of greens and turquoise. Housing a group is better than solo fish because a solo will be less tolerant towards additions. I lost a Rotkiel because my female Notatus beat him up and the group in the 260g gave the same reception.