Severum

[cd5]

In a lfs they have red spotted severums, I been trying to find information on them without much success, just wondering if anyone new if they are selective bred like the gold severums or if they are dye like some fish I have read about
thanks

 

[Toirtis]

There are green severums selectively bred for a lot of red, but I have never seen red-spotting....I am guessing that they are probably injection-dyed like the red-spotted gouramis and oscars.

 

[BrianNY]

Like Toirtis says, severums have natural red spotting. However this only occurs in adults. If the fish are 4 inches or more, it's possible that the lfs did a little marketing on the name. If the fish are smaller than that, they could be hormone induced to bring out the colors.

The use of color hormones is quite common with some discus breeders. The problem with this is that it also stunts the growth of the fish.

 

[cd5]

The severums in the lfs are gold with red spots on there body, they are only about 2 inches, so you think they have been hormone induced to bring out the red in gold severums and they live healthy they just won't reach full size, or do you thing the red spots will vanish after they mature
thanks

 

[BrianNY]

Well, I for one have never seen hormone induced severum. That doesn't mean it won't occur. In discus, the colors gradually fade in young fish. It's done to get the unsuspecting to buy them.

I'm very curious about this "new" strain. Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean it can't be genuine. I am however, very suspicious. It seems unlikely to me that such a young severum would exhibit brilliant colors. JMO

 

[dr.diggler]

I have had gold, green and blue faced severums and the red on all occasions was the their bottom half.

 

[MarkLehr]

I'd love to see a picture. I think that the lfs just took it upon themselves to call them "red dotted" severums. How red are you talking about? Their dots are naturally "red" by freshwater standard.

 

[FishLover14]

Dont buy a genteicllay alltered fish like that. Go with an all natural Plain Gold or Green Severum.
JMO

 

[cd5]

I'd love to see a picture. I think that the lfs just took it upon themselves to call them "red dotted" severums. How red are you talking about? Their dots are naturally "red" by freshwater standard.

When I went back to go look at them again, some have a lot of little red dots covering their gold body and some have less, I do remember seeing once in a lfs a red spot severum that just had one big spot on its center body, I can definately tell that they have red spots in just plain sight

 

[cd5]

Dont buy a genteicllay alltered fish like that. Go with an all natural Plain Gold or Green Severum.
JMO

I don't really have a problem if they genetically selective breed them like I have read about how they create the gold severums, I mean what they are doing was no different than what Mendel was doing, My problem is I have read that some fish are dye by burning their skin off, that sort of sets off my moral alarm, I already have a gold and green severum, My green severum has a lot of attitude and my gold is already starting to develope some, really cool fish IMO

 

[wynn]

As for the particular subject about the red spotted severum, I have no idea if they are 'real' or not. There is a lot of different severum color variations that are real though. Go to http://www.tangledupincichlids.com/ and scroll down the page till you reach the picture of the wild caught Rotkeil Severum.

edit: here's another example of a color variation of the severum. This is one of my fish and she's about 7 years old and 10" long. I'm assuming she is a turquoise severum because of the blue color, but she doesn't really look like pics of other turquoise severums i've seen. I know she can't be color dyed because she would have lost the color a long time ago.