What kind of Severums are these?

LMBDave

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Nov 5, 2009
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I got these severums from a girl i sold a tank to today. She just gave them to me for free, and im having a bit of trouble identifying them. My guess is either gold severum or raspberry face severum...or are they same??? help me out.

without flash
IMG_0208.jpg


with flash
IMG_0211.jpg


IMG_0212.jpg
 
I don't think those fish are properly colored up, therefore I can't tell. Do you know if the looked the same in her own tank? How big are they?

They show very vague signs of banding, which could happen with washed out greens (though they're usually darker with stress - but I've seen both - water params can be a factor). Golds will show mood stripes and become darker when stressed. And certain uncommon species/variants will look similar when stressed.
I don't think yours is a red variant due to not having large visible red spots (which are still generally noticible, even if vague in stressed fish).

Also not sure if the color balance is correct on the pics (do they look exactly like the pics when viewed in your tank?), because they're showing odd color tone.

I'm thinking high likelyhood of being plain gold severum (color morph of Heros efasciatus - the commonly available "severum" species), but you should wait until the fish settle in and their normal color comes out. There's an off chance that it may be a species other than efasciatus, or a hybrid, but chances are slim (and hybrid likelyhood hard to determine in juvenile fish). I think the oddball color is mainly due to stress coloring.
 
the pictures that were taken with flash best show their colors. Right now, the fish with the messed up dorsal fin is showing much brighter orange and red than the other, the other one is showing dull orangy-peach body color and red lower fin, it is also showing a VERY slight hint of blue around the gill plates...the one with the messed up fin is showing no signs blue at all. They are both juveniles around 2" in length.
 
Oh, when they were in the lady's tank i remember thinking to myself that they were pretty ugly, very dull colored. The one has brightened up a bit but the other is still looking pretty ugly...ur right, they are prob still pretty stressed, they spook pretty bad when i walk up to or near the tank. Maybe after they settle a bit they will get their true colors. But ur strongest guess would be common gold severum?
 
here check out this video, u can see the 2 severums in the far right side of the tank...i also have another severum in the tank also, when i first put the smaller ones in yesterday, i was thinking that they may be the same species as my larger severum, but after seeing them together, im pretty sure that theyre not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRFbBXL9CU
 
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