Peruvian Rainbow Severums arrived last week at Nautilus Tropical Fish Wholesale in Plant City, FL.

via Nautilus Tropical Fish Wholesale

“Last week was a really good week for South American oddballs, although like always, quantities are very limited. I received a Peru shipment this week, along with a couple of Colombian shipments,” reported Joe Hiduke of Nautilus Tropical Fish Wholesale, located in Plant City, FL.

“Rainbow severums came in from Peru. They are good sized with fantastic color, lots of red/orange in the fins, and blue streaks in the face. They’re a very nice fish that just gets nicer as they settle in.

“Like other severums, they’re big but not crazy aggressive. They make good tankmates for big tetras, gouramis, rainbowfish, etc. They come in as Heros efasciatus, but taxonomy on severums is complicated. Look at the pictures above and below, these are examples of the exact fish I received.

Another look at the rainbow severums arriving recently from Peru.

“My experience with these fish is just through watching them here,” said Hiduke in a followup email to AMAZONAS. “They’re super sturdy. We have occasionally (accidentally) kept them together, but I’ve found that they hold up much better by themselves; this is probably an artifact of our tank size as I think they’d be fine in groups in a bigger tank. In our facility, they work best in individual cubicles until we send them out to retailers.

“They almost always arrive in good condition and they hold up great. They’re a little pricey, but I would probably sell a tank-raised standard green severum for close to the same price when they’re this big. Severums aren’t the fastest growers; it takes a long time to grow them up to this size.”

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