Altum Angels + Discus + Stingrays?

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T

tanglovers

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2007
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Michigan
We are planning out our next system, will be roughly 450 gallons or so. The main inhabitants (why the system is going up) is a pair of stingrays (motoro or leos unsure yet). Tank will be 7-8 feet long, 3' wide and 30-36" tall.

Anyhow we have decided we want to do discus with them (sized appropriate so they are not eaten of course). I was at my local LFS the other day and the owner and good friend was telling me about altum angels. After some research I do like this idea but have some questions/concerns. I am very aware of the sensitivity of these guys and ready for that.

The large concern is are these guys prone to picking/nipping on other tank inhabitants like the common angelfish? I was told they nip much less but would like some people with experience to chime in.

How do you feel they would do with discus and stingrays?

Thanks!
 
True altums are terrible candidates for surviving in captivity. They are very sensitive and you would need your pH around 6.0 which is perfect with the other fish, however its a pain if you have hard local water.

I would suggest Scalare as they do much better in captivity and will be hardy enough not to get picked on by the discus. However keep an eye out on both the angels and discus as they will be intimidated by the rays.
 
I would forget about adding angels in this tank. Angels and discus are not the greatest tank mates. People do keep them together, but that still doesn't make for a great match. It's more of a competition thing with them that can cause the potential problems.
 
I keep Orinoco Altums in Miami-Dade tap water with no problems since 2004. They're harder to acclimate than other wild angels. But once acclimated they are as hardy. Kept them with Wild caught Heckle Discus for three years until I sold the whole bunch to an experienced fishkeeper on this board who wanted to breed them.

I now keep Altums (22 of them) by themselves since August of 2008. Our tap water here comes out of the faucet with PH at 8.0 and beyond, but stabilizes at around 7.6.
 
no problem keeping them together if you get the altums to acclimatize. Terribly susceptible to ammonia burn and their immune system is weak to put it mildly. Don't try to keep them with South East Asian bred discus
 
How will I know if the discus I look at are south east asain bred? Just make sure to deal with a US breeder?
 
no, buy everything wild caught. Even if you buy from a breeder your discus' parents could still be from Asia and have passed the pathogens on to their off spring. Having said that there are breeders in Germany that produce disease free discus. Once the eggs are laid they separate the eggs from the parents and raise them artificially. Once the young are free swimming they kill a couple and get them checked by a vet for flagelattes, etc. That's a bit of a simplified version of how it is done but you get the idea.

I'd still get everything wild caught
 
Do wild caught discus still have the nice colorations? I am sure not the super brights but still decent?
 
depends what you are considering nice colours. Image google, red alenquer, red spotted green tefe, blue heckel, nhamunda or simply wild discus. Colours are more subtle but against a dark background and plenty of bog/driftwood they are simply stunning
 
i have discus in with my mororo and they all seem to be doing all right only one casualty. a stingray traped a smaller discus against the glass but other than that everything is ok. just watch out for the discus picking at the stingray.
 
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