Not really, Angelfish II appears to be moribund at the moment, but Finarama has a good number of dedicated people posting who genuinely want to move things forward. I find this site is incredibly slow on my machine (I don't have broadband). I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Altum inasmuch as this fish, the epitomy of what an angelfish should look like, it's image is to be found used commercially on aquatic products, but the fish are squandered suffering a huge mortality on import (90% has been mooted, and I have seen 100% on some importations!) How many people have seen adult Altum?
Altum Angels.......
- Thread starter chochiss
- Start date
You are a lucky man Juan, do your Altums get along well together? The reason I ask is that the few fish that I have left, try to kill each other when I mix them. I believe that all the fish that I have had were males, and as they matured the customary bickering got steadily worse, untill fish were killed and I split them up. I was told that the original group was too small (5 fish) but I think that the sex of the fish might well have had something to do with it.
Regards, Phill.
Regards, Phill.
Actually I have had them pair and lay in a 150g community but always sold them then, at the time they were harder to get o I got a premium price on mated pairs. You can keep a mating pair in as little as a standard 55g, (48"x12 1/2"x 21"), keep it warm (mid 80s), a little acidic (6.0-6.5 pH), and fairly soft (less than 6 dH). Feed then a good flake or small granule along with lots of live foods (black worms, tubifex worms, small earth worms, brine and fairy shrimp, young scuds, mosquito larvae, and very small crickets are all good choices, especially if you vary it a lot. They should go from 1-1 1/2" to around 6" long in less than 6 months and they will start pairing off around then. The tank should be planted and contain slate or tiles for egg depositing. The broods a smaller than with scalares but that might be because mine were always first or second time breeders. The only problems I had with them was that they got territorial in the community tank near breeding time and they would sometimes eat small tetras. In the early 80s I would get $50-60 a pair at first breeding, more if I took it in credit, this was from a dealer, about twice that retail. The juvies cost me around $2 each from the same dealer.
They are currently in three groups of 5 and 5 for the one year olds and 6 for the 2 year olds.
So far I've had no problem with aggression leading to a casualty. I've seen them lunge at each other as other other Angels do but no harm results.
The six 2 year olds were survivors from a pack that started out as a group of ten. The whole pack got sick with columnaris like symptons but I was able to save seven of them. I gave away one to another Altum enthusiast about a year ago.
The ten were picked from a group that started out as thirty. Lost one to what looks like agression and the remaining ten was what remained after I sold off most of the pack.
You could have mentioned that when you were here with Neo and the gang.
Thanks for this post. Now I'll just crank up the feedings and look to get some pairing action failrly soon. From your experiences, my current batch of Altums are way overdue on the pairing part.
It has been a few years since I kept them and it didn't even occur to me to mention it.
warm, soft, slightly acid water, lots of plants, and as much varied live food as they will eat. The first batch of eggs was almost always sterile or only had a few fertilized eggs, I would sell them then as I had buyers waiting and they would always report back they were getting successful spawnings in pair only breeding tanks.
Smaller ones like minced or chopped fresh earthworms and that is a pretty cheap way to go for the results.
I thought your angels were looking very nice.
warm, soft, slightly acid water, lots of plants, and as much varied live food as they will eat. The first batch of eggs was almost always sterile or only had a few fertilized eggs, I would sell them then as I had buyers waiting and they would always report back they were getting successful spawnings in pair only breeding tanks.
Smaller ones like minced or chopped fresh earthworms and that is a pretty cheap way to go for the results.
I thought your angels were looking very nice.
$ 50 - 60 for a mated pair in the 80s? They would go $ 500, at least today.
Were they as hard to acclimate to tanks back then as they are this days. 90 - 100 % mortality are being reported for previously wild caught Altums. My experience was the same about 3 - 4 years ago until 2004 when I used combinations of antibiotics hours after they are moved from bags to tanks.
Also, were the Altums you kept self collected or purchased from lfs or importer?
Have to work on a local lfs owner about putting some Altums in his Amazon tank display to see if they will breed. I try to stay away from tanks with real plants.
Were they as hard to acclimate to tanks back then as they are this days. 90 - 100 % mortality are being reported for previously wild caught Altums. My experience was the same about 3 - 4 years ago until 2004 when I used combinations of antibiotics hours after they are moved from bags to tanks.
Also, were the Altums you kept self collected or purchased from lfs or importer?
Have to work on a local lfs owner about putting some Altums in his Amazon tank display to see if they will breed. I try to stay away from tanks with real plants.
I got mine from a very good LFS in Hayward, Ca. a very experienced dealer in touchy fish. I don't know how many he lost but the water pH and hardness was the same as my tank, I almost never lost any to acclimitazation. I do know there were times I had to wait for new smallones while his went through adjustment and quarantine, 2 weeks at least. There were also times he complained that an entire shipment had come in dead. He was the one who got most of mine when they paired off, he would take them to the LFS in San Francisco that his son ran, there they would double the price and sell them.
altums are really nice fish. i like the way their body is defined. really nice. regular angels are also pretty but altums stands out. lfs would sell jevenile for 20-25 dollars each. i don't know how big they are. but on aquabid some one is selling it for 100 dollars each. i would just buy the 25 dollar one. 100 dollars is too much. growing altums isn't too hard as long as you have the right water parameters.
