breeding true altums

[giorid]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anybody in sydney is breeding or trying to breed the real altum angelfish and if they can post pictures please, thanks.

[Merrilyn]

It would be world news of they were :D

Wildcaught altums are notoriously difficult to breed. People have been trying to do it since the 1940's when Orinoco altums were first described.

Only one breeder, Horst Linke in Germany has been able to consistently produce tank bred altums. Unfortunately the prices are so high, that none of them ever come to Australia, going mainly to the more lucrative Japanese and American markets.

To my knowledge, there have never been any tank bred altums imported into Australia. That may change in the future, as now we have reports of tank bred successes coming from America, Taiwan, Holland and some others. Hopefully one day, we will see some tank bred altums in Australia.

There are several of us with wild bred colonies, myself included, and we are certainly trying to provide our charges with the very best of conditions, massive tanks, huge water changes and a variety of foods.

No one seems sure what the breeding trigger is. It may be a particular food source that is only available during the breeding season, or my personal opinion, the depth at which they breed, something that cannot be replicated in the aquarium.

There are some breeders who claim to have bred "altums" but they turn out to be Peruvian Scalare, similar in appearance but definitely not the "true" Altum.

[Topogigio82]

I'm sure everyone knows about this website, but have a read of this:

http://www.finarama.com/tba/chronicles/fornback.htm

hopefully you can replicate what he did and make it work for you.

[Merrilyn]

Thanks for that link Topogigio82. It's a great website. I've been a member for several years.

We all wish for success like that :P

It seems he wasn't able to repeat that initial success, or if he did, I couldn't find anything written.