my angels

[endless]

This is my contribution to this new and wonderful angelfish forum. I've had them for nearly a year now. They are about 15cm tall but i think they are a bit stunted as they could not compete with my discus for food when they were younger and they dont eat anything dry. Now that they are bigger and eating beefheart, hopefully they will have a growth spurt and reach 30cm. i doubt it though :?

[Del]

They are beautiful. What strain are they?

[Mulisha]

If i'm not mistaken there Altums i think.. :P

There very nice mate i would love to have something like them one day :wink:

[endless]

yep they are altums

[Mulisha]

Are you trying to get them to breed with the breeding cone? :shock:

[samir]

you need to count the amount of scales in the lateral row to be sure, must be 46-48 scales otherwise it could be scalare.

[endless]

lol. i wish... nah the breeding cones were there for my discus but now i have moved the big ones to the eight food tank but forgot to take the breeding cone out. hey you never know... maybe ill wake up one day with a cone full of altum eggs...... or maybe ill wake up one day a realise i was just dreaming

[Mulisha]

you need to count the amount of scales in the lateral row to be sure, must be 46-48 scales otherwise it could be scalare.

U serious how are you ment to do that? LOL :lol: :lol: :lol:

[samir]

take a picture

[DR.V]

From that shape, I reckon they're orinoco altums

[Mattzilla]

they are STUNNING!

well done mate they really are beautiful.

love them....i am very jelous

[endless]

Thanks guys for your compliments



From that shape, I reckon they're orinoco altums

Dr V. your right on the money. They are tank bred orinoco altums from sls.

[samir]

they do look very nice, hope they spawn for you.

From that shape, I reckon they're orinoco altums
thats the only altum there is. the Peruvian altum is not altum but (i think )leopoldi. a lot of lfs' try to pass it off as altum but its not.

[scott bowler]

hi guys has any one seen altums insydney for sale any were . iknow there are some in windor but there not for sale thanks scott

[DR.V]

Yes, be careful because theres more than one type of altum.

And I think the most expensive and rare ones are the "orinoco altums"

[samir]

according to what i read there's only one altum but there seems to be debate on whether it is exclusive to Rio Orinoco or not. Altums apparently grow upto 32cm high.
here's info on identification
Pterophyllum altum has 46-48 scales in a lateral row, and notched predorsal contour.
Pterophyllum leopoldi has 27-29 scales in a lateral row, and straight predorsal contour.
Pterophyllum scalare has 30-39 scales in a lateral row, and notched predorsal contour.

[Dee]

Heya Paul,

Hubba hubba, they are looking great mate. I remember when you first bought them, very nice true alt's ! well done :thumb

Cheers,

Dee :D

Edit: Forgot to say I'm damn envious, you should be proud :wink:

[Merrilyn]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

No mistaking that profile and those chocolate brown stripes with the white bars.

Just love em endless :P

[the_oracle]

Love those altums. Your cone looks a lil bit slant or is it just me?
Try out this link, specially dedicated to wild angels:

http://www.finarama.com/home.htm


Sanie.

[Sime76]

Is there anymore involved in keeping Altums than with common angels?
I.e. can you treat them like normal common angels??

Sime

[mcloughlin2]

Is there anymore involved in keeping Altums than with common angels?
I.e. can you treat them like normal common angels??

Sime

No, definantly not. I believe they are quite abit harder to keep and require perfect water conditions ...

Sam.

[Merrilyn]

True Orinoco Altums are a very difficult fish to maintain.

We rarely see tank bred altums in Australia, and I am assured that there will be NO tankbred fish sent to Australia this year. They have all been sold to the Asian market, for very big dollars.

That leaves us with wild caught fish, and unfortunately they have a pretty rough time, from the catching point to the retailers tanks, and the mortality rate is VERY high. Losing 90% of a batch during the process, is not unusual.

This is why Altums will always be rare, and the price will remain high.

Then of course is the problem of disease. Wild altums seem to find the catching and shipping process very stressful, and with their immune system at an all time low, they can become succeptible to "Altum Virus" which is always lethal, and can wipe out a whole group of altums in a few days. I know this from bitter experience, but then, that's another long story.

For those wishing to try altums, and there are a few nice looking altums around at the moment, you need to provide the largest tank that you can manage, at least 2 foot high, and with the best filtration and UV possible. Altums demand high water quality, low pH and high protein foods, very similar to our wild caught discus.

I'm about to try another colony of wild altums.

I'll let you know how they go :P

[Mulisha]

Hey Merrilyn would you mind making a new thread when you do start to keep the new colony becuase it would provide people like me and alot of others with for handy info so we can try take up the challenge and do the extra bit better with the added info.
I was thinking sometime ago of trying to keep Altums but i choose not to becuase i wasn't sure what they needed.

Thanks alot ;)

Rick.