True Altum questions

[Mikeinco]

I am seriously thinking about picking up some of these guys and would like those of you with experience to share with me. Are they as difficult to keep as some say? My tap water isn't very soft so should I use buffers or will peat and driftwood be sufficient? What is the best way to acclaimate them into the tank? Will a 50 tall hex tank be a good choice for 3 Atlums? Any info would be helpful. Thanks

[jgentry]

I am seriously thinking about picking up some of these guys and would like those of you with experience to share with me. Are they as difficult to keep as some say? My tap water isn't very soft so should I use buffers or will peat and driftwood be sufficient? What is the best way to acclaimate them into the tank? Will a 50 tall hex tank be a good choice for 3 Atlums? Any info would be helpful. Thanks


3 angels is just asking for trouble. A pair will most likely form and kill the loner. You would be better off buying a group to get a pair to keep and rehoming the rest. I would also strongly consider RO water. What is your tap PH and hardness? If it is very hard driftwood and peat will not effect it. They are lovely fish, but often success with them has more to do with how they were collected, shipped and conditioned before and after shipping.

[bobrfish]

I doubt that tank is tall enough for an adult altum. Maybe a 220 or larger.

[aquaticclarity]

I had a group of 15 altus a few years ago. Their long term home, 4 years plus, was a 6'x2'x2 1/2' 210 gallon tank. That was NOT big enough for them as the spacial requirments for adult altums far exceeds that space. A pair formed and cleaned house over a few months and then turned on each other.

They are a stunning animal, especially in a group, but a 50 hex will only be able to house a single altum.

[Mikeinco]

3 angels is just asking for trouble. A pair will most likely form and kill the loner. You would be better off buying a group to get a pair to keep and rehoming the rest. I would also strongly consider RO water. What is your tap PH and hardness? If it is very hard driftwood and peat will not effect it. They are lovely fish, but often success with them has more to do with how they were collected, shipped and conditioned before and after shipping.

Thanks for the response JD. These are tank bred Altums and the hex tank would be for the first year probably. I'm assuming they are fry but haven't gotten all the details from Jeff yet. Do you recommend RO for the tank raised? I can easily do RO but preferred not to. I have heard of others keeping them in higher PH, like the upper 6's. These will more than likely be expensive fish so I don't know how many I'll be able to afford or even how many he has available to me. I'm going to check my actual hardness on Tuesday.

[Mikeinco]

I doubt that tank is tall enough for an adult altum. Maybe a 220 or larger.

I don't believe I said anything about an adult Altum.

[bobrfish]

I don't believe I said anything about an adult Altum.
I don't believe you said anything about juvenile altums either.

The only tank I have seen adult altums comfortable in is 8' long, 4' wide and 4' tall. Keeper had 8-12 altums in this tank. Tip of fin to tip of fin, these were approximately 2.5' tall.
Show us the way Mike and we will follow you.

[chc]

Bob, are you serious about the altums being that tall? Thirty inches tall?

Wow, that would be an incredible sight!

[bobrfish]

I guessed, they could not have been 30" tall. I will recheck with owner and let you know.
Nevertheless it was an incredible sight to see how tall they were.

[chc]

I know they get very large, but a 30" fish would be the size of the tires on my car! That would be like one of those Lookdown fish at the public Virginia Marine Science Museum down the street! Hahaha!

No matter how large, I'd love to see any photos of altum tanks. So far, Amano has the best I know of.

[Cichlidnewbie23]

From what ive read about them they reach about six inches in length and on average are about 12 inches tall. Those altums you saw may have been freaks though

[afrabat]

I have also seen altums that were well over 12" tall. I believe it was at a city aquarium in Florida somewhere around Disney World. It was an amazing sight, one of the first cichlids I remember as a child. Not everything you read online will be accurate, personal accounts are the best source of information.

Bob, that is breath taking even hearing about.

[Mikeinco]

Well I was thinking about getting a couple and giving them a shot but 30 inches? I read they will max out at 12 if given the right environment. I was planning to raise a few in my 50 hex and move them to my 180 gallon once they reached a good size now I'm kind of rethinking the whole idea. Bob are you sure they were Altums? I also checked my water hardness and its running around 7.2 so thats kind of high so I'm not feeling the Altums at the moment.

[Dean Hougen]

I don't have any altum tank pics but I do have (very old, poor quality, scanned from slides) pics of altums! Here is one.

http://www.cs.ou.edu/~hougen/fishpics/138_altum.jpg

This one and its "mate" (they lived together peacefully but never bred) were in a small hex tank in Ken Norby's dining room in MN for several years, I believe.

I think two might be okay in your tank at least for a while but I agree that three is asking for trouble, even at a small size.


Dean

[ryansmith]

Wild angels can sometimes be brutal with one another. I haven't kept altums, but a few of my friends were keeping them and they definitely need a large, tall tank. They are nothing like scalare. You need a tank that's really deep. I'd say the ones I've seen in public aquariums are at least 12" tall (nowhere near 30" though). They will be aggressive with one another as adults and the smaller the tank, the worse that seems to be. Even when I was raising out Peruvian scalare, I couldn't keep 6 fish in a 150. They slowly killed each other off until I only had 1 left. Nothing like most domestic angels...