Altum Q Tank Ready And Waiting

[TwoTankAmin]

I heard from the importer last week that the altums should be arriving at their facility this week. I have set up and fishlressly cycled the 29 gal. tank using Dr Tims One and Only and his ammonium chloride. Once the tankw was cycled, the UV unit was turned on and has been running 24/7 since.

The tank is at pH 6.5, the TDS are about 30 ppm and the temp about 85F.
The substrate is Carib Sea Torpedo Beach sand.
There is an AquaClear 200 on the left end. There is an air powerd sponge on opposite end. In the center is a maxiJet 400 (110gph) power head that provides the circulation for a 5w UV unit mounted on the back behind the background.
The two branchy woods are manzanita and the other chunky piece is bog wood with someJjava moss.
There are 3 large catappa leaves in the tank plus a bag of alder cones in the AquaClear.

 

[GShorty1981]

Altums are crazy sensitive so good luck, i have kept Scarlare/Altum hybrids before and thye were pretty hardy tho and looked like a real Altum.

It would look alot better with some giant vallis, swords and combomba

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually, in the wild there are virtually no aquatic plants where they live. What one sees are submerged terrestrial plants. I have seen a few videos of wild altums in several rivers and was struck by how much differently the wild looks compared to what we often see in tanks.

I posted a video in this forum a while back of the Rio Atabapo which is from where my angels are coming. You can find it here (its in genrman, but you won't care after you start seeing it) http/www.fishforum...__fromsearch__1

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I just placed the order for 18 Rio Atabapo altums. They ship next Tuesday for next day delivery. They are in 6.4 pH, 80 ppm water. I guess I will need to raise the TDS in their tank some as its only at 30 ppm.

I am excited to say the least.

 

[GShorty1981]

Cool looking forward to the pics

They look amazing when fully grown.

Silly question, but your not buying 18 altums for a 29 gallon tank are you? lol

 

[Joller]

i believe its a quarantine tank, which is probably also why theres no plants?

also that video is amazing! so many species to look at! i want to do that

 

[TwoTankAmin]

No way that 29 is a long term tank- it should be good for a couple of months max, possibly less. My original plan was to get a dozen. However, given how difficult it can be to get these fish over the initial hump, I decided to play it safe and get 18. I figured that way even if I lost half I would be OK. On the other hand, if it works out great and i end up with all 18, I am sure I will have no difficuly in selling the "extras" which would have been acclimated to live in tap water by the time that becomes necessary.

So if they pretty much all make initially, I have another 29 which will allow me to divide them into two groups. My ultimate goal is to have something between a 180 and 220 gallon tank for an altum biotope. I do currently have 8 other altums I have had for some time and which are about to go into a 55 on their way to bigger and better down the road.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The altums have landed.

The were well packed

Sitting on top of their tank before acclimating

For temperature

And then into the tank where they moved around and made it hard for my old camera to get decent pics-

 

[ZoddyZod]

yay!

Really looking forward to following their progress.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The news is all bad. Lost all 19 fish. At least 3 other members of the Angelfish site who got the same fish also had similar experiences. We have been trying to determine what happened. Since all 3 of us are in different areas and dealt with the new fish in different manners, we are stumped.

The fish all died in the same way, so our best bet at this point is they arrived with whatever it was that killed them. The importer still has fish from the same batch and has not had the problems, which makes it even more of a puzzle.

I have ordered another box and will give it another go. I really want Rio Atabapo altums even though I know the same importer has altums from different rivers which have fared much better in people's tanks. I have altums from other rivers as well for some time.

I must be nuts.

 

[ZoddyZod]

The fish all died in the same way, so our best bet at this point is they arrived with whatever it was that killed them. The importer still has fish from the same batch and has not had the problems, which makes it even more of a puzzle.

really sorry to hear this!

The cycnical side of me would be wary about what the importer is saying about not having a problem though - could be that they have experienced the same issue and are not letting on so you can't persue for a refund?

I guess Altums have their fragile reputation for a reason though.

Any outward symptoms you noticed, or did they simply drop with not warning whatsoever? All roughly at the same time?

 

[GShorty1981]

Bad news mate, i had this with posting fish before, received 20 dead Rotkeil Severums with no refund, just a load of abuse.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The importer has brought in several batches of altums this season. They came from different rivers. The Atabapo altums are one of the harder ones to acquire, especially to know that they have actually come from that river. The export of these fish was set up by a person who knows the rivers personally and knows the exporter also.

Folks who bought altums from other rivers which arrived much earlier in the season had great results- minimal deaths. The problems all occurred with the Atabapos. because of the Venezuelan ban on collection prior to August means the fish are of a larger size having had extra growing time. The larger the fish when they arrive, the harder they are to keep alive. The fish I received were a good 3 times larger than I had expected.

I want this strain of fish badly enough to be trying again with a smaller number. I am expecting 11 fish to arrive next week. I have spoken with the shop in Houston, TC that has been the supplier and they have more available and a number at a smaller size and I have requested the smallest they have. I am also hoping that the fish being with the importer for n extra few weeks will increase my odds of having them survive.

I am altering my system for receiving them. They will now be going into a 20 gal. tank that is not cycled and which contains 100% ro/di water. The tank is bare bottom and will have a sponge filter or two, the UV sterilizer and a heater. The fish will start out at about 80F and over the 1st week this will rise to 86F. I am leaning towards doing a round of antibiotics as soon as they are eating. If I can work it out using muriatic acid, I will seek to hold the pH in the 6.5 range. Water changes of 25% will be done at least every other day and I may go daily at first doing 15-20%. This tank will be used to try and get the fish stable and healthy enough to go into a 2nd tank. Any antibiotic treatments or need for methyl blue would happen here.

I have redone the 29 gal tank to be a stage two tank. This is being fishless cycled and contains sand and wood and will have tanin stained water that is a mix if some tap with mostly ro/di. In this tank I will treat for parasites and worms which should be the final need for treatments I hope. iIall goes according to plan this tank will be the one where the fish get moved from ro/di water to 100% tap water over a 3-4 month period. While the UV unit will run on this tank initially, it will be removed once the tap changeover is in progress. The goal is to have the fish rebuild their immune systems in this tank. A part of this process will include introducing other fish such as tetras or plecos with which thealtums would be living longer term.

Of course, this is just the plan, what actually transpires will be another story I am sure.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I expect to receive another box of Rio Atabapos tomorrow. I ordered 10 and they give an extra for each 10 and I know they will often add even more, so I expect to receive between 11-13 fish. These fish come from a 2nd shipment, so I hope that helps.

I have requested that they send the smallest fish they have, as the bigger they are when they come into the country, the harder they are to keep alive.

The tank they go into will the the 20 gal described in my last post. The only difference will be the temp. which I now have at 81F rather than 80F (27.22C vs 26.66C). I also have about 15 gals of ro/di on hand for doing daily small water changes- 2-3 gals.

I am sacrificing a live goat and 3 live chickens at the Temple of Poseiden tonight

 

[walkers101]

Any updates at all?