I have only wanted to keep ywo completely different angels and I did keep them both over time. The first were a domestic variety- double dark black angels and the second were Altum angels- both wild and tank bred. However, With the Altums I kept the wilds and then the tank bred at totally different times.
With the DD blacks I was given five by a breeder from Georgia (USA). She sent them two me when they were between a 2uaerter and 50 cent coin body size. As they grew out I got a pair and the rest had to go. The pair spawned and I got about 500 eggs in the first spawn and then they did it gain two weeks later. This was why I never wanted to spawn angels.
The blacks were typical of what I had learned to expect from domestic strains. They fought with each other and they intimidated the other fish in the tank one the angels went into spawning mode. As far as I am concerned unless one has a really huge tank, it is not possible to keep domestic adult angels in groups in tank. By huge I mean a 50 or more gallon tank. Without this sort of space, they will fight and often to the death. And they may also kill other species which are their tank mate once the angels pair.
Altums were completely different. In the wild they live in groups. Altums were and are my favorite angel. So, I searched out all the information about them and especially the videos of then in the wild. I suggest to those interested that they watch this:
Altums are extremely difficult to breed in captivity and very few have succeeded in doing so. However, it is now possible to find tank bredfish. My initial fish were wild caught and this makes them very hard to keep alive. They live in extremely acid water. Think close to pH 4.0 and even a tad lower. It takes a very special set-up to succeed.
Over the years I kept a group of wilds which took me several tries to do so as this is a difficult fish for which to provide the proper conditions. I lost my wild group to a disease which wiped therm out save for one. During this time I got lots of great advice from the wild angel site which no longer exists. But, one of the members on the site eventually managed to breed them, I was able to buy a number of his offspring and I kept a tank raised group for a number of years in a 55 gal, tank.
Because I have been downsizing over the past few years I sold this group to a member of my fish club who was already keepinh altums. I see him at each monthly meeting and I know this group is still thriving i his Altum tank.
The point here is that wild angels and domestic strains are different. One will not work well in groups while the other will thrive that way.
When the Manacapuru red shoulders first started showing up I really wanted some. But I could not set up a tank for this as I was out of space. I considered trying to keep them with the Altums but in talking to those who would know, I was told this was not a good idea. It is important to understand the the Manacapuru are Pterophyllum scalare and Altums are Pterophyllum altum.
While one can find a number of vids of Altums in the wild, I gave up searching for vids of the Manacapuru in the wild. I am not sure that such fids are out there, but there nust be a few.
The point is that it appears as if wild angels live in groups whereas the tank bred strains will not do so. This has been my limited experience in keeping the two different speices I have. SInce I jept bot wild and teank bred Altums I can say that at least F1s will live in groups the same as the wilds do.
