Pterophyllum Leopoldi

[nmonks]

Hello --

Wholesale Tropicals in London has a couple of these fish in stock, and they're certainly attractive.

I'm not familiar with the name though (cichlids aren't really my thing, so I don't keep track). One book I have suggests this name is a synonym of Pt. dumerlii, but the fish at Wholesale Tropicals didn't look quite so small or Roman-nosed as those. What's the way to tell good stock of this species? To me, the ones in the shop simply looked like old-fashioned wild-type angelfish.

Are they good community fish? Will they eat cardinals and other small tetras? I know that the slightly larger common angels do.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Neale,

Pt. leopoldi and Pt. dumerelli are one and the same fish with Pt. leopoldi the currently accepted scientific name. Size wise they should remain smaller than the standard scalare (4 to 5" SL sounds familiar).

As you've hinted the 'roman nose' is the best identifying feature for this species, possibly they are young fish and the forehead is yet to develop to its full extent.

As far as stocking is concerned, it's a cichlid I would expect the same problems in terms of predation to exist just as if you stocking scalare angels at the same size!!

I've only seen them on the Columbian export lists in recent months, probably worthwhile to check this with Wholesale Tropicals as well.

Regards

Andrew