Pat's Altums

[trungnguyen]

wow, they look so huge and nice now. Good job, Pat. Congratulation to all of them,

[Second Hand Pat]

wow, they look so huge and nice now. Good job, Pat. Congratulation to all of them,

Thanks Trung

[ericNH]

Wow i remember watching your earlier vids when they were just little guys - amazing brood you've grown. They're awesome.

[Second Hand Pat]

Wow i remember watching your earlier vids when they were just little guys - amazing brood you've grown. They're awesome.

Thanks Eric, hard to think they were dime sized back in August.

[nikond70s]

they are looking great pat. altums are cichlids and cichlids are naturally aggressive. my group of 24 is the same. very aggressive to one another often. a few of mine actually have lost scales and missing fins from biting and fighting. i prolly need to sell off some of them to thin the heard.

[Second Hand Pat]

they are looking great pat. altums are cichlids and cichlids are naturally aggressive. my group of 24 is the same. very aggressive to one another often. a few of mine actually have lost scales and missing fins from biting and fighting. i prolly need to sell off some of them to thin the heard.

Thanks and if you look at the video there are some frayed fins. What size tank are yours in? I constantly ask myself if the tank is getting too small. These guys are currently in a 90.
Pat

[William Palumbo]

STUNNING!...Great job Pat. Those look phenomenal! I would LOVE to have a tank of those. I remember how small they were when you got them. I have not had any Altums for many years now. You will need to get a larger tank for the group IMO. I had 8 that were looking cramped in a 125, tho there were Discus in there as well. Again, great job!...Bill

[Second Hand Pat]

Thank Bill, I was hopefully to maintain these guys in the 90 until they are a year old where I hope they will be about 3.5 inches SL. When they were moved to the 90 I did measure one and it was 2.5 inches SL and fairly certain they have grown since. My guesstimate on their age is seven months old. This is based on them being eight weeks old when I received them and I had them for five months now.

Going forward these guys can go in either my 240 or a new 180 which will be setup soon.

[nikond70s]

Thanks and if you look at the video there are some frayed fins. What size tank are yours in? I constantly ask myself if the tank is getting too small. These guys are currently in a 90.
Pat

Mine are in a 135g. I sold all my woods to make room. I am only going to keep 10-12 and sell off the rest.

[israelillo81]

Hello Pat,

Congratulations for your beatiful Atabapo Altums. I recently got hold of six peaces and i would like to know what was your initial PH value when you started with them ? and over what period of time have you been raising the PH?.

When I opened the bag the PH was 6.2 but knowing they come from the wild I did the slow dripping method to a 2x1x1ft (15 gallon tank) which I filled with pure RO and peat moss to have a value of 4.5 PH. They have been swimming in 4.5 black water for a week now so far so good i dont see any fin rotting or sign of columnaris.

What was your time period until you got the PH up? or do you still have them i n acid PH?.

Greetings,

Israel

[Second Hand Pat]

A little teaser. I must have moved while video taping them. You will see them get all still.

[spiffyfish]

Looking good Pat, what kind of filtration are you running on this tank? Hard to tell if the ones I got are keeping up in size to yours, I think I got mine from John around the same time.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Chris, this tank is on a sump with an external overflow box. Water volume is around 110 gallons.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hello Pat,

Congratulations for your beatiful Atabapo Altums. I recently got hold of six peaces and i would like to know what was your initial PH value when you started with them ? and over what period of time have you been raising the PH?.

When I opened the bag the PH was 6.2 but knowing they come from the wild I did the slow dripping method to a 2x1x1ft (15 gallon tank) which I filled with pure RO and peat moss to have a value of 4.5 PH. They have been swimming in 4.5 black water for a week now so far so good i dont see any fin rotting or sign of columnaris.

What was your time period until you got the PH up? or do you still have them i n acid PH?.

Greetings,

Israel

Hi Israel,

When I first received my altums they were dime sized and I placed them in near RO water with a dash of tap. I thought I was maintaining them in a somewhat low ph but had no way to measure the ph so didn't bother. After I had them a while I bought a ph monitor and started to measure my ph starting with the altum tank. To my surprise the ph was in the low 7s. I did a bit of testing with just my RO water and right out the RO unit it was 6.4 which I expected. But after aging the RO water the ph jumped to 6.9 and after adding a dash of tap it is in the low 7s. So I think this whole time the altum tank has been in the low 7s. I do keep the TDS about 25 and use a bit of rooibos tea.

Best of luck with your altums. The first month is the most tricky part with these awesome fish.

Pat

[israelillo81]

Hi Israel,

When I first received my altums they were dime sized and I placed them in near RO water with a dash of tap. I thought I was maintaining them in a somewhat low ph but had no way to measure the ph so didn't bother. After I had them a while I bought a ph monitor and started to measure my ph starting with the altum tank. To my surprise the ph was in the low 7s. I did a bit of testing with just my RO water and right out the RO unit it was 6.4 which I expected. But after aging the RO water the ph jumped to 6.9 and after adding a dash of tap it is in the low 7s. So I think this whole time the altum tank has been in the low 7s. I do keep the TDS about 25 and use a bit of rooibos tea.

Best of luck with your altums. The first month is the most tricky part with these awesome fish.

Pat

Interesting to see that you can also keep wild caught juvenile altums at relative neutral pH. I guess more important parameter as with Discus is that water should be extreamly clean and with low TDS. I decided to start with low PH sine here the guys at Singapore always write about starting to rear juvenile discus with PH values around 4.0. This in order to prevent fin Rot (Collumnaris).

Attached you wills see a picture of the guys I bought .They are about 2 inches from base of tail to mouth.

Regards,

Israel