Altum Angelfish
The Altums are fed a diet of live and frozen brine shrimp for the full quarantine period, which generally lasts 14 to 21 days. Wild-caught fish are used to eating natural foods, not commercial fish foods. I find that they usually take to brine shrimp readily, and after I can get them to eat, I will alternate these feedings with a high-quality granular fish food and/or frozen blood worms to build up their strength and weight. Occasionally, a specimen will have a slight case of fin rot. A one-week diet consisting exclusively of commercially prepared flake food impregnated with furazone and tetracycline is very effective in treating this problem.
Because of the Altum's obvious vertical orientation, and the possibility of it reaching its maximum size of 13 to 15 inches, or more, they must be housed in a deep, spacious tank. I have obtained good results by housing my Altums in 55-gallon tanks, heavily planted with large-sized varieties of plants from the Echinodorus, Vallisneria and Hygrophila groups. Not only do these types of plants, with their long and sometimes broad leaves, enhance the beauty of the Altums, they also provide excellent hiding areas for the fish and help them to establish territories amongst themselves. In addition, the fish like to pick at the vegetation. Indeed, you'll find that some hungry Altums may leave their marks on the leaves of your plants.
Although very peaceful, some Altums do exhibit the typical cichlid trait of being quite protective of their territories toward other tank members. For this reason, I make sure that each tank offers a large amount of swimming space for the curious ones who get a little too close to another's territory and need to get out of there in a hurry! Altums also like to pick at the substrate for food, and because of their extended and delicate mouthparts, they can become injured easily by sharp stones. It's best to use coarse gravel that has rounded edges to minimize the risk of injury.
Altums do best in water that is very soft (1 to 6 DH) and somewhat acidic (pH 5.8 to 6.6). Obtaining these water conditions can be achieved rather easily with the use of peat. Placing peat in an outside power filter or canister filter does an excellent job of getting the pH and hardness down to levels at which the Altums thrive. When using peat filtration, you will
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