My altums... maybe

[Fluff]

I was watching them today and noticed two had paired off and was giving the third one a hard time. I moved it to a different tank then noticed one angels rubbing against a leaf of their sword plant. I've watched my silver lace angels spawn but never got to witness the before spawning behavior. So, I gave em a good water change and a piece of slate just in case. All those changes probably threw them out of wack and nothing will happen. lol But, does this behavior sound like pre spawning behavior? Thanks.

 

[Jchillin]

Yes Cindy, those are the telltale signs of spawning preparation. You will also observe several trips to the water surface for air and then using that to clean the spawning location.

I have no idea yet why or what the purpose of using the plant leaves (they will use artificial as well as real) is for.

 

[Fluff]

Well, I assumed that was an attempt at prepping the leaf for laying. Since then though I've moved the plant some and placed slate in there for them and they no longer seem interested. Of course. I did feed them some frozen brine and live blackworms today to get them good and pumped. Well, they normally get blackworms a few times a week anyway but the brine was an extra treat. lol. I can't be in there with them all the time so I've been peeking in from time to time to check on them. They're colors are dark and they are displaying to each other so, we will see.

 

[Jchillin]

Yeah...the reason I felt the leaves are a mystery is mine have done this repeatedly and cleaned off and spawned on the intake tube instead. They will use the leaves for laying, but it usually isn't the same one that they used initially. Go figure. I guess they know what they are doing. LOL.

 

[Guest]

I would love to get some true altums... where did you get yours from? Them and the blushing angels are my favorites.

 

[Fluff]

I got them from ThatFishPlace in PA. I'd have gotten more but, they only had four. (lost one the first week)

 

[mattrox]

http://www.kaff.jp/index.html

This seems to be postly in Japanese but there is some interesting stuff if you click the buttons.

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43154&
This is a nice altum setup.

 

[cdawson]

Spawning altums and raising altum fry seems to be really difficult. These are not you average angels, they need a low ph of around 4.5 to spawn and it's even more difficult to raise the fry than discus. Reason #1 there are not more altums in the hobby. Of in the wild they seem to have no problems reproducing en masse :x :x :x
They also appear to require really large tanks to spawn successfully as well (100+ gallon), and need to be much more mature than other angels (2+ years old).

 

[Fluff]

Thanks everyone.
Yeah, I know they are difficult but I'm up to the challenge. The fact that they were trying on their own, in a ph of around 6.8 without any changes or assistance on my part, and that my fish are captive bred to begin with, I'm hopeful. My angels are a little over a year old. I messed them up by rearranging the tank but as of yesterday, they've been cleaning/prepping again. Fish don't always behave the way we expect them too, nor did they read the book so time will tell.

 

[cdawson]

Most angels will clean/"prepare" as a grazing technique. It's doesn't necessarily meaning they're spawning or preparing too.
6.8 is a little too high for them to spawn. If it were 6.2-6.5 maybe, but 6.8 is still too hard.
I'm crossing my fingers for you though!

 

[aquakev]

I would definately tip my hat to you if you are successful, and then open my check book to get some of the young.

Good luck,

i know there is a angel forum with people documenting their attempts at spawnig real altums. I think it may be simply angels- yep- but it hasnt been updated much
http://www.simplyangelfish.com/forum/index.php?topic=10.0

 

[Fluff]

I would double check the ph but I've been slowly lowering it over the last week. Spawning tubes were present yesterday evening, haven't checked on them today. I'll update this thread if anything happens.

 

[Devilishturtles]

*crosses her fingers and hopes for altum babies*