Has Pterophyllum leopoldi ever been seen locally before?

[wiki]

I've been searching for this specimen for many years and it seems they are very elusive locally, except for one occasion in QH. Would the Angel specialists care to share their experience please?

[illumnae]

i saw a batch in Fish Haven about a year ago

[stormchild]

i too have only seen them in QH so far. Very beautiful fish.

[Wackytpt]

I used to have a batch of them. Those were from Gan's farm.

You can try enquiring from Fish Haven. If I am not wrong, they are also known as the long nose altum. (Market name)

[benny]

Not a common species, but definitely available once in a while. I have seen them a few times in the shops mentioned above too.

Cheers,

[AngelAddick]

I've been searching for this specimen for many years and it seems they are very elusive locally, except for one occasion in QH. Would the Angel specialists care to share their experience please?

Hi Wiki,
Not quite elusive but imported infrequently. Most LFS would not sell them as they are in the altum price range. I have 3 piece in my aquarium right now from a batch of 6 bought from Fish Haven, an LFS in Telok Blangah.

One of the three is stunted, the other two however are quite beautiful.

I've heard that QH used to have some on display.

If you want to view, just PM me. I am in Hougang Ave 8.

Cheers,
Phil

p/s: They are otherwise known as Long-Nosed Angels, for reasons that are quite apparent.

[wiki]

Thank you for your replies everyone. I will enquire with Fish Haven then.

Aside to Phil, thanks for your generous invitation. I will arrange with you once I am done with my business trip. They are a rare find here and I'm sure you've got yourself a dream specimen. What about the spotted wild ones from Peru? Have you kept them before? I'm trying to learn more about wild Angels. TIA.

[AngelAddick]

Yes, Dave from Fish Haven is quite the expert on Long-Nosed. And Heckels too, if you are into discus. When I visited last month, he was into a goldfish craze!

Spotted wilds are harder to find here because Scalares in LFS are mostly farm-bred already. I've seen a few LFS label their angels Peruvian Altums, which pardon the language standards here, is pure BS. Altum is Altum. Scalare is Scalare. For discussion on paradox fish, do check out finarama.com where the Gurus are still debating this issue.

As for wild-caughts, can anyone here confirm if importers in Singapore bring in wild-caught Scalares? I'd like to have some for sure!

I believe there are a few true angel experts in this forum and over at AQ (I am definitely not one!). These are people who have over the years kept all variants of Scalares as well as Altum and Leopoldi. By variants, I mean the veil-tailed, half-blacks etc etc.

Recently, some local LFS brought in "koi" angels, apparently from China, and retailing for the price of altums. By that I mean you will need three red notes to buy a piece. Having seen kois on US websites, I was curious to see them... and I didn't like what I see. Other than and extremely orangey-red koi patch across the crown and parts of the body, and blood red eyes, the body was patchy silver and the fins were out of shape -- signs perhaps of inexpert breeding?

Anyway, I digress. Some months back, at my local LFS, I was lucky enough to purchase 6 pieces of so-called "Peruvian Altums" for 2 red notes. At the time I didn't quite know how they would turn out, of course, but the LFS owner did day they were bred locally. And boy, did they grow QUICKLY into the most beautiful angelfish I've ever kept. Not quite altum, but superb shape and finnage. And starting to develop some curious wild-type markings as well. Wiki, you can check them out when you visit.

Cheers,
Phil

[wiki]

Thanks for sharing Phil. I catch your drift about the 'Peruvian Altums'. I am asking the exact same question as you about the availability of wild scalares locally.

Anyway, I'm not one who take fancy in specimens from man-made cosmetic meddling.

To my limited knowledge, wild scalares from Peru have reddish spots on their body, and many years back, literature about a wild specimen from Peru named P. scalare 'Red Back' from Rio Manacapuru was exported. I still love the look of those wild fellows, boy do they look majestic!

Thanks again Phil! I'll drop you a PM soon.

[David Moses Heng]

I can't agreee more that peruvians are stunning fish but do be careful as being wild fish, they are prone to have internal parasites within them. I have lost 3 pieces due to this. 2 due to hole in the head. Prior to their death, they were seen constantly gasping for breath on the water surface when all my other faunas were happily swimming around. Currently i have 5 pieces remaining. Only four of them are peruvians. Out of these 5, 4 of them have spawned but the eggs were never hatched.

In fact, i am giving all my flora and faunas away for a new scape.

Cheers!!

[AngelAddick]

To my limited knowledge, wild scalares from Peru have reddish spots on their body, and many years back, literature about a wild specimen from Peru named P. scalare 'Red Back' from Rio Manacapuru was exported. I still love the look of those wild fellows, boy do they look majestic!

Bro, looks to me you've done more research on this than most people would. Credit to you.

I've not seen Manacapurus except in pictures at Finarama. Again, I am always very suspicious when I see fishes labelled altums in shops. I would guess Manacapurus would be imported as adults but in my two years of keeping angels (yes, only 2 years...) I've certainly not seem them anywhere here in Singapore, or in Malaysia. If you see some let me know!

Some wild-caught angels apparently have spots on their bodies which are parasite cysts, so have to be careful.

[AngelAddick]

I can't agreee more that peruvians are stunning fish but do be careful as being wild fish, they are prone to have internal parasites within them. I have lost 3 pieces due to this. 2 due to hole in the head. Prior to their death, they were seen constantly gasping for breath on the water surface when all my other faunas were happily swimming around. Currently i have 5 pieces remaining. Only four of them are peruvians. Out of these 5, 4 of them have spawned but the eggs were never hatched.

In fact, i am giving all my flora and faunas away for a new scape.

Cheers!!

Bro, if you are giving away your Peruvians, I'd like to see them. Thanks.
What you said underlines the importance of proper quarantine, especially for wild caughts. The experts at Finarama don't cut corners on quarantine, especially for altums. And they are quite good with the range of drugs they used for de-parasiting and de-worming, and anti-biotics. I think this is one area of knowledge that we can improve on here.

I bought 6 pieces of P Leopoldi in July. Quarantined for a month, dosed them with anti-biotics. When they were stable, I transferred them to community tank. They swam around merrily for a couple of months. They one of them started swimming funny. And I noticed a couple more not eating. After the first one died, I took out three that looked unwell to quarantine, two didn't make it.

Still not as bad as a friend who went to buy one piece of P Leopoldi right after me to add to his collection, without quarantine. Within a week, his entire tank was wiped out.

And congrats Bro Altum_lover76 for your Montford School initiative. Highly commendable, well done indeed.

[wiki]

Hey guys, thank you for the sound advice.