Advertised as Altums

Hi Dirk

Saw these advertised as Altums. Not sure if they are Peruvian or Orinocco, or Altums at all. Would like your opinion please.

Regards
Rowland

 

Hi Rowland,

Thanks for posting this. I saw fishes advertised as altums on a Cape Town wholesalers list about a week ago and I was wondering what sort of fishes these were. They had only imported 10 and were offering them at a not too cheap price, but they were sold just about immediately. I think this must be them, but they are very definitely NOT altums, which was precisely what I had thought. They are Peruvian angels, I find them attractive and these are in good condition. There has been a wave of selling these as "Peruvian altums" in Europe but they have nothing to do with altums, they are a variant of the normal Pterophyllum scalare angel which occurs in Peru. Scalare angels occur over a vast range in the Amazon and there are many variants of them and as more and more of these fishes reach the market we are seeing them as well.

These angels specifically were imported from the east. They breed just like normal angels as a result of which they are multiplying them in large numbers now and selling them as "altums". I get quite fed up about this because selling them as altums to the unknowing aquarist is actually dishonest and a rip-off. However the LFS dealer in SA would not know the difference between peruvian angels and altums and maybe the wholesaler was also tricked into thinking these were true altums. However, they are our normal scalare angels. I have shown a pic below of the fishes that are available all over Europe now.

Thanks for posting this, I think it is important that SA aquarists are not misled in this way, but they are pretty fishes and I would not mind getting some of them and they are a refreshing change from the normal angels with their orange dots between the black lines.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks for the pic there Prof, however I would still not be able to tell the difference if I walked in to buy!

Are those your altums? They are stunning fish!!!

 

No Lizid,

You have completely misunderstood me, those are Peruvian angels, and definitely not altums. Go and have a looked at the striped angelfish thread if you want to see pics of altums please. Altums are in a completely different league, they are MUCH larger, up to 35 cm tall whilst scalare angels rarely get taller than 20 cm.

So you have a lot to learn, but perhaps you can come to my talk at the Aquarama and then you can see what I am talking about.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

I did miss inderstand then sleep depravation lol...

Unfortunately I don't think I am gonna make your talks as I have to do some stuff in the morning then collect my old man as he wants to come with

 

Thanks for clearing that up Dirk, as I suspected. I think you're also spot on saying the wholesaler would not have a clue, nor the LFS, which pretty much means any unsuspecting aquarist would think they have hit the jackpot here! What also kind of gave it away for me, was the fact that there was a tank full of juveniles, selling for R23 each. Knowing what you and Andre paid some time back, and that Altums are not being mass produced, the warning lights went on. The adults in the previous photo were selling for R220.