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Juvenile altums

G

GraemeVW

Member
Joined
27 Jun 2022
Messages
150
Location
Chesterfield
No real point to this apart from I love these!
Just in at local shop, maybe 1" body length.
I REALLY want them but don't think my 200L tank is big enough even for just a pair 🙁

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GraemeVW said:
I REALLY want them but don't think my 200L tank is big enough even for just a pair
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Stunning fish. But you’re right, They get too big for a 200l. A fish that requires a really deep tank as they can get 12 inches tall.

One fish I’d love to keep one day when I have the space. Maybe the boss won’t. Mind if I swap the five foot for a tank that’s 30 inches tall 😎
 
Conort2 said:
Stunning fish. But you’re right, They get too big for a 200l. A fish that requires a really deep tank as they can get 12 inches tall.

One fish I’d love to keep one day when I have the space. Maybe the boss won’t. Mind if I swap the five foot for a tank that’s 30 inches tall 😎
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Shop seemed to think it would be ok, and I've read sites saying 40g! But my 200L is only 50cm tall. No matter how much I want it to be big enough, it isn't.
One day I'll have a nice deep 6' tank with some altums though.
Anyhow, probably too delicate for me as they won't like my tap water.
 
GraemeVW said:
Shop seemed to think it would be ok, and I've read sites saying 40g! But my 200L is only 50cm tall. No matter how much I want it to be big enough, it isn't.
One day I'll have a nice deep 6' tank with some altums though.
Anyhow, probably too delicate for me as they won't like my tap water.
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Nine times out of ten shops always say your tank is ok haha!

RO water is probably a must with these unless you live somewhere with tap water with really low tds.
 
Look like Altums to me. Seen them at 30cm deep, they need massive tanks imo.

Easy to spawn/raise but difficult to shift the babies.
 
Conort2 said:
Nine times out of ten shops always say your tank is ok haha!

RO water is probably a must with these unless you live somewhere with tap water with really low tds.
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Shops tap water (not mine though unfortunately) is perfect for these guys apparently
 
castle said:
Look like Altums to me. Seen them at 30cm deep, they need massive tanks imo.

Easy to spawn/raise but difficult to shift the babies.
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Really?
I have seen F1 altums for sale, but not often. I get the impression tank raised ones would sell well, but unfortunately probably to people without big enough tanks.
 
GraemeVW said:
Really?
I have seen F1 altums for sale, but not often. I get the impression tank raised ones would sell well, but unfortunately probably to people without big enough tanks.
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When I get a chance, I’ll share my old fish tank/room pics.

I raised 100+ and I think they got about 4£ each, and I suspect went on to die far too soon. I paid a lot of money for the parents, who died at the ripe age of 17/18ish. I didn’t flood the market, just when I called up a lot of stores, the good ones said they’d take 6. They never wanted any more, I don’t think they sold well. And for some of them, I had to give sweeteners of other fish to get them out. I was selling them at about 5cm in body. 5/6 months old.

Very expensive to raise. For a student anyway.

Excellent fish, that imo shouldn’t be sold anymore.
 
Edit for context, most people in fact, I’d argue less than 1% of fish keepers have fish tanks the size of a sofa (a stat I just made up).

A sofa sized fish tank is what you need. It’s not just height, you need depth and width. Massive fish, genuine predators, beautiful colour. Again, a very small fraction of home aquarium owners are set up for them.

Probably should be in a species tank too, as they’ll eat anything tetra sized, and when they spawn, you don’t want to be in there with them.
 
GraemeVW said:
Really?
I have seen F1 altums for sale, but not often. I get the impression tank raised ones would sell well, but unfortunately probably to people without big enough tanks.
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They’re starting to appear more often so somewhere is starting to breed them on a larger scale.

It’s much better than them being wild caught. These are one of the fish I wouldn’t recommend getting wild caught (along with otocinclus). Apparently survival rates are really poor and many fish die before they make it to shops. Due to their specialist water requirements I can imagine a lot die after in peoples home tanks too. Definitely one for the specialists with lots of room.
 
I actually considered them too myself for a 90cm tank a while back. Out if complete naivety for the size they get too.
Simple research soon uncovered just how big of fish they are.
 
I agree with all that's been said.
It's just a shame there so beautiful!

I think alot of people just seem them as a slightly different angel and buy them accordingly, which is a shame.

Was nice to see them today though, just hope they end up in the right homes. The shop knows the deal though, and they aren't cheap which will put alot of folk off.
 
another unfortunate fish that is commonly sold which shouldn’t be is the green spotted puffer fish and the Ceylon puffer fish,
Both fish reach over 8 inches, live over 15 years are prone to stunting, very active, are euryhaline but do much better in full marine salinity 1.025 - yet are sold in freshwater stores are around 1-2inches and told they’re fine in a 60-80cm tank when it’s far from the case.
 
Not many shops are set up for brackish fish these days, absolutely love seeing the brackish section in any shop that has one. Not that I’d buy a fish, just very interesting to me.
 
seedoubleyou said:
another unfortunate fish that is commonly sold which shouldn’t be is the green spotted puffer fish and the Ceylon puffer fish,
Both fish reach over 8 inches, live over 15 years are prone to stunting, very active, are euryhaline but do much better in full marine salinity 1.025 - yet are sold in freshwater stores are around 1-2inches and told they’re fine in a 60-80cm tank when it’s far from the case.
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One of my local shops has a good selection of freshwater puffers, some labelled up as getting to 12"+.
They do have quite alot of potentially huge fish though so I assume they don't sell to just anyone.

I e no idea why you see so many arowana in shops though. Can't be that many people in the UK that can house one?
I reckon I could probably go out this afternoon and buy 10!
 
GraemeVW said:
One of my local shops has a good selection of freshwater puffers, some labelled up as getting to 12"+.
They do have quite alot of potentially huge fish though so I assume they don't sell to just anyone.

I e no idea why you see so many arowana in shops though. Can't be that many people in the UK that can house one?
I reckon I could probably go out this afternoon and buy 10!
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Again an incredible fish that almost certainly cannot be catered for in home aquaria and I can almost guarantee those pufferfish are brackish and not true freshwater.
 
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