Pterophyllum altum

Another view

Pterophyllum altum

 

The 4 surviving Pterophyllum altum juveniles. They have been growing quite fast.

Pterophyllum altum

It's been a week since I brought them home and 8 juveniles are gone. There are 3 or 4 more 'thin' ones that I hope would make it. The rest are quite robust already. Pictures to follow.

Pterophyllum altum

It has been 72 hours since I took the 18 juvenile altums home, I lost 4 of the 18 - which is better than the previous experience. I have kept my water temperature at a constant of 32 degrees centigrade and intermittently added Sera's Baktopur (I am on a drip system with water being continuously replaced maintaining almost zero to none of the nitrates). Still keeping my fingers crossed as I do not have the luxury of time.

Pterophyllum altum

Just couldn't resist testing myself - I took home another 18 juveniles. Will keep you updated as I am still quite busy acclimatizing the new arrivals.

Pterophyllum altum

Yesterday, the last remaining juvenile altum was gone. It has been a miserable week or even two, and I am not expecting any soon. I am currently quite busy with work (which is good because it also takes the frustrations off my mind for sometime) and finally I will get my customized aquarium delivered soon (I am really tempted to brag about it but I am not allowed to - it is from a major brand), and the prospect of having a one-of-a-kind aquarium is keeping me involved in the hobby after the heartbreaks and ego-busters. The best of thank yous to friends who suggested to let go this time and focus instead on my brand new aquarium (but still shocked to find out of the cost of materials for the aquarium stand) for next year's batch of altums(?). Also thanks thanks to those who despite the odds, came up with the customized tank - Deric, Boy, and Hazel to name a few). I am still working on that delivery and trying to fit the new tank inside my room (if I can really manage to get it inside because of its width).

As in any loss, there are quite a few things I learned or that should be recognized - carelessness is really dangerous and time management is an important tool in maintaining fish to cite a few. Next time, next time should be a mantra a hobbyist needs to recite quite often.

Pterophyllum altum

For documentation, here's the lone surviving juvenile P. altum I have after all the 'disasters' I went through. Note the length of the ventral fin is longer than the body height. This is what I am trying to find out - whether they P. altum grow out with shorter fin length when mature in captivity. Very few mature P. altums that I see online have fin:body length ratio that Bleher considers as the real ones.

I added two more today, which pales in comparison when it comes to size and fin length (I strongly believe that P. altums should be in a group) - and the new ones already have the longest fins among the stock left from the seller.