[jiayaw]

Day 1 - August 29th, 2016

I bought 8 Altum angels from a local fish store today, and they are now being quarantined in my 33 gal tank that used to be a grow out tank for my angel fries (I stopped raising angelfish fries to make room for the altums). They are now being dosed with Furan 2 to prevent columnaris, and after the furan 2 treatment, I will deworm them with Prazipro and combo it with metro to make sure they don't have any internal parasites.

The plan is to quarantine and grow these guy out for a few months in the 33 gal tank, then when they are strong enough, I will move them to my 75 gal planted south american tank (with the regular angels moved out). Because I went on vacation in May, some work has to be done with the planted tank for it to look nice again as a lot of the plants didn't make it after 3 weeks of vacation. So I will use the next couple months to rescape and plant the planted tank while I quarantine these altums.

They are being fed live BBS right now as they wild caught and the fact that they are so small (dime sized) right now that I can't afford to have them go on a hunger strike. I will eventually move to frozen food and then also pellets and flakes because I move them to my main community tank. 7/8 of the altum acclimated pretty well right from the beginning. However there was one that was just always hiding in the corner of the tank or behind the sponge filter. I really hope it will make it, and I do sense a bit of hope after I started feeding them the live BBS and it swam out and joined the other 7 altums and started filling up it's tummy.

This is my first time keeping altums (previously have kept, bred and raised scalares successfully, and also have few years experience keeping other freshwater fish), hopefully with the experience I've built up from raising baby angels and the habit of having a diligent maintenance schedule will help me successfully raise these guys as they are just gorgeous.

Planning to do water changes every 2-3 days and hopefully that will be enough.

Now for the best part. video and pictures

 

[jiayaw]

Day 2 everyone survived and even the one that was hiding started swimming normally today!

One of them develop a cottony blemish close to it's gill cover this morning, but was gone by time I got home from work. I have since done a 30% water change and redosed the furan2. I just wanted to make sure the angels are in pristine water while they get used to life in captivity.

More updates to come when water is less pissy yellow so I can take better pics after the treatment is over. I plan to do two rounds of treatments

 

[mollyb]

wow - those are the youngest altums I have ever seen. Any idea of the river system? there are subtle differences, but none would be evident yet. Keep up the prophylactic quarantine regimine, I think it is a good idea. Nice fish (so far!) Brent

 

[jiayaw]

This is my first time attempting to keep Altums, so any input is certainly welcomed! Really hope that I can be successful with raising them. So far they look good and feeding. Just don't want to be too happy too soon yet... still on guard.

 

[jiayaw]

Day 4

All 8 of them are swimming around nicely as before, and eating bbs like pigs (filling up their tummy) but I noticed that 2 of the altums started having cottony growth on their feelers. Will have to observe closely over the next day or two to see if any other course of action is required. This was supposedly the last day for treatment of Furan 2 but looks like I will need to do one more round of treatment because of the cotton growth on the 2 individuals that have developed over night.
My plan of attack will be to do a larger 80% water change tonight before I dose today's furan 2 treatment to ensure they got clean water (bought a garbage bin and a pump so I can premix tap water with a little bit of equilibrium and make sure the water is in the right temp before I fill the tank instead of filling in from tap or onto multiple 5 gal bins and manual scoop water into tank after water is mixed, which was what I did 2 days ago, so only did 30% change then). See if things have improve by tonight (last time there was cottony growth on one fish, the cottony growth was gone by night time), if not, I have some kanaplex ready that I can add to supplement the furan 2 treatment.

Hopefully the altums won't go downhill and that I will be able to keep all of them alive!

 

[jiayaw]

Picture update of day 4 after 80% water change - seems like the furan 2 is working well to control the fin rot as even though I saw the cottony growth on the feelers of two of the fish, by time I got home from work, the fuzz on the feeler is now reduced (as can be seen on the first pic, the fish on the upper right has feelers with a bit of fuzz left). I've decided to add kanaplex to it though as even though the fin rot seem to be under control, it is still a bit worrying for it to even show up the first place when the tank's been medicated already. By time I am done with the Furan 2 second 4 day treatment (finishing the first 4 day treatment today), I should be done with 3 treatments of Kanaplex for the fish as well and finger cross that they will continue to look healthy! I am already very happy that all 8 are doing fine at the moment and hope it will continue this way.


The pictures don't have the best white balance/colour because the water itself is still very yellow from the medication. Once the quarantining is over, the pic quality should get better!

 

[Fishman21]

An ambitious project starting off with 8 really small alums. I hope you're successful. They're awesome when big!

Good luck

 

[jiayaw]

I would've preferred if they came slightly bigger in size. But been waiting for so long for Altum season this year and these are the only ones I found! Hope I can grow them out nicely!

 

[Jcmalouie]

interesting thread. will be following to see the progress.

 

[jiayaw]

Day 5 - The Kanaplex and Furan II combo seems to be working really well. I see no more signs of the fin rot worsening (if anything I already see them starting to heal). Continuing to feed them live bbs twice a day and everyone happily feasting away. So far so good, 8/8 still kicking around healthily and hoping to keep it that way!

As per the pictures, they have certainly started to colour up (though not as noticeable because of the piss yellow water).

 

[bonsai dave]

Keep up the good work. It's not easy raising altums at that size. I was really disappointed when I saw them last weekend.

 

[jiayaw]

I can tell right from the get go that this will be more of an uphill battle than raising domestic silver angels from scratch.

Hopefully I'll get a high survival rate after the initial quarantine. One thing I'm not sure though is if the fin rot and the red fin base at the pectoral fins aren't completely eradicated... Should a repeat another round of kanaplex and furan 2 treatment. I do have until Tuesday before the planned treatment is over, hopefully everything is eradicated by then so I can move on to treating for parasites

 

[jiayaw]

So far so good. Looks like most of the fin rot is now gone and the red fin base is mostly gone too! That's always good news.

At this rate, I might just buy one more pack of furan 2 and kanaplex just in case and only treat it if I have to. If not, I will I will end the whole treatment by Tuesday, give them a nice 80% water change. Follow by another water change on Wednesday then I'll start dosing metro and prazipro for internal parasites!

One of the Altums was being a little emo for the last couple of days, spending time some at top of tank. Not sure what's wrong but it's a bit more skittish than the rest but it's colours are fine and the fins are not clamped. It seemed to have perked up after the water change. Fingers crossed!

 

[jiayaw]

Taken today

 

[jiayaw]

Day 8
The Emo one was still hanging on the top of the tank by itself this morning and was still very skittish and jump. Things have gotten better after I did a water change, and now it is swimming around with the others. Hopefully after the round of prazi/metro that they will all be better. I noticed that there are maybe 2-3 of them that are not fattening up even though they have been eating a lot and filling up their bellies. The other ones on the other hand, have definitely grew in size. Hopefully the round of prazipro and metro will help.

 

[aprilsaquarium]

Prazzi will only do tape and flukes. Metro is for stomach infections and flagellates.
You could over
Do the meds and Altums
Don't do well
With meds. Mixing is risky.
If you want a good parasite
Med
Google
Kusori dewormer and order online. It will help
With things
Like capillaria etc which is more
Likely than tapeworm. Kusori helps
With wasting etc .
But in the end your fish and your decision.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jiayaw]

Hi April,
I certainly appreciate your help. I certainly know not to mix different meds. I'll be ending the furan-2 and kanaplex treatment first and get that out of the tank system before going to deworm. The attempt with the antibiotic have really controlled the fin rot and columnaris which showed it's signs on the altum but was gone quickly.

Thanks for the suggestion of the dewormer, I'll do some research on that! I just read a lot on different forums that they usually treat with furanii first in case of columnaris, then go for a round of prazipro and metro after. For the quarantining of altums

 

[bonsai dave]

I have used kusori with great results on my altums I had just got a few months ago. I have used it a lot in the past on my Wild angle and discus. I stole per using prazi and metro a while back. I didn't like the results. I was getting. If you want to try the kusori let me know have a batch kicking around.

 

[jiayaw]

Thanks Dave for your offer! I actually ordered it online before I saw the reply. Once again thanks for the offer.

I can not wait to get rid of the piss yellow water after the furan 2 treatment is done!

 

[jiayaw]

Day 10
90% water change to get rid of the Furan 2 in the system. Starting to now treat with Prazipro and Metro as I don't have the dewormer yet. Everyone in the group except for 1 is looking super healthy and putting on some good weight. The 1 individual still acts jumpy and would freak out a the slightest movement. Things seem to have improved since the water change and dosing of prazipro, it still is jumpy and hangs around the top of the tank but it started to swim towards the main group and hang around there more often now. Hopefully it will survive.
First pictures of the healthy ones



and lastly the one that is super jumpy and hangs around the top of the tank the most. While all the other one are putting on some weight, this guy stayed thin. Anyone have any idea on what might this guy needs to be treated on to save it? It's symptoms include being super jumpy, very nervous and would freak out easily, it hangs around the top of the tank a lot but sometimes will swim down to join the crowd. Will eat a lot of bbs when its feeding time but doesnt seem to gain weight despite having full belly after each meal.