Pterophyllum Leopoldi
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| Pterophyllum Leopoldi |
I've always admired tropical fish, particularly South
American species, and it was with some glee that I picked up a
1.8m (6') tank after a long absence from fish keeping.
I'd been cruising the local aquariums for anything
interesting from South America - and chanced across 6 adult
Leopoldi angels in a 1.5' tank with about 25 cardinals. It was
only a vague recollection I had from one of Herbert Axelrod's
early prints of Freshwater Angelfish that this species even
existed. (When I checked later there was indeed a photo of P.
dumerilli (now leopoldi), but it was a pale comparison to these
fish.
Where they came from the dealer couldn't (or wouldn't) say,
but given the general appearance, vigor and size of the fish,
they must have been either wild caught (F0) or early generation
offspring from wild fish (F1/F2). Even better than that, it was
obvious that two of the fish had paired off and were trying to
breed in that tiny tank. Though the fish had been available for
a number of months (they were expensive!), I immediately
reserved them and set about setting up the 6' tank.
Melbourne, Australia has the great advantage of having very
good local water; 1-3dGH, 1-2dKH, pH 6.5 to 8.4 all year round -
the same can't be said for other areas of Australia where low
rainfall, salinity, high hardness and strong chlorination make
soft water aquariums particularly difficult to set up without
reverse osmosis units.
Within two weeks, the aquarium was reasonably established -
ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, thanks to large doses of
commercial biological starters. In any case the tank had two
large UG filters with power heads (total 1600 lph/400 gph) and
an external 1100 lph (275 gph) canister filter - more than
enough for the relatively small number of fish planned on being
supported.
Getting the angels out of their cosy 1.5' tank proved much
more difficult than you would think - they certainly didn't want
to leave! Of course the fish were a bit freaked out by the whole
ordeal, zooming around the tank, trying to leap out of the water
and generally behaving in a most un-angelfish like manner. These
were definitely far stronger fish than the normally placid,
pretty inbred varieties of P. scalare normally found.
Since I wanted some cardinals as well, it seemed to make sense
to take the ones in the tank with the angels - they hadn't eaten
them, and they definitely had passed any quarantine period.
Introducing the fish to the 6ft tank posed no real problem -
on introduction water parameters were: 25.5C, pH7.0, dGH 2, dKH
2 - matching the water in the dealers tank pretty closely (25C,
pH7.0, DH4, KH4).
You wanted plants in there?
A stock of frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms and Tetra
Red was purchased - as these were the staple foods they were
used to. Right from day one the fish accepted food greedily and
also took a great liking to the offering of aquatic plants I'd
been carefully nurturing - Cabomba aquatica they 'loved' to the
point of extinction, and they also liked biting the growing tips
of the leaves from Heteranthera zosterifolia. Cabomba furcata,
Echinodorus sp. and Limnophila sessiflora they wouldn't touch,
however.
I was worried about the amount of stress the fish had been
under in the move, and so I was particularly careful to keep an
eye out for any unusual signs. It wasn't surprising when one of
the angels developed some growths on the gill plates that looked
like Dactilyogyrus. A number of treatment remedies were tried,
but the one that finally did the trick was repeated doses of
methylene blue.
During this time water changes were carried out (based on
Takashi Amano) - 20% once a week, alternating with 50% the
following week. In order to keep the temperature high during the
changeover, three 300 watt heaters were used to minimize
temperature fluctuation (since there was no easy way to pre-heat
300 liters/75 gallons of water). It took between 3 to 5 hours to
refill the tank. At the end of the change water temperature had
decreased to about 23.5C. Just before the refilled water started
entering the tank - the lights were dimmed to simulate lower
light conditions during tropical storms when increased runoff
might be expected to enter the river.
Feeding routines were also followed; small amount of brine
shrimp in the morning, some flakes at lunch time, and a few
bloodworms later in the day. Feeds also occurred as the water
for refilling the tank started entering. In every case, the fish
were never fed more than they could eat in a minute or so. The
fish could also be observed cleaning algae from the walls of the
tank, and sucking in any film or residue which might occur from
time to time on the surface of the water.
After 2-3 weeks of this treatment, it was obvious that things
were looking up. The angels were responding by choosing
territories, and the previously paired male and female spent a
lot of time in one part of the tank signaling to each other by
scissoring their caudal fins. The female's ovipositor started
lengthening over a period of a few days, and this was
accompanied by increased aggressiveness towards the other
angles. Strangely though, they ignored the cardinals and
Corydoras in the tank.
Territorial spawners
The male in particular was very aggressive, rotating until
horizontal in the water then chasing away anything he perceived
to be a threat. On the third day after the female ovipositor
appeared, it had extended to a length of 3 mm.
On the day of the spawning both sexes aggressively chase away
all other fish, while simultaneously tail scissoring to each
other, and cleaning numerous leaves in part of their territory.
Finally, later in the afternoon (1-2 hours from sunset) the pair
select the spawning site and clean it thoroughly. In this case
it was the angled leaf of E. martii. Once cleaned, the female
makes a number of dummy runs across the leaf, with the genital
papillae just touching the leaf. The male follows closely behind
these passes.
If every thing is still going to plan, the female then lays
eggs on the leaf, depositing a run of perhaps 8 to 10 eggs at a
time. The male (usually) also follows after her, but it is
difficult to tell if fertilization occurs at this time or at the
end of the egg laying process. Only approximately 70-90 eggs are
laid in this manner - further evidence to suggest why P.
leopoldi may not be as numerous as its more prolific cousin P.
scalare (300-400+ eggs). The actual spawning process is quite
fast, perhaps no more than 2-3 minutes. (This depends on how
many times the pair feel they need to chase away other fish from
the spawning site).
Water parameters at spawning were: 25.5C, pH6.5, DH 4, KH 4,
although Baensch suggests higher temperature (28-31C) and lower
pH (6.0). (Note: Over the course of a few months, a second pair
came into season which bred at much higher GH/KH 10/8, but this
happened only once).
The eggs are roundish, yellowy, opaque and 1-1.5 mm in size,
and are guarded and fanned in turn by the parents. The male
tends to guard the territory more than the female, although both
take turns at fanning the eggs, and the female will also chase
away intruders.
Of course the difficult decision is always whether to leave
the eggs with the parents, or remove them and hatch them
artificially - in the end the other fish in the tank gave me no
choice but to remove the eggs, as the Cardinal tetras
continually harassed the spawning site to the point where either
they, or the parents, were sure to eat the eggs. In a breeding
tank setup, the parents would probably take very good care of
the fry.
Once separated from the other fish by removing the leaf, 75 eggs
were still attached to the leaf. Over the next 2 days another 14
eggs developed fungus, held in check with a dilute solution of
methylene blue.
The larvae hatch after 36-72 hours, but generally remain
attached to the leaf for another six days (those that fall off
the leaf lie on the bottom of the hatching tank - so it is best
to use no gravel). On the seventh day the larvae are well enough
developed that they could swim about. Five days later, when
their egg sacks are adsorbed, feeding can commence. Initially
some powdered commercial liquid, and frozen baby brine shrimp
can be used, although the liquid is probably not necessary.
The fry grow reasonably rapidly with enough food (feed small
quantities regularly, i.e. 4-5 times per day). Soon after
becoming free swimming the fry are golden brown in color with no
other markings, and measure 4-5mm in length. The fish are long
and thin - shaped like a tetra. It takes another 6 weeks before
the fry start to develop height and gain vertical stripes. At
this time they are a bit sensitive to strong currents - so best
to keep them in fairly still (but well aerated) water. There are
up to 7-8 dark brown to black vertical stripes, many of which
fade as the fish grows.
Pterophyllum Leopoldi juveniles
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| Pterophyllum Leopoldi juveniles |
After three months or so, some of the fish are large enough
to put back with the adults - Although adult fish are
territorial to other adults, the young never seem to be hassled
as long as they are bigger than the adults mouth!
These fish seem to be quite territorial, and my established
breeding pair have now spawned about five times in the same 30
cm (1 ft) area of the 1.8 m (6 ft) tank. About two to two and a
half weeks occurs between spawns (all spawnings were removed and
artificially raised).
Although it would be great to be able to say this is the
first account of these fish spawning, Baensch notes that Swedish
aquarist Jörgen Erlandsson published an account of the spawning
in 1986 in Swedish magazines. Oh well, there's always Peckoltia
pulchra! If you ever see P. leopoldi available in its wild form,
you can be assured that you'll be getting a robust, active fish
that will run rings around your other angels. |
