Angelfish, Peruvian "altum", two weeks after they arrived.

The baby angelfish were quite timid for the first week after they arrived.  But now they have lost all their wariness and come out quickly to see if I am going to feed them.  I feed them blood worms and rat tail maggots.  I give them a little flake food in the morning, when they are very hungry, otherwise they would not eat it.  I have offered them tiny pieces of frozen shrimp but they have scorned it.  Every week I do a 50% water change.  They have learned to take bloodworms from the net.  I feed them four times a day.  A little bit of flake food in the morning, an hour later bloodworms and insect larvae.  Then two more feedings in the afternoon of bloodworms or other insect larvae.  I give them no more than what they can eat in a few minutes.  They are gluttonous and in a very short time they fill their bellies to the bursting point.

The "peruvian altum" angelfish briefly came out of hiding, and then ran back to hide again

The baby angelfish spent their first day in hiding, barely peeking out from their refuge among the decorations in the tank.  They spurned almost all food, they ignored tiny bits of shrimps and flakes, only mosquito larvae, which are in very short supply nowadays given people's concern about the Chikungunya virus, tempted them to eat.  On their second day they were only marginally less timid.  Since all the mosquito larvae available was consumed on their first day, I resorted to offering them rat tail maggots and bloodworms.  They hardly fed during the day but in the evening they at last started hunting and ate the bloodworms and maggots until their stomachs were bulging.  When I sit in front of the aquarium they stop all activity and hide.  They are very timid and cautious compared with the commercial strain angelfish I have had.  They take from twenty minutes to half and out to become slightly less wary when I sit in front of the aquarium.  Hopefully with time they will become accustomed to my presence.  Unfortunately getting them live food is a challenge.  I am considering raiding the local bromeliad water tanks to see if I can find enough mosquitoes for them.  It appears I will have to add more vegetation to the tank to make them feel secure.  Optimal feeding for juvenile angelfish is twice a day.  Too much food can foul the water if it goes uneaten.

Five baby angelfish, they are descendants from a wild strain from Peru

 A bunch of babies!

Today I got these five juveniles angelfish, Pterophyllum.  They are the descendants of a wild strain.  All the angelfish in today's pet market are descendants of fish that have been mass bred in captivity for many decades.  The need to produce huge numbers of fish to supply the demand, made the fish breeders to remove the eggs from the parents as a mater of standard practice.  This eventually resulted in angelfishes that lacked parental skills and would eat their spawn and fry.   My hope is that these fish will eventually breed and I will be able to document their parental behavior.  Domesticated angelfish are intelligent, somewhat aggressive (they are cichlids, even if they don't look the part) and can become very tame and responsive toward their owners.  Oh, you read these fish are peaceful?  Well, only in relation to their cichlid brethren from South America, which can be extremely aggressive toward other fishes.  Angelfish can be downright nasty to each other when they are breeding.  They are also skilled predators that will eat any fish that will fit into their mouths.