The P. scalares that WEREN'T!

As previously posted on the LFS thread, I recently obtained 3 (what I thought were) wild caught Peruvian angels, which originally were supposed to be altums, but the owner realized they had to be sclares. I got the head's up here (thanks, Lemondiscus!), and rushed down to snag a few.

I went back and got two more ultimately, so now I have 5, but I happened to share some pics of these fish with an Aussie acquaintance who is also an acquaintance of Heiko Bleher, the renown explorer (google him if you are not familiar - there are fish named after him) and she showed the pictures to him. We were suspicious the fish were not sclares at all but P. leopoldi, a pretty uncommon import. Here are the pics of the first three in the 40-gallon Q-tank after they relaxed enough to be out of hiding when a human was in the room:





And a full tank shot of them swimming across:


Here is an excerpt of what Heiko Bleher wrote back to me:

How cool is that?

So now I have the first P. leopoldi I have ever seen (never heard of them prior to now, truth be told) and am strongly considering breeding them. I have had a few tries at breeding marble angels, but never tried too hard and they were horrible parents, but I might devote a tank to a pair if I get one. These angels will otherwise go in my 150 once their quarantine period is over. They are in 85F water right now, as that was what it took to reduce their stress, and I hope to wean them down to 82 or so in the 150.

 

Exactly - like Mr. Bleher says: "have always their head/nose slightly downwards pointed (all populations of P. leopoldi have)"

What tipped some people off is the faded barring and the spot at the base of the dorsal, but the lack of a crease between nose and eyes is telling as well. They don't get as large as scalares or altums, and are apparently somewhat more aggressive, but they are very cool so far. They are extremely sensitive, though, and I have had to handle them with kid gloves in terms of water params, lighting, temp and food. Maybe I'll be qualified to keep discus before too long...