There is hardly an aquarist who does not know the angelfish. And the more accomplished aquarists know and admire the large, high-finned altum angelfish. These majestic fish also live in the region around Puerto Inirida. However, the Rio Inirida, on which Puerto Inirida is located, is murky and not very inviting. Yet only an hour's boat ride to the east, you come to the Rio Atabapo, which, together with the Rio Inirida, meets the Orinoco coming from the east a little further north and joins this second largest river in South America.
View of the Orinoco, where it meets the Atabapo/Inirida
Our destination was the crystal-clear Rio Atabapo, whose blackwater has a water temperature of over 30 °C!
The Rio Atabapo is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world
The Rio Atabapo forms the border between Colombia and Venezuela. It carries brown but crystal-clear blackwater in which, for example, the famous altum angelfish live. Even the boat trip across the river is a real experience.
Each of our three teams, with staggered times, travelled the Atabapo southwards, along the border to Venezuela. We stopped where it was beautiful, where there were inspiring photo motifs and where we suspected there’d be some interesting fish.
The pleasant water temperatures meant we only needed a T-shirt for sun protection. We aquarists assume, because of the special fins of altum angelfish, that they avoid currents and are more likely to be found in calm locations. This is often the case, but in Atabapo we found altum angelfish near the river bank, between wooden roots (as we expected), but in a quite noticeable current. Only rarely did the altums travel alone or in pairs. We found a group of about 10 fish living in one place, amongst horizontal wood whose pattern was nothing like the vertical stripes of the Altum. They always moved between the branches of the fallen tree and never left their cover voluntarily. If you kept very quiet, you could even watch the group looking for food on the wood and picking at it. The dead branches reached down to a depth of 5 m, so we snorkellers only had a short time to observe them at this depth.
Rare underwater footage of altum angelfish in their habitat
The Bresser action cam captured beautiful footage of the majestic altum angelfish in the Rio Atabapo (Colombia). They always stayed between branches, from the surface to a depth of about 6 metres. The speed of the current for these fish, which actually love calm water, is remarkable!
We found altum angelfish in two other biotopes. Firstly, between large boulders, which the fish used as cover just like wooden roots, and even right under the water surface, only 50 cm down in the shallows of a bank. These, however, were all juveniles which stayed there in pairs. If you lay absolutely still in the water and only looked through the camera's viewfinder, the juveniles even came within a few centimetres of the camera, making portraits of the beautiful animals possible!
Altum juveniles directly under the water surface
Juveniles of altum angelfish can live in shallower biotopes, but always in areas where they can retreat between branches or even stones. It is nice to see that they do not chase small fish, but pick food particles from the branches.
Next to the altums there were always flag cichlids (Mesonauta insignis), often Crenicichla sp. cf. lugubris "Atabapo" and of course characins. After the altums the largest fish were peacock bass (Cichla orinocensis and Cichla temensis). There were no real underwater plants in any of the altum biotopes. The nearest thing to underwater plants were water-logged land plants or leaves from branches that had fallen into the water: these created a short-lived underwater flora.
A group of flag cichlids in the shore biotope
Flag cichlids were very often sighted. They were always quite trusting and our presence hardly bothered them.
Crenicichlas in their different habitats
Crenicichla species were often sighted, always in larger groups. By placing the underwater camera on the sandy ground, we were able to take some incredible pictures of these beautiful animals.
Nothing is better than making underwater observations of fish in their natural habitat
Many fish species have quite a large escape distance. If you anchor the underwater camera quietly on the bottom, the fish will return and can be filmed undisturbed. This made it possible to film piranhas and other shy fish species.
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