The Angelfish Chronicles

We have the largest collection of historical wild angelfish articles online. These articles were the inspiration for many advanced hobbyists to collect wild angelfish. Read about the expeditions and collecting trips they went on, the fish they caught, and the stories they had to tell. We're sure these articles will inspire you as well.

We hope you find these articles inspiring, educational, enjoyable and useful.

 (Not counting Lichtenstein's 1821 paper, which went unnoticed for many years; Lichtenstein described an angelfish under the name Zeus scalaris.)
 

The greatest of all dreams are those that can never be fulfilled. Some men dream about flying like a bird...or diving into the sea 1,000 meters in a free-dive (and coming back to tell about it)... my dream has been to photograph every fish in the world.
 

In Dr. Axelrod's recent collection from Igarape Anapichi and Igarape Apania of the Rio Negro, nine specimens of angelfish, varying in size from 28.4 mm to 101.5 mm standard length, were brought back for examination.
 

 ...inquiries into the systematic problems of such fishes would necessitate visits to museums where collections of the species concerned are held or travel to their natural habitats (as was done by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod). The common angelfishes of the genus Pterophyllum seem to be one of these groups that has caused a great deal of trouble.
 

...while the fish to the left is what was once called the eimekei. I was able to keep my eye on the "eimekei because of the shining scale immediately before his first dorsal spine.
 

 "Wild Angelfish-Scalare." That's what the label on the tank in the shop said, and they were just what I was looking for.

Like most hobbyists, I had always assumed that there were just two types of freshwater angelfish, "altum" and "scalare."
The fish in the tank at the shop looked a little peculiar, but they were very small for wild-caught fish...
 

With four other Norwegian and Danish aquarists, I undertook, from February to March 1991, a voyage in Colombia. During this voyage, we went to the Rio Inirida and Rio Atabapo.

...the charm and husbandry of wild-caught angelfish and discus, which, along with the redoubtable uaru, make up an interesting assemblage of highly compressed “pancake” cichlasomines. Many of the wild forms are as pretty or prettier than their cultivated counterparts! They certainly are more the essence of cichlid and more challenging to breed!

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.)