On our first Colombia expedition ( Voorbeschouwing expeditie Colombia I ) in February 22 gave us the opportunity to spend a lot of time observing our fish in their natural habitats. Naturally we took a small ActionCam with us because it has a big advantage over the big professional underwater housings: the fish stop noticing it after a few seconds and behave quite naturally - right in front of a rolling camera! And what’s more: you don't have to hold your breath for minutes and keep still, you simply position the camera strategically.
Apart from with the altum angelfish, this method worked perfectly almost all the time. Even the piranhas swam around unbothered in front of the camera. They usually keep a greater distance from humans. Things were different with the altums. They weren’t settled in any particular location and you had to find them in the first place! Since they usually stay between branches, firmly fixing the camera was also tricky. The only thing that helped was to remain almost motionless and to give them a sense of security. Then they approached the camera and we got some beautiful pictures! It was more difficult with a larger group of about 10 adult altum angelfish. They were between some big branches at a depth of about 6 m. Luckily we had taken a free diving course with the world record holder Chris Redl. We can't hold our breath for 7.5 minutes like he can, but we did manage 2-3 minutes. This enabled us to take some beautiful pictures of these majestic animals, even in the depths of the blackwater of the Rio Atabapo.
Did you like this video? In our expedition report and in future reports we will include more and more footage like this and thus take you with us on our expeditions.
