Heckel Discus

[DiscusKeeper403]

Tank looks nice! Maybe some tannins would help benefit them in feeling more secure? What Ph are you at?


They look like they have grown. Color has improved a lot!

 

[blue acara]

Thanks DL. Tannins would be good but as I am changing so much water(50% per day minimum) they have no time to build up and I'm not adding some bottled stuff daily. The biggest few of the group are probably close to 4 inch now.

 

[cheesy feet]

Very nice, stunning, you can see some are taking on their adult shape

 

[blue acara]

to be honest I havent tested the Ph as I dont really trust the tests that I have got-I need a digital Ph meter really. The TDS is at about 30-40 ppm so the kh and gh is <1. I guess the Ph is below 7 for sure. I'm thinking about adding some peat to the filter and adding some to the water change tub-but I need to be careful with it as I have such a low mineral count;KH, the water is very unstable. Need to test out the effects of different amounts of peat in a tank with no fish and the same water type to be sure that the ph is stable enough, again I need to buy a digital Ph monitor.

 

[severum boy]

Whay looking good!!!
Thats a lot of water to change then every day, but I guess its worth it for them!
Are you planning on tankmates or breeding?

 

[blue acara]

It is a lot of water to change Ive got a routine sorted now and it takes about 10 minutes per day and I don't use any buckets thankfully. Breeding would be nice but its very very unlikely. Heckels have only spawned a handful of times in captivity. I am thinking about adding some marbled hatchet fish soon, they should make a nice dither fish and maby reassure the Heckels that its safe? Also they will not eat food on the bottom of tank so the discus can eat most foods unrivaled still.

 

[severum boy]

I think a group of Hatchets would be the best tankmates you could get for them in my experience.
Good luck with them!

 

[matt295]

really nice discus! cant wait to get some wild in the future

 

[beechey]

discus are very nice were they expensive? might get my self one
hatchets and some serbi corys would be perfect with them...

whats the website where u purchased them?

 

[rabbut]

They look stunning If I can keep the domesticated hybred strains for a few years without problems, you may well end up tempting me to try some of these I have read that they are harder to keep than domesticated fish. Do you find this?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[blue acara]

discus are very nice were they expensive? might get my self one
hatchets and some serbi corys would be perfect with them...

whats the website where u purchased them?

They were fairly expensive £47 each. I got them from <a href="http/www.plymouthdiscus.co.uk/" target="_blank">http/www.plymouthdiscus.co.uk/</a>
If you want wilds check out <a href="http/www.chensdiscus.co.uk/january-2008/" target="_blank">http/www.chensdiscus.co.uk/january-2008/</a>

They look stunning If I can keep the domesticated hybred strains for a few years without problems, you may well end up tempting me to try some of these I have read that they are harder to keep than domesticated fish. Do you find this?

All the best
Rabbut

These are the first wild discus I have kept so I cant say how hard they are over the long term. So far they have been fine, always eating well no problems. Wild caught are strong fish, nature has already culled the weak. They have stronger immune systems than the line bread/inbred domestics. Once you have the wild fish acclimatized and wormed they should be fairly easy to keep. Some wild keepers say they are easier than domestics.

Heres 2 pics of the same fish, taken about 8 weeks apart.

 

[part-timer]

gorgeous discus. I would love wild but being a main display tank I went with domestic for the colour but one day......

Chens have a decent stock of wild in at the moment and can vouch for the quality of his fish.