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Hi all

These guys have been in my tank since New Years Day. Hopeful they'll blossom in the coming months, as they acclimatise to captivity.

They were imported from Glasser Germany by Aqua Pets @ Bondi Junction (Sydney). Glasser called them Semi Royal Wild Greens and identified their collection location as Rio Mutum.

Their health is wonderful and eating has never been a problem. If they are at risk of anything - it's of knocking themselves out when they're startled .... which is often .... still scared, but getting better.

Slow movements necessary anywhere near the tank ..... nothing sudden ..... they're still expecting predators around the corner I guess

Pictures are pretty poor, but what else is new. Some have good red spotting ..... some not as good but still beautiful in their own way ..... the pictures are having trouble picking up any of the red spots though

When these greens want to disappear, they can make the tank seem empty by hiding themselves, almost completely, behind this piece of wood ! A close look & you can see their beautiful red eyes peeking out. I don't begrudge them their hiding spot for one moment. Hope it helps them settle in, knowing they do have something to disappear behind when they're feeling scared. As the pics show, they don't hide all the time. When they feel all is safe, out they come. If I sit quietly in a chair, right in front of their tank, initially they will dart behind the wood for a moment or so .... then out they come.











Cheers
TW

Hi Robyn,

these guys are beautiful! Are they in a quarantine tank right now (looks like bare bottom to me) or did you settle for this as a permanent solution?
I hope all goes well with them - I am lookingforward to see more posts about them.

Claudia

Hello there Claudia

Long time no hear. Well, this is their permanent tank, but also their QT for 8 weeks. There is a thin layer of silica pool filter sand on the tank floor. It only went in on Monday, before that it was BB. I kept it BB until I was sure there were no suspect poops - too hard to spot those white poops on substrate.

After their 8 week QT, I'll add some peppermint BN, sterbai cories & either some rams or A.borelli (which are all doing a separate QT, in another tank, right now). Later, maybe some rummie nose.

It's not going to be a planted tank, as I don't want to subject the wilds to high light or C02. I know that wild discus are fairly cheap in the USA, but over here, they are hard to find and cost a lot - so they are to be the main focus for me. I've been waiting since around March last years to try to get these.

There will be some N.L. java fern, some bolbitus (too lazy to check spelling) & amazon frogbit. The Java fern went in today.

Do you still have your planted tank? Did you ever get back into keeping discus.

Cheers
TW

Hi Robyn
They are beautiful fish!
You might think about some "Dither fish" to help them
acclimate to captivity. Having a school of some tetra
(Rummy nose?) would distract them and they would frighten
less when they see them scurrying around the tank unafraid
of predators.

Next tank (I'm sure there will be more) you might try the
dither fish first, followed by the discus?

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

They are beautiful fish!
You might think about some "Dither fish" to help them
acclimate to captivity. Having a school of some tetra
(Rummy nose?) would distract them and they would frighten
less when they see them scurrying around the tank unafraid
of predators.

Next tank (I'm sure there will be more) you might try the
dither fish first, followed by the discus?

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the nice comment

Rummie's are on the list .... but a bit further down the track .... the clean up crew are next

My discus go in a new tank first, as otherwise they would have to do their 8 week QT in a smaller 2ft tank - while the rummies swim around in a 4ft. They're big fish and there's 8 of them, so that wouldn't be fair. This also means it's one less tank move for them, as they start their life in captivity with me in their permanent home. They've already been on an around the world trip (Amazon to Germany to Australia AQIS to my tank). They're getting more used to me every day & start to know now that I am no danger to them .... even so, a sudden unexpected movement will still cause them to dart behind their safety net (the driftwood).

No more new tanks to come, but next year there will be a shuffle to free one tank up .... hopefuly for wild blue discus .... have to save my pennies first hehehe

Cheers
TW

Congrats on your new inhabitants! Are they babies? I can't really tell from the pictures. They have been well traveled, almost completely around the world. (Assuming they traveled straight east, not west and southeast.) I know they cost a dear penny in Australia but they are not cheap here in the U.S. either. I saw a baby blue for $80 bucks. And I almost fainted when I saw the price of the adults. (I don't even think they were wild either)

Did you ever straighten out that poor disaster you had last year with the discus disease transfer. And how are your remaining stock doing? I hope they are still doing well. I'd like to see updated pics.

Again congrats and good luck!

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hi Kelly

They are young adults. LFS said they might still have some growing to do, but I think they have pretty much reached their adult size. Their colours should improve though, over the next 6 months or so.

I spend a bit of time on a discus specific forum and my USA forum buddies tell me wild discus are readily avilable there ..... but that they're not popular ..... there's no demand for them ..... wild discus aren't as colourful ..... everyone wants brightly coloured domestic discus ..... therefore wilds are cheap(er) ..... brightly coloured domestic discus are in demand = more expensive

Maybe those blue babies you saw might Blue Diamonds or a Cobalt. A wild Blue discus has a brown body with blue striations. The better the quality, the more blue striations. [link]http://www.aquatechnics.net/wilddiscus.htm [/link] This link includes some wild blue discus (scroll below the wild greens. Does this look like what you saw?

Here, you're lucky if you ever see a wild discus .... like in USA, there's no demand so they are rarely available ..... mine were imported as a special order .... it's hard to convince LFS to import them .... but this doesn't translate into them being cheaper - usually they're more expensive

Re my disaster, well the only good thing I can say is that it's finally over. 4 Tanks came down with the sickness (18 sick discus & 6 sterbais). Total loss = 15 discus (including 10 wilds) & 4 sterbais. The 3 discus & 2 sterbais who recovered are still alive & doing well - but will be kept in isolation their entire lives.

Think I've fixed the errors in my procedures that caused the cross contamination .... but it's scary to learn there are some discus killing diseases that can be airborne & spread that way - I think they're rare though.

Throughout it all, my 7ft planted with the domestic discus somehow escaped the disease and all are doing well.

Thanks for asking though - it was a really tough time

I will try to take an updated picture of that tank soon - but it will be pretty boring really - the 7ft tank never changes much. Just gets trimmed & maintained and the discus don't change either. I don't plan on adding any more discus to the tank.

Cheers
TW

Hi Robyn:

I am back to serious fish keeping after 18 months of moving, moving, setting up tanks again and again. On top of this I caught neon tetra disease and probably something more from one of the local stores - quarantine did not help, the disease showed up many weeks post quarantine. Right now I have five wild caught tear drop angels, two ancistrus, 3 bolivian rams and a few left over dither fish (courtesy of neon tetra disease) in the tank.
The tank itself is run over by Blyxa japonica which erupted out of the half dead remainder of a single plant(!) whch was given to me more than two years ago. BJ is doing so well that I became a regular delivey person for a close by store ...

My old/new home town is not exactly a center for tropical fish enthusiasts and prices for ANY discus are steep! I haven't seen a single wild discus anywhere close by but I am toying with the idea (for a rather long time already) of getting rid of the angels replacing them with several German bred discus.
And here comes a question for you: How do you feel about getting a UV sterilizer for my tank? I am still upset about the outbreak that killed several of my discus. On the other hand, I am not an advocate of arteficially sterile conditions as they leave the inhabitants without a functional immune system. However, I read about the horrible outbreak that killed so many of your beautiful discus of them (awful to loose so many pets) and would greatly appreciate your thoughts.

I am going to post an update about the 'Angel tank very soon.

Claudia

Hi Claudia

Sorry to hear you went through your own fish disaster this year - I feel your sadness & pain for sure

Glad to hear you are coming back stronger than ever

I spend a bit of time on a USA discus specific site - if you really want wild discus, then I think the guys there can point you in the right direction. They seem to say if you want them, you can find them. The site has lots of US & Canada based sponsors, who, according to the members are all trusted sellers of discus. There seems to be one sponsor in particular, who also sells on aquabid, that has sold many wilds to members who seem happy.

I'm in favour of UV's, although they do seem to be another controversial subject. Some say they do nothing - I don't know ..... but only one of my tanks didn't end up cross contaminated with that disease outbreak that killed 15 of my discus .... yet that tank was also filled with the water that I believe I contaminated by accidental back syphoning from the diseased tank into my storage container, which was then used to fill ALL my tanks.

There were only 2 differences with that tank ..... it was planted and it had a UV installed .... but I'll never really know what saved it

The wild tank now also has a UV .... maybe it is just expensive peace of mind, but I am glad it is there

Cheers
TW

Ok, here are some more pics - far too many of them LOL

I was holding off until I had some algae covering up my poor effort at the joins in the background & until I had sorted the plants out ..... but what the heck, may as well share now ..... there are still 1 or two more plants to add & those there now are not necessarily where they will stay. Right now, plants are just anywhere

.... if I had a 2nd chance at this tank, I could have done the joins much neater ..... but I think as the tank ages & develops a little algae & plants grow taller, it may help hide the multitude of sins






























Cheers
TW

Nice! What are the plants? I really like the feathery one.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Plant list is being kept very simple. There's narrow leaf java fern, Bolbitis & the floating plant is amazon frogbit.

I think the feathery one you mention is most likely the Bolbitis

Cheers
TW

A few new pictures
















Cheers
TW

Hi Robyn, Haven't been on in a bit. What amazing discus !
They seem very content in their home







The Amazon Nut...