New photos of some of my discus

[apistomaster]

Here are photos of a wild Manacapuru male which I paired with a red turquoise female.

The female with spawn.

Now the Heckels.

[Lisachromis]

Fantastic shots!

[JuanD15]

awesome Discus. quick question do you think i can keep 2 in a 30gallon planted tank??

[apistomaster]

The pair consisting of a wild blue a red turquoise female I posted are in a 29H.

[apistomaster]

I have had these wild Nhamunda Blues for a couple of months and they are all nice and plump. I'm a little short on males in this group of six so whenthis seasons' wilds start showing up I'll try to get a few semi-royal blues on the presumption that they are likely males.

[Hudson Ensz]

Nice discus they are beutiful! what do you feed them? i could watch them for hours!!!

[Klaus Steinhaus]

Beautiful photgraphs and awesome discus Larry.

[Lisachromis]

You need to get back into discus Klaus!

[Klaus Steinhaus]

You need to get back into discus Klaus!

Lisa you temptress ........

You know how much I love these fish but I DON,T HAVE THE SPACE AND TIME FOR THEM NOW

[apistomaster]

I feed my wild Discus live black worms, frozen blood worms, Tetra Color Bits, frozen beef heart blend and earth worm sticks. I have some live mosquito larvae this time of the year that are an extra treat. I have my Blues divided between two 40 gal breeder tanks and I think I have some pairing off. I plan to get a few better striated Blues and set them all up in a 100 gal soon. I am more apt to get pairs if the group spends some quality time together. It has been a long time since I last kept and bred wild discus but that is what I am working on again. I still raise domestic turquoise discus but I have always liked wild discus more. The tank raised discus have become so easily kept and bred that anyone willing to take good care of them can do it. The wild discus still take higher degree of attention to get them to spawn in captivity but when they do spawn, it has always seemed to me like they were more reliable as parents. It's my hope that there will be enough who like the wild type discus that I will be able to find the young ones good homes. Wild or the young from wild fish, always seem to retain their instincts they need for survival and that can make them more interesting aquarium fish to keep. We have changed both the colors and behaviors during the development of the fancy hybrid Discus. Domesticated Discus have become content to live in the confines of a bare box of water where they can do nothing but eat and breed. Wild type discus need an environment that is enriched with natural structures like wood, some sand and a few plants, IMO.

[Lisachromis]

You need to get back into discus Klaus!

Lisa you temptress ........

You know how much I love these fish but I DON,T HAVE THE SPACE AND TIME FOR THEM NOW

Um... you have Geos.... why not do a mixed tank? Hehehehe

[apistomaster]

One of the most interesting display tanks I have had was a 125 gal tank set up with 6 large wild Royal Blue Discus, 4 large Heckel Discus, and 4 Geophagus surinamensis. I don't keep different discus species together anymore but that was a nice show tank.
I kept them all together for a couple years but it was when I owned a fish shop. Geophagus surinamensis were just becoming available. Before then, there were only S. jurupari and then G. brasiliensis commonly available. I think G. brasiliensis is now in another genus, isn't it?
I also had a large Black Ghost, 4-6" shovelnose Cats and an Arowana starting at 8" then sold when it was about 12". I sold all the fish except the discus.
I just had about 1 inch of sand, some wood and large Amazon Swords in clay pots for furnishings.

[Klaus Steinhaus]

You guys are bad

[Lisachromis]

You got it.

[Dean Hougen]

... It's my hope that there will be enough who like the wild type discus that I will be able to find the young ones good homes. Wild or the young from wild fish, always seem to retain their instincts they need for survival and that can make them more interesting aquarium fish to keep. ...

I agree and I love wild type discus. I think I offended a very successful breeder once when a friend and I were in this guy's breeding operation and I was photographing his discus. This was about 20 years ago. I was shooting shot after shot of his wild discus, asking him to describe where each one came from, making him draw maps for me, etc. After we left my friend said, "Uh, don't you think you should have taken at least one photo of those domestic strains he was developing?" I guess I should have but it never even crossed my mind!


Dean

[apistomaster]

I have observed over the years, that when non-fish keeping visitors are looking at my discus, they are usually drawn to the wild discus over the arguably more colorful Red Turquoise Discus. It is often the reverse when Discus keepers visit. I suspect it is because for most of them realize the wild fish cost more and they may not feel up to the challenge. They know they can buy the Red Turquoise from me at a reasonable price and not have to pay for any shipping.
Wild Discus do have an appeal all their own but just cost much more and healthy specimens are really hard to find.

Wild Discus are rarely stocked at the larger fish shops in Spokane, WA, 100 miles away. It is not that easy to find wild discus in the Seattle shops, over 300 miles away. About the only way to get decent wild Discus here is to buy from one of the on-line stores that carry some wild Discus and after adding the cost of over night shipping from the SE to the NW USA, they can easily cost $75 to $100 each. Even these fish will take about 3 months to restore to excellent shape again. Better colored wild discus can cost over $100 each before freight. I wholesale 2-1/4" red turquoise for only $12.50 each so they can be had for about $30 each at the fish shops.

[Dean Hougen]

I agree that cost and challenge probably both play a roll.

By the way, here are some of those fish. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos. The conditions under which the photos were taken was not the best and they have been scanned from slides on a flat-bed scanner, which also doesn't help.

17_discus_websize.jpg (30.04 KiB) Viewed 3801 times

57_discus_websize.jpg (39.14 KiB) Viewed 3800 times

82_discus_websize.jpg (47.29 KiB) Viewed 3796 times

86_discus_websize.jpg (42.27 KiB) Viewed 3798 times

Dean

[Lisachromis]

I'd be happy with any of those wilds in my tanks! They are gorgeous.

[Hudson Ensz]

I feed my wild Discus live black worms, frozen blood worms, Tetra Color Bits, frozen beef heart blend and earth worm sticks. I have some live mosquito larvae this time of the year that are an extra treat. I have my Blues divided between two 40 gal breeder tanks and I think I have some pairing off. I plan to get a few better striated Blues and set them all up in a 100 gal soon. I am more apt to get pairs if the group spends some quality time together. It has been a long time since I last kept and bred wild discus but that is what I am working on again. I still raise domestic turquoise discus but I have always liked wild discus more. The tank raised discus have become so easily kept and bred that anyone willing to take good care of them can do it. The wild discus still take higher degree of attention to get them to spawn in captivity but when they do spawn, it has always seemed to me like they were more reliable as parents. It's my hope that there will be enough who like the wild type discus that I will be able to find the young ones good homes. Wild or the young from wild fish, always seem to retain their instincts they need for survival and that can make them more interesting aquarium fish to keep. We have changed both the colors and behaviors during the development of the fancy hybrid Discus. Domesticated Discus have become content to live in the confines of a bare box of water where they can do nothing but eat and breed. Wild type discus need an environment that is enriched with natural structures like wood, some sand and a few plants, IMO.

I have observed over the years, that when non-fish keeping visitors are looking at my discus, they are usually drawn to the wild discus over the arguably more colorful Red Turquoise Discus. It is often the reverse when Discus keepers visit. I suspect it is because for most of them realize the wild fish cost more and they may not feel up to the challenge. They know they can buy the Red Turquoise from me at a reasonable price and not have to pay for any shipping.
Wild Discus do have an appeal all their own but just cost much more and healthy specimens are really hard to find.

Wild Discus are rarely stocked at the larger fish shops in Spokane, WA, 100 miles away. It is not that easy to find wild discus in the Seattle shops, over 300 miles away. About the only way to get decent wild Discus here is to buy from one of the on-line stores that carry some wild Discus and after adding the cost of over night shipping from the SE to the NW USA, they can easily cost $75 to $100 each. Even these fish will take about 3 months to restore to excellent shape again. Better colored wild discus can cost over $100 each before freight. I wholesale 2-1/4" red turquoise for only $12.50 each so they can be had for about $30 each at the fish shops.

Yeah wilds are certainly prettier then the man made ones i really wish i could send you some choice discus at the fish stores here. should i put a discus whith my 7 inch oscar in the 200 gallon pond? interesting obseration that.what do you keep more of discus or apistos?

[sheila]

Beautiful fish! I'm very new to Discus, I have only had mine for a little over 2 months, but they are truly incredible fish!