Our heckels

[Gajowa]

Hi
This are our heckels. We have them for 19 m-ths now. I don't have to tell you, those fish are our pride and joy. We brought 7 of them, but we lost 2 to speeding and 1 recently to different cause. Now we have 4 left, where there is definitely a pair.
Water conditions;
ph - 4-4,5
kh - 0
gh - 6
NO2 -0
NO3 -5-10
NHO3 - 0
temp 27-29 deg Celsius
akqarium cap - 350 l

I hope you will like the fish

[*Polka dots roc*]

Beautiful discus... I love the last picture:D

[Darren's Discus]

Beautiful looking heckels,they look very healthy.all the best with them.


cheers

[plecocicho]

Beutifull discus and superb setup!:D

[Kevin22]

too bad you lost three, but the rest are certainly great.
great setup, good luck on sprawning.
BTW, what the floating plants you are using, looks great

[Gajowa]

BTW, what the floating plants you are using, looks great

That floating plant is ceratopteris pterioides.
We have that in both tanks with wild discus. They like to nibble on that from time to time.

[katt-ja]

what s that floating plant you have in the tank?

[Kevin22]

thanks, that'd be water sprite, I guess.
I'm using Pennywort. Thinking about use water sprite down the road


That floating plant is ceratopteris pterioides.
We have that in both tanks with wild discus. They like to nibble on that from time to time.

[Eyecandy]

Hi there... beautiful fish and set up. Good luck with them. Keep us updated on the possible pair. Sue:):)

[Göran Ekholm]

Like always your Heckels are stunning!

[Moon]

thanks, that'd be water sprite, I guess.
I'm using Pennywort. Thinking about use water sprite down the road

Water sprite do well in acid water.

[dizkuz]

Very nice barbra, as allways:)
Hope you will get them to breed soon, wish you the best.
Brgds Danne

[pan]

Your fish are really fantastic.I like your set up very much.Good luck in breeding

[Genirous]

Hi Barbara,
very beautiful tank and more beautiful heckels!!! Keep heckeling!!! :D

I would like to ask you if you know how much phospates you have with such low ph, because I can't get down to 4,00-4,50 without them... :o

[Apistomaster]

I have kept Heckels in RO water with a pH of >5 and my tap water with a pH of 7.4, KH 6, Gh 7 and TDS ~340.
They don't breed in either conditions or look and act any differently so I just use the tap water.
For maintenance, water freshness and cleanliness seems to matter most. My Heckels are old enough to have become very large specimens but despite all these years in captivity, they remain very wild. Gawaja reports losses to something called "speeding". I wonder in what way is this different from the normal panic attacks they are prone to? I designed my Heckel environment to avoid any sharp and hard object that they may crash into. They still get scratched up when they have panic attacks when dashing madly about but those minor injuries heal quickly. They actually became more likely to panic as they matured. They lost much of the curiosity they had as juveniles. I think the adults are far more cautious in their behaviors and much more likely to take flight when alarmed.
I still have 10 I grew out from ~3 inch diameter juveniles and I only lost a couple during the first five days but they were particularly run down and sick specimens.

I have pretty much given up on my hopes of ever breeding Heckels. I do have at least two large pairs that guard and clean a potential spawning spot and they even make false runs. I believe they use their sensitive ovipositors as a sensory organ to evaluate the quality, cleanliness and suitability as an egg laying location. I have always been able to get this far with Heckels but never to the point of an actual spawning.
I'll continue to keep them as show fish but I am going to continue to work on breeding wild Blues again and I am setting up a new 125 for a group of wild Red Spotted greens. I will be able to keep my Heckels which are still my favorite wild discus and the new red spotted greens in the living room where I will be able to compare and contrast the their behaviors.

[Esquire]

Wow

Heckels are the best, I hope the promotion of the discus hobby brings them to being a easier fish to breed in captivity.
Actually surprised it's taking so long.

[Eddie]

Hi Barbara,

I just wanted to bring this thread back up to eye level :). Any success on the pairing? Hopefully so and let us know.


Eddie

[Gajowa]

Hi Eddie

We do have definitely one pair. Last may they were clinning driftwood, trembling, shaking and bowing to each other for 3 days and ..........stoped. We are not sure if it was because they got disturbed by our friends who came to visit us, or because the 3-rd heckel was barging in betwen them or because it wasn't meant to be.
We observed a different behaviour just prior to that. Pair was checking everything in the tank, plants, sand and roots like they wanted to make sure the babies will have a good supply of food.

If it comes to phosphate, it is high also. I am not sure why.

[Eddie]

Thanks for the update Barbara, well it sounds like it's in preparation. I wish you luck!

Eddie

[FLGirl1977]

Those are stunning heckels... what kind are they? I love the look of heckels that have more of the 'blue' striations like yours. You've done a beautiful job with them! :) Do you use peat to get the pH that low?

[plecocicho]

Barbara, sounds they were really thinking of doing it. Disturbenc by the visit (heckels do not like sudden changes) and phosphat concentration are most likelly cause. Did you check if your peat maybe releasing phosphat in the water (sadly this is not uncommon thing)? How high are phosphates? Good thing is that female is in to breeding too. I think you can stand a chance in breeding heckel with heckel. Keep us updated.

[jessbullock]

Nice fish!
Hope they get back into breeding mood!

Jess

[AquatiCreations]

Wow these are absolutely amazing!

When I reach that level of advancement,I definitely want to keep heckels.

I'm surprised the low ph dosent eat them up,I get heartburn just thinking about it!:lipsrseal:

[albanydiscus]

Very nice discus.

[milton]

great looking heckels

[gulay]

Very nice fish having a cool and relaxing tank, congratulations Barbara... I love Heckels...

Good luck for the spawning!

[DiscusKev]

The colour and shape is fantastic. Good luck on getting a successful heckel pair :)