New heckels

[bavaria36]

Last April I prepared a new 120 gallon tank in the hope of setting up a Heckel tank. Well it has taken me 9 months to track down the heckels I wanted but they are here now.

I picked them up today from Daniel at Gulf Coast and he had been holding on to them for a week as I had been traveling. They really are in excellent condition and I have put them in the tank today with the lights out. I could'nt resist trying to feed them though and I couldn't believe it when they came out and started eating Tetra MicroCrabs already. You can see them picking food off the bottom in some of the pictures. The shots are not great but I hope you like them. There are 11 Heckels together with 12 Cory Virginiae which have been there for a couple of months already.

Water is right out of the tap aged for 1 day. Temperature at 82 degf. I am going to buy some peat today and will add that to the filter or the storage tank.

Here are a few shots of the tank before the fish went in and a couple the heckels settling in.
Aaron

[bavaria36]

A couple more

Aaron

[dpt8]

Are those aldolphi corys in your tank ?? I have 9 in hopes they'll be able to take the 83degree water. Your tank and discus look great !! Nice job !! David T

[Dan S]

Hello Aaron,

They look great, good sign that they are so active so early, most peoples seem to sit in the corner.

I will follow this with great interest as I put an order in today for some Heckels which I will get in about 6 weeks.

It will be great to follow your experiences.

Good luck

Dan

[bavaria36]

Are those aldolphi corys in your tank ?? I have 9 in hopes they'll be able to take the 83degree water. Your tank and discus look great !! Nice job !! David T

No, they are Corydoras Virginiae. I have not been able to find out much about them so I am a little concerned about whether they will be Ok at 83 gef. I need to ask around a little as there is not much info on the web.

Aaron

[hedut]

HI Aaron nice heckels and nice tank. I'm looking forward for next picture:)
Hendri

[plecocicho]

Nice tank. Could you describe your setup?

[bavaria36]

Nice tank. Could you describe your setup?

The tank is a 120 gallon and I am running two large air driven sponge filters and an Eheim Wet/Dry filter. It has been running for 9 months now so the filters are mature. There are two 200 W heaters and I am keeping the temperature at around 82 degf. The bottom is covered with a thin layer of pool sand.

I have three pieces of wood with a couple of anubias attached to them. The anubias grow quite well even in the low light levels of this tank. I have a planted tank in which the anubias grow fast so when I prune them I just place them in this tank as floating plants. They seem to last quite long.

Until today the tank has been stocked with some other wilds, the cories and a couple of Ancistrus sp. I use tap water that gets aged for one day in a couple of holding tanks. As I only had 6 wilds in the tank until now I have only been doing water changes every other day but this seems to have been enough. ( I have other more heavily stocked tanks and I have been doing 90% WC's in those recently ).

I still need to do a couple of things in this tank

1) get my RO setup running again so that I can use a 50/50 mix for the heckels

2) Add peat to the filter so that I can condition the water a little.

3) I need to move the heaters and sponge filters around a little just to hide them better

Aaron

[Eddie]

Amazing, they look like they are settling in well. Super nice heckels!


Eddie

[bavaria36]

Ok, so here are some pictures from this evening. The good news is that they have continued to eat whatever I put in the tank and now come up to the surface to take food. They even come rushing to the front of the tank when they see me move around in the fish room.

The really great thing is that after I drop the food in they spend an hour or so browsing and picking every little bit off the sand. They have taken tetrabits, Microcrabs, Veggie flake and BW's so it seems they will eat almost anything. My wild greens never behaved like this and are still picky eaters after almost two years. I guess it may be becasue these are juvelines while the greens were already adults when I got them. Having 11 fish in the group also seems to help the feel at ease.

Tomorrow I will start getting them used to the lights.

Sorry about the lousy picture quality .. I really need to get a good SLR if I am to take some decent shots

Aaron

[bavaria36]

and a few more

[Eddie]

Wow, thats fantastic! Dan must have trained them up well!

I still have 2 that will only eat FBW's :(

Take care
Eddie

[Terrybo]

Your tank and fish look great! I love how you can actually watch your cories - in my planted tank I barely get to see mine - they are pretty much hidden by the plants most of the time.

Terry

[bavaria36]

Your tank and fish look great! I love how you can actually watch your cories - in my planted tank I barely get to see mine - they are pretty much hidden by the plants most of the time.

Terry

Terry, I have a planted tank too with 9 Corydoras Sterbai and 8 Corydoras Leucomelas. They are big healthy fish and the Sterbais have spawned several times ( in fact the 9th fish is an f1 ) but like yours they hide most of the time and only come out to feed.

They are also very skittish and rush back into the plants as soon as I move in front of the tank. In this biotope tank, the Corydroas Virginiae seem to be getting used to me and spend a lot of time out front. IMO when you give the fish a lot of cover in the tank they tend to stay there even when fully acclimated.

Aaron

[Dan S]

Hello Aaron,

They are really active arent they. Im very impressed, what size are they?

Dan

[bavaria36]

Hello Aaron,

They are really active arent they. Im very impressed, what size are they?

Dan

Around 4" I would guess.

Aaron

[plecocicho]

They look really nice. What is you wc regime?

[bavaria36]

They look really nice. What is you wc regime?

Thks,

I do minimum 50% WC daily on all my tanks .... sometimes more. I just did the first WC with the heckels. They didn't like it much so they are hiding now but I guess they will get used to it eventually.

Aaron

[bavaria36]

Quick update on Day 3.

Today I turned on the the tank lights in the morning. They were a little shy at first but by the evening they seemed fine. I have noticed that they actually browse for a shorter period now than they did on day 1. They tend to circulate the tank following each other and while they are browsing there is always one of them that just sets off to the back of the tank and the others follow. one minute later they are back. I am guessing that as I am feeding them well they are less hungry than they were on day 1 so they are a little shyer.

Still feeding well though. They even take BH and my BH mix now. Their favourite food remains BW though. Here they are attacking a cube in the evening. The colours are a little washed out as I had to use the flash. In actual fact their colours have improved since they arrived.

Aaron

[ShinShin]

Very nice, Aaron.

Mat

[clairel]

holy cow! those are some nice heckles. How can i get my jealous little hands on some? Thx.

[Eddie]

The tank looks awesome Aaron and the Heckels are looking better everyday!

Take care

Eddie

[bavaria36]

holy cow! those are some nice heckles. How can i get my jealous little hands on some? Thx.

You could check with Dan at Gulf Coast discus. He had quite a few more available when I left and they were all of the same quality.

Aaron

[blue acara]

Aaron your Heckels are looking very very good, particually as you have only had them for a short time. Give them 6 months-a year and you will have some show quality discus. They look very much like mine did 6 months ago. I see one there that may turn out to be a very blue head/shoulder type fish:)

They seem quite bold already even with quite a lot of light in the tank, this is great. Its something my Heckels have never gotten used to. They dislike light so much that I now keep mine under blue cold cathode light only, which is basically a moon light. That is the only way they feel comfortable in the tank. Try feeding them some frozen brineshrimp and white worm this is my guys favs. Best of luck with them and keep us updated with lots of pics!

Dave

[bavaria36]

Dave,

yes I guess I am really lucky that they have settled in quite well. Keep in mind though that they had been at Dan for around 3 weeks before I picked them up. In his fishroom they were in a bright environment with plenty of movement so this probably helped them settle in.

As I live 30 minutes away from Dan the fish did not go through the stress of shipping either so when they arrived in my tank they did not have to start the acclimation process all over again. That's my theory anyway ......

Today they were coming up to the surface for food when I put my hand in the water. I am really enjoying watching them as they behave very naturally in the tank. I got my hands on some peat today too so over the next few days I will start using water that has been aged with peat.

I have also noticed that most of them have lost the dark heckel bar which they were showing when they arrived. Maybe this is due to the lights being on. The fish turn darker when the light intensity is lowered.

Here are some more pictures.

Aaron

[bavaria36]

Update after 10 days......

They seem to be doing fine. All the fish are eating well and have lost much of their shyness. They don't hide at the back of the tank and are browsing most of the time. They love BH mix and seem to be eating the bits of spinach from it too so next batch will have more veggies and maybe some fruit. Of course they go crazy for FBW but I only feed that once a day before the lights go out.

I had a close call over the weekend. Power went out at 4:30 am Saturday and did not come back till about 9:00 am. As it was pretty cold outside and my tanks are in the garage, the temperature dropped to 80 degf. They really did not like this and it took them until today to perk up again. I'm observing them closely to make sure that they are still OK. Seems like they are happiest at 84-86 degf.

Here are a few points I've noticed about their behaviour

- They are starting to display to each other asserting dominance at feeding time although they are still juveniles/sub-adults
- They get really aggressive when I feed BH mix. The top fish patrol the sand bottom and stop the smaller fish from getting down to feed. When I feed dried food they do not do this and just browse slowly.
- At least three of them have already staked out their preferred area of the tank.
- Their eyes change colour as quickly as their bodies. My other discus also change their eye colour from day to day but the heckels do this in a matter of seconds as they pass from a light background to a dark one in the tank.

I'm really enjoying these fish. Their behaviour is more natural than my other wilds ( maybe cos they are younger and there are 11 of them ) and each one seems to be developing their own character.

My RO is up and running again and I have a pillow case full of peat in the holding tank. I am switching them over the a 60/40 mix which will take my hardness to around 120 ppm and PH to 7.5 Still too high in TDS I know but here in Houston the water is just liquid rock.

Maybe I'm biased but I think they have grown a little already !!!:)

Aaron

[plecocicho]

They look nice. More wilds of the same species you have more natural their behaviour is,that observation is known for many fish species that school, so it is natural that discus will express same behaviour. Keep us updated, its interesting reading.

[bavaria36]

It's been two week since the heckels arrived. I think that they are well settled in now. Always at the front of the tank and eating almost everything. Since last week they have coloured up a little and even the water changes don't stress them out as badly as the week before. I have been slowly adding RO water mix filtered over peat to bring the TDS to around 120 ppm although I am still at around 190 ppm.

The hierarchy is developing now and I can see which fish are dominant and which are not. However the aggression is limited, mostly to feeding times. When I feed Bh mix I am dropping small bits along the front of the tank to make sure that all the fish get a chance to feed properly.

Right now they get 5 feedings a day - 2 tetra bits and flake ( automatic feeder ), 1 BH mix, 1 Hikari FBS or mysis and then a final feeding of FBW in the evening. I feed FBW very sparingly . Over the next week months my plan is to try and get them to eat some fruits or greens . Failing that, I will prepare the the next BH mix with far less BH, more shrimp and spinach.

I have also noticed that the fish get very skittish as soon as the temperature goes below 82 degf. 84 seem to be the best for these guys.

Here are some photos from today.

Aaron

[bavaria36]

Here's an update. The heckels have settled in nicely and they seem to be happy. They eat really well and although I have not yet got them feeding from my hand they come up to the top of the tank waiting for food whenever I approach.

They have lost much of their shyness but will still dash wildly across the tank from time to time when they get startled. I have noticed that they hate changes in the lighting of the fishroom. The tank lights do not bother them but if I turn off the lights in the fish room and then move around the room they will hide at the back of the tank. I think that it is to do with the shadows rather than the lighting itself.

Water is now a 50/50 RO mix which turn out to have a TDS around 100 ppm. I change around 40% a day.

I had a little bother with gill flukes and I treated with Prazi for 3 weeks with no success. I then tried Fluke tabs and that seemed to do the trick. It's hard on the fish though.... The heckels and the cories went ghostly white and huddled up at the back. The two bristlnoses did not last the night !! Both were dead in the morning. The heckels and cories got back to normal pretty fast once the treatment was over.

The thing I am most pleased about is that all 11 fish have found their place in the pack. I was worried that the bottom ranked fish would get harassed and would get sick but although there is now a clear hierarchy developing, the fighting is restricted to feeding time and all the fish get more than enough to eat.

Here are some photos.

[bavaria36]

a few more

[Eddie]

SUPER grogeous! The 4th picture in the last post, the one in the middle, show fish IMO. WOW!!!

Excellent job with them Aaron, excellent!

Eddie

[Eddie]

Dude, I had to post again. Went through the pictures again, it does not get any better than that as far as Heckels go. By far, the best I have ever seen, ever.


Eddie

[FLGirl1977]

Wow, they look incredible! You're doing a fantastic job with them. BTW, the tannins in your water enhance their color beautifully! Beautiful fish and setup. :)

[Condor]

They look awesome Aaron, great job all around! They look like they are very happy.

Adrian

[pan]

What we can say?I have been spechless your fish is fantastic.

[erikc]

That is one of the most beautifull Heckel groups I have ever seen in a private tank :thumbsup:

Congratulations and take good care of them :D

[Ufukinan]

Really good fishes.Congratulations.

[bavaria36]

SUPER grogeous! The 4th picture in the last post, the one in the middle, show fish IMO. WOW!!!

Excellent job with them Aaron, excellent!

Eddie

Eddie,

it's funny you bring that up. He is also my favourite fish and I noticed him on day 1. His features are quite different to the others. The body is bright yellow rather than brownish, the horizontal stripes only extend until the 5th bar and fade below the eye. Also the lines are bluer than the other fish.

I actually have two fish that exhibit these features and they are very distinctive. There was another thread going on in this forum where very similar fish were shown and some people suggested that they were hybrids. Heiko disagreed and I also think that they are just normal heckels but it is quite true that they have features in common with Blue discus.

This fish is a bit younger than the others I think ( just guessing from his shape and bulk ) and he is not one of the dominant fishes but he does Ok in the pack. I am hoping that he becomes a dominant fish as he/she grows.

The photos show what I mean. Photos 1 and 2 are of the fish you mention. You can see that it is still a young fish. Photo 3 is the other fish that is similar to it.The horizontal lines are not as blue but the body colour is similar. And Photo 4 is a side by side comparison with one of the more typical ones in the tank.

Keep in mind that the flash does accentuate the colours and the blues and greens are not as bright under normal light but still I think one can easily see the differences in the fish.

Aaron

[Eddie]

They are amazing Aaron, I would pay plenty for those.

You have a beautiful group and I'm putting money on it that they spawn for you. If so, it will be an amazing subject to follow! Definitely document it and share the experience.

Best of luck!
Eddie

[bavaria36]

Wow, they look incredible! You're doing a fantastic job with them. BTW, the tannins in your water enhance their color beautifully! Beautiful fish and setup. :)

Thks Renee. I started using peat moss in the storage tank for the RO water. I fill up a pillow case and weight it down in the 55 gallon drum. It does turn the water a nice tea colour but it does nothing to lower the hardness or Ph of the water. The tap water here is just too hard and even an 50/50 RO mix is still too hard to be affected by peat I think.

I do have to say that the green colour in the background is too bright in the photos. It's a result of the flash not of the water but I am just using a point and shoot and these are the only settings I have found that do not completely wash out all the colours.


Aaron

[bavaria36]

Update. They seem to be growing but probably a little slower than some domestics I grew out last year. There are clear differences in growth rates across the 11 fish and I guess that is to be expected.

I have two favourite fish now. One has typical heckel markings ( picture 4) and seems to have a very nice shape. He/she is not the dominant fish but is up there at the top of the pack. The other fish ( picture 3 ) is one of the slower growers but is also doing fine. This fish has a yellowish body colour and less horizontal stripes than the others. I think that is is probably a little younger than many of the other fish.

Aaron

[Northwestcoastdisc]

Aaron Congrt!

Beautiful purely wild cought Heckel! I hope you will successful spawn one of them.

good luck

Duncan

[bavaria36]

Thks Duncan,

I doubt I will ever breed them though. There are much more experienced hobbyists who have not managed this yet. I am still waiting for my first successfull spawn from my other wilds so a long way to go yet !

Aaron

[Dan S]

Hello Aaron,

They are looking great. Its so nice seeing such a good number of them together like that. Great work. Keep the photos coming.

Dan

[poddan]

Truly a nice tank.

[mackinboi]

simply beautiful!!!

[Dan S]

Hello Aaron,

How are they getting on? Any updates or photos?

Dan

[PLL]

:D nice Heckels :D

[jessbullock]

Oh man, I a soooo jealous!!
Gorgeous colour, perfect shape, I WANT THEM!!

Glad the fluke treatment was successful!
Keep us posted!

Jessica