Tefe Green Discus

Hello,

I recently inquired about some Tefe Green wild discus that a seller has available and I received this video in response. I have not purchased discus in the past so I would really appreciate if people with experience can take a look at them and tell me if they seem stunted or in good shape? I my novice experince they seem to have good eye size compared to their body size and their body shape seems to be nice and round. Also, do they appear to be tefe green to everyone? When I see images online they seem to be correctly labelled to me but I am not experienced with discus.
I am sorry about the bad quality of the video, this is what the supplier has sent me.
Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2eaSeCpL_A

Look fine and that's what I call Tefe Green (I've seen so many things named for fish now that I get discombobulated at times). Top right fish skinny but couldbe old or fatten up after de-worming or could just fatten up period. The rest look great to me (for the short clip).

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Originally Posted by pastry

Look fine and that's what I call Tefe Green (I've seen so many things named for fish now that I get discombobulated at times). Top right fish skinny but couldbe old or fatten up after de-worming or could just fatten up period. The rest look great to me (for the short clip).

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Thank you very much for your response! They are labelled as wild Tefe green discus (hudson) on the stocklist. I am going to get a group of 6 of them and I hope that they will do well!

I have over 20 wild greens and those ones look just fine to me. I'd buy them if I was looking for more. Good luck with them.

I pulled the trigger and purchased a group of 6 of the wild Tefe Green disucs. They were listed by the wholesaler as Wild Tefe Green Discus (Hudson). I received them on Thursday 09/04/2020 so I have had them in my position for around 4 days now. They are around 13.5cm-14.5cm (5.25 - 5.75 inches) They did come in with slight ammonia burn to their tail fins but other then that they are healing up nicely. One of them does have a slightly messed up dorsal fin.

They are alert and when I place my hand above the aquarium they swim to the top. My concern however is that they are only willing to eat either Live Blackworms or certain frozen foods. Is it recommended that I feed them these as they are still new, or do I cut them out of the diet in order to get them to eat pellets/ flakes? My concern is that they will become addicted to these. This is my first time keeping discus so may I am stressing more then need be. For pellets I have tried, Tropical Wild Granuales, Tropical Supervit Flakes and Ocean Nutrition Discus Formula. They come to the top to see what I am putting in but won't even try it. I have also tried Freeze Dried Blackworms and they are trying them but then spitting them out.

They are currently in a 75 G going through quarantine with 6 small Mesonauta Festivus and a group of 8 Corydoras sp. Gold Laser (CW010). The corydoras have already gone through quarantine but I didn't have space to move them to another tank at the moment so they are going through another lot.

My water parameters are as follows:
pH: roughly 6.2
gH: 3
kH: 1
Temperature: 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit)

The tank receives around a 60% water change ever 3 days and I feed very sparingly and vacuum out any uneaten food.

First video is them after being the tank 24 hours:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkkS5YQ_ZLc

Second video is them after being the tank 4 days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FL-C685uXs

I would greatly appreciate any knowledge people are willing to share on my best course of action. Thanks in advanced

These guys look fantastic. Congratulations. Hudson has a much better grade of wild fish coming into North America than anyone else. As wild adults, it's not unusual for them to reject dry foods which they've likely never encountered.

1. Stop feeding live blackworms IMMEDIATELY. Your discus will get sick eventually and I've never been able to cure one of those.
2. There's no particular reason why you couldn't feed them mysis, beefheart and other frozen foods. They're adults. They won't grow much more and they certainly won't shrink.
3. If feeding them dry foods is important to you, discus can be induced to eat by cranking the temp to ~93F to make them hungry. In your case, your plants will die and the tank size may preclude doing that. So you'll need to move them into a smaller barebottom tank to try it.

Again they look great, Willie! I still mourn an opportunity 20+ years ago when I let an entire tank of Tefe Greens slip through my fingers...

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Originally Posted by Willie

These guys look fantastic. Congratulations. Hudson has a much better grade of wild fish coming into North America than anyone else. As wild adults, it's not unusual for them to reject dry foods which they've likely never encountered.

1. Stop feeding live blackworms IMMEDIATELY. Your discus will get sick eventually and I've never been able to cure one of those.
2. There's no particular reason why you couldn't feed them mysis, beefheart and other frozen foods. They're adults. They won't grow much more and they certainly won't shrink.
3. If feeding them dry foods is important to you, discus can be induced to eat by cranking the temp to ~93F to make them hungry. In your case, your plants will die and the tank size may preclude doing that. So you'll need to move them into a smaller barebottom tank to try it.

Again they look great, Willie! I still mourn an opportunity 20+ years ago when I let an entire tank of Tefe Greens slip through my fingers...

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Thank you so much for your response Willie.
I will stop feeding them live blackworms.
Do you believe it is a bad idea to starve them to get them into dry food as they are so new?
I am possibly toying with the idea to get them into a 180G (with 40G sump) that currently houses my Altum angels once they have finished their quarantine. The thought of this worries me about doing so considering the Altums are such strong and aggressive feeders compared to the discus at the moment.

where did you find wilds? I have some from snookin (John) in the past but cannot find any now

Your Tefes look very healthy so it looks like Hudson has fed them while he medicated. Their finnage is intact, so they've been in quarantine for quite a while. If weaning them onto dry food is important to you, I don't see why you couldn't do it now. A fish eats more in 10 minutes in your tank than it'll eat for a week in the wild, so malnutrition is not a problem.

I've seen altum angelfish kept successfully with discus, both domestic and wilds, mostly in Asia, so I don't think feeding is much of a problem. My altums aggressively feed on their first meal, but are extremely lackadaisical at the second feeding. So I'd think the Tefes will get enough food. Again, they're adults and will not be getting much bigger.

Love to see that tank when these two species are together, Willie

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Originally Posted by Willie

Your Tefes look very healthy so it looks like Hudson has fed them while he medicated. Their finnage is intact, so they've been in quarantine for quite a while. If weaning them onto dry food is important to you, I don't see why you couldn't do it now. A fish eats more in 10 minutes in your tank than it'll eat for a week in the wild, so malnutrition is not a problem.

I've seen altum angelfish kept successfully with discus, both domestic and wilds, mostly in Asia, so I don't think feeding is much of a problem. My altums aggressively feed on their first meal, but are extremely lackadaisical at the second feeding. So I'd think the Tefes will get enough food. Again, they're adults and will not be getting much bigger.

Love to see that tank when these two species are together, Willie

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Thank you!

So far they are feeding on Freeze Dried Blackworms and frozen foods (White + Black mosquito larve), brine shrimp with garlic and spiralina, normal brine and krill. Majority of their diet is the freeze dried blackworms which they get fed twice a day and in the middle of the day I feed them frozen food (alternating between them) so far they vigorously eat these foods and will eat hand feed with the freeze dried blackworms. Each day I am also trying to offer some form of pellet to hopefully get them on to it. I sometimes push some of the pellets to the center of the freeze dried blackworm cube as a little experiment to see if this helps.

I am not 100% sure about moving them in with my F1 P. Altum group. My Altums also get fed 3 times a day and ever feeding they vigorously eat. I do think the discus would appreciate the extra room though.

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Originally Posted by Roger Huey

where did you find wilds? I have some from snookin (John) in the past but cannot find any now

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These were imported to Australia and I picked them up from the wholesaler who had imported them

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Originally Posted by Willie

Your Tefes look very healthy so it looks like Hudson has fed them while he medicated. Their finnage is intact, so they've been in quarantine for quite a while. If weaning them onto dry food is important to you, I don't see why you couldn't do it now. A fish eats more in 10 minutes in your tank than it'll eat for a week in the wild, so malnutrition is not a problem.

I've seen altum angelfish kept successfully with discus, both domestic and wilds, mostly in Asia, so I don't think feeding is much of a problem. My altums aggressively feed on their first meal, but are extremely lackadaisical at the second feeding. So I'd think the Tefes will get enough food. Again, they're adults and will not be getting much bigger.

Love to see that tank when these two species are together, Willie

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So far they have been feeding on freeze dried blackworms twice a day which I am pressing some tropical wild granules into to try get them starting to eat them and once a day I feed frozen food, alternating between frozen white and black mosquito larve, brine shrimp, brine shrimp with spiralina and garlic, as well as krill (they aren’t they greatest fan of the krill). I am able to hand feed them. They are feeding well and always have nice bellies 😂

My P. Altum are opposite to your Altum group. I also feed them 3 times a day and every feeding them feed just as vigorously as if it was the first feeding of the day. I have not 100% made up my mind if the wild discus will go in the same aquarium as them

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Originally Posted by Roger Huey

where did you find wilds? I have some from snookin (John) in the past but cannot find any now

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These are from Hudson and we’re imported into Australia. I am not 100% sure where you can find them outside of Australia and if from Australia they are all gone