Setting up and choosing fish for a 65g Wild Tank

Hey everyone, after a long time of what now seems to be futile resistance, I'm going to be joining the wild side :). Going to be setting up a 65g for 5 Wild Blues/Browns. To all the wild experts, would you recommend something other than a plain and clean BB? I was thinking of perhaps adding a layer of fine blond coloured sand so the fish feel a tiny bit more at home but since maintenance and cleaning is an absolute must I'd rather stay away from wood and rocks ; that can be added later once the fish are mature and full size I suppose. The fish I'm planning on getting were all collected from the Uatuma region and they all seem to be in good shape. The picture quality is rather low and I apologise, the seller did tell me that they look stunning in person as he has been to the provider and that they're also relatively large fish. Fish 1 3 and 4 I believe I'm certain about, not so sure about 2 5 6 and 7. I'd appreciate any feedback about the quality of the fish and any comments as to which you would recommend I picked. They're being sold for a fair price of 130 euros for what I can assume to be 5 inch fish , which is roughly $147.

Thanks in advance!

Hi. A thin layer of light colored sand will help them feel at home, in my opinion.
As to the quality of the fish above, it’s very subjective. There’s nothing wrong with those, especially at that price. Some look a little older based on eye size, but generally nice fish.
Where are you based?

Hey, so I ended up placing a fine sand layer as I too felt it would make them feel much more comfortable. Sadly I wasn't quite fast enough and some of them were already sold before I could choose them so I ended up getting different ones. They've been in their new home for 10 days now and are already looking very good. I'm in Cyprus and getting wild stock here is ,was ,and will probably be very difficult ; the hobby here is half a century behind sadly, most people would tell you these fish look ugly. Luckily a very reputable retailer was able to bring in these 5 beauties for me ; I'm probably the first one to have wild discus in the entire island.After the initial mild shock of transport , everyone's doing wonderfully, devouring FDBW , mysis, and all sorts of other foods ; they do seem to eat much more slowly than domestics so far, but they sure eat a lot more. I see a lot of potential in all of them, and , without wanting to be biased, I'm extremely excited about one that seems to be like a full royal to me. I'm actually glad the ones I had originally shown were sold as these ones seem to be much much prettier. Please, do comment about how they look , I would appreciate the input. (Apologies for the low quality of some of photos and the reflections, some of them are screenshots from videos and there was a lot of sunlight when I was taking them) Attachment 122986Attachment 122989Attachment 122990Attachment 122991Attachment 122992Attachment 122993Attachment 122994Attachment 122995

Hey, so I sent my reply quite a few days ago but for whatever reason it didn't show up so here goes attempt 2. I'm in Cyprus, and getting any ''unusual'' stock here is pretty impossible. I was very lucky to have found an excellent retailer who was able to bring the fish for me ; I'm certain I'm the only one on the island who even owns wild discus. Unfortunately,almost all of the fish I had chosen were sold before I was able to decide, but instead, I was given (what I like to believe) even better ones! The photos are suffering from a little bit of a time machine issue (some are from the first days, some are from today), but the colour development and their settling in shows much more. They've been with me for 16 days now, and I couldn't be happier. They keep getting prettier and more colourful by the day. Without wanting to pick a favourite (they're all gorgeous anyway) , I feel like there's one that's absolutely perfect ; excellent shape, beautiful pattern, nice red eyes, humongous appetite, and very sociable too! He keeps getting redder and redder by the day and I absolutely love it. (he's the ''star'' in the first 3 pictures)
Right now they're on a high protein diet including mysis,FDBW, excellent quality protein pellets of different sorts and spirulina. They're getting a 30% water change daily, and I'm keeping them at a temperature of 29 C / roughly 84 F, with a pH of 7 and kH and gH around 5. I'd very much appreciate any suggestions and I'd love to hear what you think of the fish.

(Try to ignore all the poop flying around everywhere, I tend to take pictures of them in the morning sunlight and they really like to make a mess of the tank during the night hours :) )

Wow, thanks for sharing. Don’t sell these fish short, they are beautiful. Even though you didn’t get all you want I’m glad you are still just as happy.
Favorites always develop to some extent, I’m “guilty” of this myself. Nothing wrong with that.

I know what you’re saying about the hobby being behind in your country, it’s the same here. The local shop got some wild in a few years ago and I basically gobbled everything up, even the less desirables by international standards. I’m glad I did though, as some of them developed quite well. You will see the same with your fish.

The only advise I would give at this point, keep doing what you’re soing, seems to be working. And eventually, get some more... :)