Mixing Wilds with Asians - Cross contamination?

[captainandy]

I'm thinking about adding wilds to my Asian discus tank.

Years ago I mad the costly mistake of adding fish from Hans and all of the Germans slowly dwindled and died.

Has anyone experienced similar experiences with his type of cross contamination with the wilds (santarem) and asian fish

[Iminit]

Most who I talk to keep them separate. I’ve got to ask cause you’ve been around discus for years. I’ve seen Santarem discus and I’ve remember wilds from the 80s and I never saw fish like Santarem. How are all these new wilds looking so domestic? On Facebook this fish has been said to be wild or an f1. 8BFCB195-9772-48A8-B9B1-A530F1709D56.jpg yes I know it’s not I bought it at a local shop at a quarter size for $15. So many have what look identical and are claiming wild or f1 status. I live in NY and the city for years. Went to 2 symposium in the early 90s and never seen wilds like the ones out there today. What I’m getting at is are these really wilds? Saw a pic a little while ago of Santarem discus supposedly in the wild. But in the backgroung was a wooden what looked like a cage. So if bred by people in cages in the Amazon on they still wild?

[Willie]

...So if bred by people in cages in the Amazon on they still wild?

There's wilds and wild-type. I've kept a couple of wilds with my Kenny discus with no problems. They went through 6 weeks of quarantine like any other discus I bring into the fish room.

[LizStreithorst]

As long as you do proper QT. Separate equipment (including a sterile sponge) in a different room for 6 weeks, then introduce your least quality fish one tank and put it in the other tank. Then you have to watch the tank with the introduced fish closely for a week. Most folks think they can get by with less time and work and cheat.

[captainandy]

Least quality Santarem is still fairly expensive to test the waters.
Years ago I purchased wilds from Hans and I think he kept them with his Germans.

Not sure that the high end wilds are the result of contamination by domestics into the Amazon.
Just remember that the ones on the santarem website probably represent only a small fraction of all wilds collected

[captainandy]

BTW what was the name of the person from Brazil that used to post about collecting wilds.
Couldn’t find him by searching this site?

[seanyuki]

Hugo Quaresma , Heiko Bleher or Christine Neumeyer @ Freshwater Exotics.

BTW what was the name of the person from Brazil that used to post about collecting wilds.
Couldn’t find him by searching this site?

[jwcarlson]

So if bred by people in cages in the Amazon on they still wild?

I'm Discus Dumb(tm), but saw a video some of the "wilds" being fished out of crates and, to be totally honest, that seemed like... well... not wild fish.

One like this really struck me as maybe not "wild" in the strictest sense. Are there really wild discus like this? Genuine question.
blue-moon-heckle-wattley-discus-1.jpg

[Rick S]

I've seen many wild Discus, but never one that looked like that. Very suspicious.

[CliffsDiscus]

I have seen Santarem mix with Han's adult Discus there were around 75 in two 300 gallon aquarium. Not sure if the Santarem were wild

or tank breed but the Santarem were most impressive because they were dinner plate size. The buyer bought all his Discus from
Hans.

[CliffsDiscus]

I've seen many wild Discus, but never one that looked like that. Very suspicious.

They look wild probably one out of a thousand. Most of the time the most colorful Discus are kept because they bring in more money and the less color are thrown back in the river.

[jwcarlson]

That could very well be (the 1:1000), but I wonder how many 1000 they're sorting through. Again, I am speaking from a place of entire ignorance, so please no one take my word for it. There's multiple pictures on the website and when they get a shipment in of wilds there's usually several that might not look quite like that, but they're in the same ballpark. Again, I don't mean to make accusations or anything so not naming the seller, but they are a bigger name (and not a sponsor) Even people in the comments of the facebook posts are saying things like "it's almost like some domestics got released in the river and now they're breeding". Maybe they're sorting through 10,000 fish and showing the nicest 10 and the rest are more normal.

[CliffsDiscus]

The nicest Discus the sellers call them movie stars.

Cliff

[captainandy]

Hugo Quaresma , Heiko Bleher or Christine Neumeyer @ Freshwater Exotics.

Hugo it was

[captainandy]

The site has some pretty decent ones within the price range of some of the asians offered by sponsors on this site