Dennis:Wild Curiperas- Solid Red.

[daninthesand]

drool drool drool

[redlines]

Dennis,

Yes, let them cross & put me on the list for Fry!

Andy

Let them cross and call them Hardenburger Red. Fry will be Red spotted on Red.
Jimmy.

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

HA ha Jimmy
Might be hard to see the spots if that's the way it's going to go.
Dennis

Dennis: :PI'll put my Oriental Leopard male in once the two older females settle in. See if I have the same luck as you do.
Another Pic. of the Madeira. Lost its central bar while fighting with another fish.
Jimmy.

[Willin]

Hello, Jimmy. I am a discus "newbie" and I have a few questions to ask you about wilds. I know you are a great person to ask after reading your intriguing interview!
-I was wondering, why do folks on these forums tend to love wilds?
-Are they the pinnacle of discus-keeping?
-Are they a lot harder to keep alive than "man-made" strains?
-I notice that the vast majority of wild discus body shapes are not considered "ideal." Is this to be expected when owning wild discus?
-Are wild discus more colorful than ordinary bred discus?
-Are there strains of wild discus that no one has ever seen yet?

I know that is a LOT of questions, hehe, but I am really interested in why hardcore breeders tend to love them so much! There are a bunch (well about 8) wild discus at the LFS. 7 out of 8 of them look horrid. Although there colors are decent, their body shapes are a little out of the ordinary, with things like chewed up fins and the like. There is one "Wild Blue Heckel" there that is beautiful to my newbie eye. It has very nice high fins, faint blue striations, a faint vertical black bar mid-way through its torso and it is about 3.5" long. I would purchase it if I already had a tank set up (even though it is risky coming from the LFS), but unfortunately I don't! This fish has really sparked my interest into wilds though! Thanks for answering any questions in advance!

[paulmat]

Dennis
I say let them have a go at it,Could be some very interesting crosses.

Paul

Willan: I'm no expert in wild. I can't speak for others but myself only. It's simply a challenge to myself to be able to keep Wild discus alive which I had failed many times due to ignorance and buying untreated wild stocks from LFS. I agree with you those wild you found in LFS are not round and loaded with disease. Unfortunately, what we see in the stores are the bottom or left over's from the selection of their buyers. There 's many grades in wild discus. ony 1-2% rated "S" Super which the Japanese buyers are sitting right at the dock right now to buy them with high prices, some RSG will net $100 per fish. The cream of crop will ship to Janpan, Germany and North America which can easily cost between $200-400 per fish. That's why seeing some dealer selling a Tefe RSG for $50.00 is impossible. Those fish are absolutely different compared to LFS wilds. They are round with high fins. They were all quarantined almost a month before being shipped to their destinations to reduce dead rate caused by disease and damages. At the contrary what everybody beliefs, they're 10 times tougher than the domestic and the distributor told me "Treat them like Cichlid" not domestic discus. Knowing that the fish were in the wild Amazon river just a few weeks ago makes me feel they're something special. Living among the constant attacks by the Paranhas, Stingrays and Electric eels. That's why it's normal to find broken fins and that's one of the way to tell a wild from a domestic. It's almost impossible to find a wild without bite marks from the Paranhas. They react stress and feeding a lot different than domestic. They actually swim around constantly hunting for food. Stop and survey every rocks and plants, swim around them looking up and down. It's fun watching them stalking a red wriggler hiding unerneath a piece of rock. You will realize how smart they are. They'll try all different ways to flush them out to the open. They blow so hard that the surrounding debris will fry a few inches away. These actons were very common to the Turquoise strain discus and has lost this ability from our newer domestic where there's no need to hunt. They all know who their friends are. They dart so fast in front of the glass when they only see your shadow. I didn't see them show any skittishness in Oliver's tanks. I had disasters one after another when I used to acquire my wilds from the local importers. Thousand and thousand of dallars went down the drain. Nothing but frustrations just because I had the bottom of the selection. Those importers were really doing a disservice to my hobby. What a big difference buying from someone who actually in Amazon catching and selecting the fish from other catchers and knowing the history and origins of a certain stain and their georgraphical locations makes keeping wild more interesting. The Curipera is the only wild discus that made me come back. So far nobody in North America had successfully breeding this new strain and the only few strain that can breed true due to their location and completely isolated from the rest of the discus. They're not for the average hobbyist due to small number that were caught and little known about this strain to be able to breed successfully. So far only a couple of Germany wild experts were able to breed them. Just my $0.02 and my own perspective of keeping wild discus once again.
Jimmy.

[ChloroPhil]

NO!!!! Don't let them cross...keep your wild lines pure. Those fish are too magnificent to soil like that.

[Jason]

good luck Jimmy!

looks like the race is on.
Did Oliver take any readings of parameters in the breeding season?

[Ivan]

Jimmy, I have to congratulate you on your fantastic looking fish.
On one side I would say yes let them cross. But then there is the other side which says how can you think of it?
Hold on while I argue with myself....