How do you care for wilds

[EIHAB83]

Hi Guys.... first Congrats for the new section... I looked at the nice pics of wild Discus in this section they look wonderful I started to be interested in Wilds... I am just wondering their care is it diff. from tank bred discus do you need to do more WCs, certain Ph and temp..... also what is the diffrent between the tank bred and wilds .... I heard wilds make better parents
many thanks

[Tristanyyz]

Buy them from Oliver at www.belowater.com take them out of the bag by hand, give them a lick and throw them in your tank :P

[brewmaster15]

or you could treat them exactly as you would any Domestic discus.. Thats pretty much what I do... though they do seem to prefer softer, more acidic water. This is said to bring out their colors.

hth,
al

[Jason]

I like to treat them with panacur and flubendazole(not at the same time!)

If you lower the parasite numbers in them, they seem to do alot better and are less prone to not eating/wasting.

[Paulio]

[quote author=Jason link=board=22;threadid=11091;start=0#115358 date=1057838012]
I like to treat them with panacur and flubendazole(not at the same time!)

If you lower the parasite numbers in them, they seem to do alot better and are less prone to not eating/wasting.
[/quote]

Jason,

I agree. Cleaning them out from the start makes a bg difference. IME wilds will take to prep foods fater than Domestics generaly. Makes it easy to get meds in them ;D

Paul

[henryD]

I find that wilds are a little easier to take care of. They are pretty hardy. Don't seem to get sick very often and will take to new food faster than my domestics. Hand feeding and other "petting" tricks seem to come easier with them.


However, I think you do have to be careful about making sure the water quality is top notch. . They will definitely show signs of stress even for a small amount of difference in PH. Whereas my domestics don't seem to mind the little difference.

This has been my experience with them.......

[roger]

Wilds are a fun bunch to take care of, and as usuall everyone has a method that does seem to work.

My wilds live in almost pure RO water and do just fine. There are a few people that have their wilds in the same water as the domestics as well.

I find that wilds generally get sick less often and respond better to medications. I havent mixed my wilds with my domestics yet so I think the bugs they pickup arent medication resistant.

You will find that healthy wilds are like pigs with fins, they will eat just about anything once they settle in. I have wilds from Alberto and from what you could say is Loren from boxlot fish. Albertos generally do better out of the box but thats probably because they have been in qt longer than Lorens. Lorens just take a few more days to settle in.

It took my domestics about 6 months to settle in and behave as relaxed as the wilds. The wilds seemed to settle in and get comfortable in about a month, if that.

Back to the original question, how do you take care of wilds.
Feed them well, keep the tank debry free and do regular water changes.

Peace,
Roger