New heckels

[Eddie]

SUPER grogeous! The 4th picture in the last post, the one in the middle, show fish IMO. WOW!!!

Excellent job with them Aaron, excellent!

Eddie

[Eddie]

Dude, I had to post again. Went through the pictures again, it does not get any better than that as far as Heckels go. By far, the best I have ever seen, ever.


Eddie

[FLGirl1977]

Wow, they look incredible! You're doing a fantastic job with them. BTW, the tannins in your water enhance their color beautifully! Beautiful fish and setup.

[Condor]

They look awesome Aaron, great job all around! They look like they are very happy.

Adrian

[pan]

What we can say?I have been spechless your fish is fantastic.

[erikc]

That is one of the most beautifull Heckel groups I have ever seen in a private tank

Congratulations and take good care of them

[Ufukinan]

Really good fishes.Congratulations.

[bavaria36]

SUPER grogeous! The 4th picture in the last post, the one in the middle, show fish IMO. WOW!!!

Excellent job with them Aaron, excellent!

Eddie

Eddie,

it's funny you bring that up. He is also my favourite fish and I noticed him on day 1. His features are quite different to the others. The body is bright yellow rather than brownish, the horizontal stripes only extend until the 5th bar and fade below the eye. Also the lines are bluer than the other fish.

I actually have two fish that exhibit these features and they are very distinctive. There was another thread going on in this forum where very similar fish were shown and some people suggested that they were hybrids. Heiko disagreed and I also think that they are just normal heckels but it is quite true that they have features in common with Blue discus.

This fish is a bit younger than the others I think ( just guessing from his shape and bulk ) and he is not one of the dominant fishes but he does Ok in the pack. I am hoping that he becomes a dominant fish as he/she grows.

The photos show what I mean. Photos 1 and 2 are of the fish you mention. You can see that it is still a young fish. Photo 3 is the other fish that is similar to it.The horizontal lines are not as blue but the body colour is similar. And Photo 4 is a side by side comparison with one of the more typical ones in the tank.

Keep in mind that the flash does accentuate the colours and the blues and greens are not as bright under normal light but still I think one can easily see the differences in the fish.

Aaron

[Eddie]

They are amazing Aaron, I would pay plenty for those.

You have a beautiful group and I'm putting money on it that they spawn for you. If so, it will be an amazing subject to follow! Definitely document it and share the experience.

Best of luck!
Eddie

[bavaria36]

Wow, they look incredible! You're doing a fantastic job with them. BTW, the tannins in your water enhance their color beautifully! Beautiful fish and setup.

Thks Renee. I started using peat moss in the storage tank for the RO water. I fill up a pillow case and weight it down in the 55 gallon drum. It does turn the water a nice tea colour but it does nothing to lower the hardness or Ph of the water. The tap water here is just too hard and even an 50/50 RO mix is still too hard to be affected by peat I think.

I do have to say that the green colour in the background is too bright in the photos. It's a result of the flash not of the water but I am just using a point and shoot and these are the only settings I have found that do not completely wash out all the colours.


Aaron

[bavaria36]

Update. They seem to be growing but probably a little slower than some domestics I grew out last year. There are clear differences in growth rates across the 11 fish and I guess that is to be expected.

I have two favourite fish now. One has typical heckel markings ( picture 4) and seems to have a very nice shape. He/she is not the dominant fish but is up there at the top of the pack. The other fish ( picture 3 ) is one of the slower growers but is also doing fine. This fish has a yellowish body colour and less horizontal stripes than the others. I think that is is probably a little younger than many of the other fish.

Aaron

[Northwestcoastdisc]

Aaron Congrt!

Beautiful purely wild cought Heckel! I hope you will successful spawn one of them.

good luck

Duncan

[bavaria36]

Thks Duncan,

I doubt I will ever breed them though. There are much more experienced hobbyists who have not managed this yet. I am still waiting for my first successfull spawn from my other wilds so a long way to go yet !

Aaron

[Dan S]

Hello Aaron,

They are looking great. Its so nice seeing such a good number of them together like that. Great work. Keep the photos coming.

Dan

[poddan]

Truly a nice tank.