tatore
02-03-2007, 02:55 PM
Apistomaster's Heckels
I had a text for picture I'm going to upload, sent by Larry (Apistomaster):
"Hellow all of you who are intersted in what I have called "The Heckel Project". In brief it is attempt to provide a central clearinghouse of information to and from all who are interested in changing the Heckel Discus from being rarely bred to breeding them successfully and ultimately develop tank raised Heckels perhaps better adapted to life in captivity.
I can not cover every facet of what is going to be a very complicated multifaceted project on a time scale I expect will take many years.
In this installment Salvo Tatore, a skilled wild discus breeder, has offered to assist me post some photos I have taken of the ten Heckels I am working with and that includes some photos that help show how I have combined some of the benefits of the bare bottom method and the planted tank method of keeping discus. I previously raised ten turquoiserapidly to breeding adults so I had already established this as a viable method in which to keep discus.
First of all I aquired this group of Heckels in late May of 2006 as a group of ten three inch diameter fish. These were the smallest sized discus I have ever kept.The were described as "Rio Branco" Heckels. The Rio Branco is a tributary of the Rio Negro, the home range for most of the Heckels imported.They are all 4-1/2 to 5 inches in diameter at the time of this writing.
When I first received then they were quarantined one month all ten crowded into a 30 gallon tank. I feed them mainly blackworms during that period. I provided them with peat filtered RO water with a pH of 6.0, the total hardness of about 2 DGH and the temperatur was maintained at 88 to 90F.
They were move to their present home with the same water coditions but were gradually adapted to my local tapwater minus peat filtration until the pH was about 7.4 and 110 mg/L total hardness. I change about 70% of the water 2 to 5 times a week. The aquarium is a 75 gallon tank 48X18X20H in inches. The primary filter is a DIY wet/dry with a sump that contains an additional 25 to 30 gallons so the total volume of the system is 100 gallons thus meeting my goal of providing 10 gallons of water per fish. The wet/dry filter is driven by a MagDrive 9.5 and at about 40 inches of head I estimate the water is in coming at 850gph. Additiopn filtration includes an Eheim Classic 2217 Canister, a large sponge filter driven with a MagDrive #600 rated at 160gph and lastly I have a phosban reactor modified to retain 1/2 liter of SeaChem Purigen rechargeable organic scavenging resin for chemical filtration. All this flow may seem too much for discus but in truth, I have always found that if the discus have areas of high to low flows they will seek both as their mood moves them and they seem happiest with the flow than stillwater.
My light system is not very strong. It is barely enough to grow several Echinodorus species which are E. bleheri, E. amazonicus and E. parvaflora "Tropica".There are also a few Cryptocoryne speces and some Najas guadelupensis which has to be harvested regularly.The light are two AquaLight twin T-5 lamps each left on 16 hours/day.
There are other fish in with the Heckels but the wild Peruvian angel have been remove leaving 5 to seven each of the fllowing plecos; L66, L201, L134, L333 and an adult pair of Ancistrus sp.(3) and 4 Peckoltia vitatta. All these plecos act as replacements for Corydoras and seem to help a great deal with the clean up of the stray food particles. They also prefer the temperatures discus are kept than do most Corydoras. One point I want to make is that I had to remove all the Sturisoma from the Heckel tank because they beagan to attack the discus and removed life endangering amounts of skin slime. This was unfortunate as they are good algae eaters and very intersting catfish but I can not recommend that they be kepth with discus as I once did. There is also a school of Trifasciatus Pencil Fish.
I feed the discus and hence the other fish a varied diet. They seem to do well on earthworm pellets, frozen bloodworms, live blackworms and Tetra Color Granules. They ae also fed earthworm flakes, F.D. Bloodworms and Hikari Algae wafers. Yes, the Heckels do eat algae.
wafers. I made the decison early on not to feed them my standard discus beefheart blend I normally used in my production of domestic discus in favor of more natural food. This has caused them not to grow as fast as they would on beefheart but I am hoping that the result will be lowered risk of fatty deposits on the females' ovaries and better fertility."
And I say Thank You Larry...but there's some problem with server...I'm not able to manage attachements :mad:
I had a text for picture I'm going to upload, sent by Larry (Apistomaster):
"Hellow all of you who are intersted in what I have called "The Heckel Project". In brief it is attempt to provide a central clearinghouse of information to and from all who are interested in changing the Heckel Discus from being rarely bred to breeding them successfully and ultimately develop tank raised Heckels perhaps better adapted to life in captivity.
I can not cover every facet of what is going to be a very complicated multifaceted project on a time scale I expect will take many years.
In this installment Salvo Tatore, a skilled wild discus breeder, has offered to assist me post some photos I have taken of the ten Heckels I am working with and that includes some photos that help show how I have combined some of the benefits of the bare bottom method and the planted tank method of keeping discus. I previously raised ten turquoiserapidly to breeding adults so I had already established this as a viable method in which to keep discus.
First of all I aquired this group of Heckels in late May of 2006 as a group of ten three inch diameter fish. These were the smallest sized discus I have ever kept.The were described as "Rio Branco" Heckels. The Rio Branco is a tributary of the Rio Negro, the home range for most of the Heckels imported.They are all 4-1/2 to 5 inches in diameter at the time of this writing.
When I first received then they were quarantined one month all ten crowded into a 30 gallon tank. I feed them mainly blackworms during that period. I provided them with peat filtered RO water with a pH of 6.0, the total hardness of about 2 DGH and the temperatur was maintained at 88 to 90F.
They were move to their present home with the same water coditions but were gradually adapted to my local tapwater minus peat filtration until the pH was about 7.4 and 110 mg/L total hardness. I change about 70% of the water 2 to 5 times a week. The aquarium is a 75 gallon tank 48X18X20H in inches. The primary filter is a DIY wet/dry with a sump that contains an additional 25 to 30 gallons so the total volume of the system is 100 gallons thus meeting my goal of providing 10 gallons of water per fish. The wet/dry filter is driven by a MagDrive 9.5 and at about 40 inches of head I estimate the water is in coming at 850gph. Additiopn filtration includes an Eheim Classic 2217 Canister, a large sponge filter driven with a MagDrive #600 rated at 160gph and lastly I have a phosban reactor modified to retain 1/2 liter of SeaChem Purigen rechargeable organic scavenging resin for chemical filtration. All this flow may seem too much for discus but in truth, I have always found that if the discus have areas of high to low flows they will seek both as their mood moves them and they seem happiest with the flow than stillwater.
My light system is not very strong. It is barely enough to grow several Echinodorus species which are E. bleheri, E. amazonicus and E. parvaflora "Tropica".There are also a few Cryptocoryne speces and some Najas guadelupensis which has to be harvested regularly.The light are two AquaLight twin T-5 lamps each left on 16 hours/day.
There are other fish in with the Heckels but the wild Peruvian angel have been remove leaving 5 to seven each of the fllowing plecos; L66, L201, L134, L333 and an adult pair of Ancistrus sp.(3) and 4 Peckoltia vitatta. All these plecos act as replacements for Corydoras and seem to help a great deal with the clean up of the stray food particles. They also prefer the temperatures discus are kept than do most Corydoras. One point I want to make is that I had to remove all the Sturisoma from the Heckel tank because they beagan to attack the discus and removed life endangering amounts of skin slime. This was unfortunate as they are good algae eaters and very intersting catfish but I can not recommend that they be kepth with discus as I once did. There is also a school of Trifasciatus Pencil Fish.
I feed the discus and hence the other fish a varied diet. They seem to do well on earthworm pellets, frozen bloodworms, live blackworms and Tetra Color Granules. They ae also fed earthworm flakes, F.D. Bloodworms and Hikari Algae wafers. Yes, the Heckels do eat algae.
wafers. I made the decison early on not to feed them my standard discus beefheart blend I normally used in my production of domestic discus in favor of more natural food. This has caused them not to grow as fast as they would on beefheart but I am hoping that the result will be lowered risk of fatty deposits on the females' ovaries and better fertility."
And I say Thank You Larry...but there's some problem with server...I'm not able to manage attachements :mad: