New to wilds

[neon]

I have been wanting to order from john for a couple months now. I have a new full cycled 60gal tank now. But have 55gal tank with six tank raised discus and two rams,2 algae eaters. I really would like to get a group of wilds for this tank. But I'm really not sure on how to take care of wilds. Is it any harder then tank raised? Also what is the easiest strain of wilds? I really like the blueface heckels. :confused:

[jimg]

ime heckles are the hardest of the wilds. browns are the easiest. what are your water parameters? They are the same if not a little hardier than domestics to me, I just like to keep gh around 4 deg. domestics are born and raised in some of our harder higher ph waters, wilds are not. My feelings are if you took an Eskimo that live 1/2 his life in cold weather and put him in the desert or visa versa. they may take a long time to adjust!

[Discus Origins]

Wilds once settled are not any harder than domestics...just get them acclimatized to taking non-live food and you'll be fine. Heckels require different water parameters and are more sensitive to hard water so they IMO are more work than other strains of wilds. But if you have an RO unit to make soft water than you should be ok to try them. Other part of the equation is to make sure you start with quality stock, John is a good supplier of wild fish.

Mark

[NanDiscus]

I'm 'a little' unsure about that tank size. 60 gal is o.k. for a long-term QT+treatment tank, but for keeping wilds it's much too small, I'm afraid. It is possible to keep them alive and relatively well in a tank of that size, but you'll get half the fun. On the other hand you will have a really hard time keeping all the fish happy (even if you just put 4 in there), as the weakest one will always be in sight and a subject of constant bullying, no matter what decor you use. And that will cause stress and stress, as we know is the worst enemy of discus.
I would very strongly recommend getting a tank double that size for a minumum group of six if you would like to keep them together for more than just a few months. Especially if you only just begin with wilds. I had mine in a 75gal cube earlier and things were going far beyond managable in terms of agression as they matured. Without adequate space keeping wilds can easily turn into some sort of a nightmare.
Yes, it may be a bigger investment to provide that extra space, but it will pay off in the long run.

Just my thoughts...

Nandi