Why do they have man made discus in public aquariums?

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FluffySackson

FluffySackson

Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 27, 2014
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I've never seen wild strains of discus in public aquariums in my life. I've seen so many rare goodies are public aquariums like altum angels, uaru fernandezyepezi and uncommon geophagus. But why is it that wild discus seem to be nonexistant in public aquariums? If these aquariums can get their hands on such rare gems, they surely can't have much difficulty tracking out wild strain discus, right?
 
It depends. I've seen wild-type discus at both Newport Aquarium and Georgia Aquarium. Georgia had obviously tank-bred SA fish in a couple of their river setups. The severums there were not wilds. It's probably based on availability, and also how hardy they are. I know the altums at Georgia Aquarium looked really bad when I was there -- emaciated and weak.
 
ryansmith83 said:
It depends. I've seen wild-type discus at both Newport Aquarium and Georgia Aquarium. Georgia had obviously tank-bred SA fish in a couple of their river setups. The severums there were not wilds. It's probably based on availability, and also how hardy they are. I know the altums at Georgia Aquarium looked really bad when I was there -- emaciated and weak.
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I've been to the Georgia Aquarium many times in my life, all of their discus appear to be man bred, they do not have wild discus anymore.
 
My knowledge of discus is fairly limited, but I can spot a man bred and a wild one somewhat easily.
 
I haven't been in 10 years so I'm sure a lot has changed. I saw a video from 2012 and they are indeed domestic discus. They look terrible -- dull, cloudy eyes, dark, generally unhealthy fish. My guess is that they lost their wilds and replaced them with something cheap and colorful to be more appealing to guests. Unfortunately even the domestics look pretty shabby. They are probably cheaper to constantly replace than the wilds, however, especially given that wilds are seasonal and domestics can be had any time.
 
ryansmith83 said:
It depends. I've seen wild-type discus at both Newport Aquarium and Georgia Aquarium. Georgia had obviously tank-bred SA fish in a couple of their river setups. The severums there were not wilds. It's probably based on availability, and also how hardy they are. I know the altums at Georgia Aquarium looked really bad when I was there -- emaciated and weak.
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Whenever you were there, it must've been a while ago. The Georgia Aquarium no longer has altum angels. They're dead.
 
Funny, I should have to even post this...

Of Birds And Bees And Buildings

The public aquarium is man made.
The Discus are Discus made!

But I must admit that the inbreeding programs do have a remarkable comparison to that of the European Nobility breeding pro ... er-uh, sorry... family lineages.
:barf:
 
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