Hello from Italy

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi, newly joind the forum seems really helpful. I am an Anglo-Italian prematurely retired veterinary surgeon. Moved back to the italian Adriatic coast about 10 years ago and the Wife encouraged me to take up fishkeeping and now I have 2x100 gal mbuna, 55gal planted southamerican (apisto, nannostomus, oto, tetras, etc), 40 gal oranda/fantail, 12 gal CRS shrimp, 3 quarentine tanks. Also 19 dogs 10 cats, 3 horses, 3 pigs fancy ducks and chickens. I am running out of room for fishtanks the biggest I can sqweeze (in the bedroom with holes in the wall for canister filter in the kitchen) is 100x50x60 cm so 300 liter (about 75 gal). Tap water is 80 ppm tds, kh 2-3, ph 7.4, nitrate 0 but I make my own r/o as required. I have read most of the stickies and videos for beginners so now I have acquired a little knowledge (notoriously dangerous thing) but will not rush things, I have given myself a year to suss things out before setting up the tank. My aim would be a lightly stocked display tank with 1/2 inch amber sand on the bottom, a few bits of wood taking up minimal footprint just branching out higher up with a few epiphitic plants attached, just enough to make the fish feel safe. All the fish would be tank bred, no wilds. Need advice regards the population. I was thinking of getting first four 3" or so juvies to grow out then adding (after quarentine) 2 Mesonauta and possibly 2 (small) altum angels. I know the latter could be a problem (no suprise with cichlids - did I mention 2 mbuna tanks). Joined an Italian discus forum that may be useful to find rputable breeders but otherwise a little flimsy. Grateful for any advice you can share. Ciao

[John_Nicholson]

Start with 6 discus. Don't add the angels. Keep it bare bottom for the first year. The fish will thank you for that.

-john

[two utes]

Hello Paul and welcome to Simply discus. I can't see how you are retired with all those animals you are looking after ;)
You will find lots of good information on here in this discus community with lots of great experienced discus keepers.
If you are starting with juvenile discus try starting with a larger group, and thin them out as they get bigger.

Good luck reaching your goals :D

[Altum Nut]

Welcome to Simply Discus Paul...You seem to be on the right track researching through the beginner's sticky.
Italy has many top Discus breeders and show grand champions...so acquiring quality stock should be no problem for you but also sure one of our many sponsors can ship internationally if something strikes your liking.
Enjoy your time here and keep us updated when you take the plunge.
Been wanting to come back to visit family in (Cosenza, Cal.) Italy. Last time I was there was 40 yrs. ago.
Ciao,
...Ralph

[Paul Sabucchi]

Thanks for the advice, makes sense to start with a BB tank while I am feeding them up. So just in the top 1/2 of the tank some bogwood with plants attached and a few floating plants/pothos? Ciao

[Paul Sabucchi]

Welcome to Simply Discus Paul...You seem to be on the right track researching through the beginner's sticky.
Italy has many top Discus breeders and show grand champions...so acquiring quality stock should be no problem for you but also sure one of our many sponsors can ship internationally if something strikes your liking.
Enjoy your time here and keep us updated when you take the plunge.
Been wanting to come back to visit family in (Cosenza, Cal.) Italy. Last time I was there was 40 yrs. ago.
Ciao,
...Ralph

Thanks asking on the Italian forum for good suppliers. Haven't been to Calabria myself for 40 years but last month went to Rome (where I grew up) in a weekday (to pick up fish) for the first time in 20 years and it was gridlocked, even the auto shifter on my Toyota gave up! Could not wait to get back to my hills (and se and mountains). After living in Rome, London and other cities I have truly gone feral! Ciao

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hello Paul and welcome to Simply discus. I can't see how you are retired with all those animals you are looking after ;)
You will find lots of good information on here in this discus community with lots of great experienced discus keepers.
If you are starting with juvenile discus try starting with a larger group, and thin them out as they get bigger.

Good luck reaching your goals :D
Hi, definitely still busy with my lot, last sunday during the daddy of all thunderstorms one of my horses freaked and ripped a huge hole in her leg, thought i was going to have to put her down. Called some mates and spent 4 hours sowing her up again but she is on her feet now! Ciao from Italy (and from Emily)

[two utes]

Hi, definitely still busy with my lot, last sunday during the daddy of all thunderstorms one of my horses freaked and ripped a huge hole in her leg, thought i was going to have to put her down. Called some mates and spent 4 hours sowing her up again but she is on her feet now! Ciao from Italy (and from Emily)

Oh Paul so sorry to hear about Emily's injury. Hope her leg heals up well.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Emily is doing better than I dared hope. Attaching photos of the last lot of discus my local LFS got, appreciate your evaluation. Ciao

[Jnewin]

Better looking discus in Italy than in souther California at any lps :( so sad.
Good luck with ur endeavors!
Justin

[Argentum]

In Itally you have an excellent breeder called francesco penazzi you can get crazy discus from him.

[Paul Sabucchi]

In Itally you have an excellent breeder called francesco penazzi you can get crazy discus from him.

Thanks will look him up

[Paul Sabucchi]

Friended him on fb, his fish look fab but he is 5-6 hours drive away each way
.. Will see when the time comes

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi, been doing a bit more research. Management (wife) has aggreed to upping to a 120x50x60 cm 360 liter (90 gal) tank. Now for the fish... Although it is ment as a 50th birthday present for me Management prefers blue variants (mainly deep blue blue diamonds?) while I prefer more the turquouoise. I know that ideally I would have all the same strain but I am not keen on breeding (busy enough with all the other fishtanks and animals) and should it hapen I don't think it would be the worse cross. As for sourcing them I have followed your advice and keep checking Francesco Penazzi's fb page and closer to the time I will see what he has available, would love to get them direct from him.
Failing that I get most of my other fish through a retailer near Milan that has a good reputation and I think they get most of their hybrids from SG Discus that is the top italian professional breeder. Here is the link to a video of one of the past batches of youngsters they got. Would really appreciate if you could cast a glance and give me your opinion. Grazie

https://www.facebook.com/zoominimarketonline/videos/1159916737371252/

[Neptune]

Those LPS fish sure look better than anything I can get here!
Just curious, what does your LPS get for those fish??

[Filip]

They look very decent discus to me Paul .
90 gal. is a great tank size and your water parameters are ideal fof discus , I won't use any RO water IIWY.
You can even experience free swimmers in your display tank with such a low KH and TDS.
You are so lucky living by the Adriatic see surrounded with all that nature,animals and fish tanks . I envy you Paul :)

[Altum Nut]

Paolo...you have many choices being in Europe and Germany also has many to choose from but Francesco is well know for quality Discus. If your able to do the 6 hrs each way and your able to hand pick...all the better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asXu35Fneb8

Ciao...
...Ralph

[Paul Sabucchi]

You can check the LFS prices on the website, this is the link for their hybrids page

http://www.zoominimarketonline.it/acquario-dolce/pesci/discus/discus-ibridi.html

, they get nice wilds from time to time (at the moment just altums rio orinoco). They have a reasonable selection of southamerican cichlids and loricarids. Good thing about their website is that it only shows what they actually habe in the tanks, not what they may be able to order. Their packaging is impeccable in big bags with plenty of water, pure O2 and zeolite in big polystirene box. They take the fish to their local courrier depo at 5 pm and they get to mine at 8 am following morning for me to collect. I wold still prefer to get my fish direct from Francesco Penazzi, although he has a day job he is considered amongst the best in Europe, you can friend him on fb to see what he is up to. On youtube there are a few videos from 3-4 years ago, I believe since he has expanded his facilities.

https://youtu.be/SinEF50_gtA

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi again, just trying to get all my ducks in a row before I start. My tapwater not only is soft but also chlorine free. I checked today with the Sera Cl liquid test that should start to go yellow at 0.02 mg/l and it stays crystal clear. So in order to do big frequent (even up to 90% daily if required) water changes, can I fill my water-butts with hot water and let it age just a few hours with a wavemaker (to de-gas) just until the temperature has dropped to discus temperature? This would save the trouble of having to warm up stone cold water. Ciao

[DiscusRob]

Should work as long as temp matches, Quick question, you posted your pH is 7.4 out of the tap, have you let it sit for 24 hours and checked it again, pH can and does swing. Double check that.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Yup, I checked after 24 hr but just got a new JBL 6-7.6 liuid test kit that should be more accurate than the wide range ph test kit. Tried to message Francesco but no answer yet. Ciao

[Paul Sabucchi]

Yippieee! Francesco got back to me, said sure we can arrange for me to pick up some of his fish when the time comes. Thinking I will be able to get top notch fish and for them to go straight from the breeder's tank to mine without being passed from pillar to post is great. When he has time he will give me pointers on how to bring them up like he does. Thank you again for your advice