Stressed out - Contemplating OTHER FISH ! ! !

[allan_mark76]

Hello folks I was just wondering what you all have besides Discus. Right now I'm totally stressed out due to discus and was throwing around the ideas of picking up some new FISH. Right now the only thing that comes to mind is a Beautiful Flowerhorn Fish that I saw on the net today. What do you all think??? ??? I'm not abandoning my DISCUS so please don't feel like I'm giving up::), but I'm also wanting to own something that's a lot easier to take care of as far as fish are concerned. What do you all think??? I mean haven't you all been stressed out because of your discus' health or care that you've come to the idea that you'd want something new just to try out.

Thanks.

Allan Mark Asuncion

[melo]

I have a gold severum which is somewhat discus like and is indestructible...

[keno]

People keep other fish besides discus?

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

[liz]

Hello Discus can be a little stressfull :)This is my second go at them,but this time I am having much better luck.You say you would like to try some other fish, do you have another tank?If so there is many you could choose from.I have three tanks at present one Discus,one community and a smaller one .I keep a lot of Cichlids they are reasonably easy to keep.But you certainly could not mix them with your Discus.Anyway good luck on whatever you decide to do.

I keep and breed angelfish, rams, guppies, albino bristlenose ancistrus. Selling the juvies and pairs from these help offset the cost of my discus addiction. Plus, all grow out great in reject water from my r/o filter...( Adults rams need softer water for breeding though)

[korbi_doc]

:bounce: :bounce: I think we all understand the 'STRESS'! Thought fish were supposed to lower our BP, but sometimes, that's a little hard to do. Besides my 90g & 125g of discus & cories, am Qting rams to add to. However I also have a 65g hex with SW fish, only 3, but they're easy. In the office I have a cichlid tank with parrotfish & platys that gets no attention cuz of "the discus". Now that I have 2 empty 20g tanks wonder what'll come next?? Lots of us have different fish. .When you look out there, there's lots more- & I like cichlids, African. . next? Dottie :-\ :-\ :-\

[darcy]

I also know how you feel!! I also wanted to try something else and bought a bunch of Angels, well within a couple weeks I sold them all off and the tank they were in. To me there is no other fish that compare's with discus. Now that I have pair's forming and trying to artifically raise some fry I have on the go, I have no interest in any other fish!!!!
Darcy

[dm]

I have a community tank with mostly SA Tetras, Clown Loaches and Dwarf Gouramies. Oh yeah, and Cories too :P

Forget Flowerhorn. It's vicious and you will not raise one like the picture. They're specially fed for the color and to grow a hump on their head. Otherwise it will disappear. You can't keep other fish with them. They attack anything including the rocks in their tank. Most people get rid of them when they start fighting among each others. Try Angel. At least it's from the same family of discus. They can survive with flakes alone and need no heater and require very little adjutment to spawn successfully.

Jimmy.

[Tad]

Allan,
Keeping discus can be very stressful in the beginning ..as there is so much to learn....actually discus have got a stigma about them as they are supposed to be so hard to raise...We read the boards and we see all the problems posted from disease to pairs eating their eggs....You got to remember this is a hobby unless you are seriously thinking of getting into wholesale/retail/serious breeding.....What I have found is that it is best to approach a "hobby" in a manner that you do not become a slave. What I have learned and its a valuable lesson from my discus is time management. When I realised that time was best managed when it came to my discus it became more of a hobby again. Water changes are done in my case not everyday but every 3 days...(I know its not the norm) but it works for me...I am currently maintaining 325 (6 various aquariums/gallons) gallons of aquariums that house discus and it takes me approximately an average of 1 hour per day including feedings. My tanks are crystal clean and fish all happy...in fact I got 2 pairs working right as I speak (now that is stress lol)...but I have been in your shoes and felt overwhelmed...but I took steps to adjust the hobby to my lifestyle without jeopardizing the discus's health or well being....it can be done! I also have other fish that I keep...I have a nice African Cichlid tank that actually can take more care than my discus...give this hobby of discus keeping a little bit more time and focus on time management and not becoming a slave to your fish so you can sit down and enjoy them from a nice recliner...JMO..

Good luck,
Tad

PS: African cichlids are really nice to keep too...hardy fish!

[Ryan]

I agree that it's good to keep a mix of fish. I love my discus though and I really don't stress much about them. Food and water everyday and they are happy. Maybe I am just lucky (knock on wood).

Angels are fun to keep and easy to breed. They have personality but not nearly as much as discus. Like Jimmy said, they don't require a heater, eat anything, and spawn very easily. They also come in very cool varieties and can make an impressive display if you keep several per tank.

I also love gouramis and bettas. I used to have a 55 gallon community with pearl gouramis, opaline gouramis, moonlight gouramis, dwarf gouramis, female bettas, and a few tetra species. I also kept a few dwarf cichlids in this setup including rams and kribs (which are not South American, but still considered a 'dwarf' cichlid and are fairly peaceful in large tanks)..

Ryan

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Allan, tell us about your frustration(now putting on the Freud hat)? What are the things that are frustrating you, 'cause we might be able to help you in those areas. I used to stress about my discus and if they're ok, or are they sick, or are they stressed, or are they hungry, or are they..............and on and on. I know the feeling, bud! Let us know what's up and we can help ya ;)


Steve

Edibill: Please contact me. or activate your IM message. Need help in Albino Bristlenose breeding.

Jimmy.

[brewmaster15]

With all the variety of Discus out there Its hard to get bored with them,, so I keep getting more. I have "thought" about another tank of something and may do it but not sure when.
I was at the store the other night and saw some really beautiful salt water fish (did those for a few years) , I loved the Tangs, mandarin blennies, bird wrasses, clowns and anemones. My favorites though were the Lionfish. I had 2 monsters and a real cool dwarf. Then I remembered how difficult it was to deal with disease if their live rock and inverts (a MUST HAVE ), then the salt spray on everything. Salt water eating away the poly off the hardwood floors! But they are beautiful fish.
Maybe africans or other SA cichlids , Odds are though I'll find something very rare to work on, even if its ugly as sin.I like the challenge.
BUT... I am doing this not because of frustration, but for variety and Knowledge. Please share the frustrations with us, god knows we have all had our share of them.

It may be hard for you and others new to discus to believe this, but Discus are not difficult to keep. 99.9% of the probelms novices run into comes from starting off on the wrong foot with bad or sick stock.. Usually its purchased at a LFS, or from a fellow hobbysist, sometimes a wholesale, or sight unseen online by auction or direct. They then spend weeks of frustration trying to cure ailments like worms, hex, hole in the head, bacterial etc. This royally stinks, but its how most of us started and LEARNED!

If I had one bit of advice ... buy from a breeder or hobbyist with a good rep, visit if possible, and learn about whats needed for discus before you get them. Take baby steps... Healthy stock, bare glass tank, large water changes, stable water temp and pH, Diverse diet. Then dabble in plants, gravel, community tanks, breeders and RO water.

HTH<
al

[DarkDiscus]

Allan,

There are many interesting and attractive fish out there that can get by with a lot less attention than discus. I've bred a number of varieties of african and central american cichlids and have kept other tropical for years.

None of them match the discus for variety, interesting breeding behaviour and sheer impressiveness (is that a word?). Some come close, but a healthy, adult discus is the best.

It's all a question of what you are willing to do to get and maintain these great fish.

John

[Francisco_Borrero]

I am trying to do the opposite thing:
To reduce the variety of fish I have, and concentrate more in discus and a few other things.
In adition to discus I currently have a few "species tanks" (they usually include some cleaning cats as well):

Uaru
Congo tetras
Altum angels/cories (+large pleco)
Red hook and black barred silver dollars (+large pleco)
Pencil fish and splash tetras
Aulonocara peacocks (Lake Malawi)

In addition, I have a 90 and a 75 "communities" with
- Leporinus, Distichodus, Anostomus headstanders, Severum, Threadfin hatchets, large pleco
- Flagtail prochilodus, Hemiodus, penguin tetras, cories

There are so many fish out there that I am sure you'll find something you like.

Good luck. Cheers, Francisco.

My experience with Discus, in the beginning, was very stressful as well. I found that I loved them so much I would sit and stare at them for hours on end, in total awe. :o Then I found myself thinking of them all the time (that is how I found this forum) to the point that I wanted to learn more and more about how to keep them healthy. I would read so much that when I rushed home to stare some more, I would start stressing over any move that I had learned about that day on the forum. I found myself analysing their every breath... every twitch... every this... every that... you get the picture?. :scared: "Oh no, this one twitched his dorsal fin, and that one darted, and another is breathing somewhat heavier than yesterday". That is what stressed me to the hilt. ::)

I finally had to tell myself that they are ONLY fish (damn I hope they can not read) and I needed to focus on the reason I keep fish to begin with..... We all know why that is. So now, if I see only one gill moving, I pour in 10 lbs of salt (oops) and just walk away... Once I realized what I was doing to myself, I am no longer stressed. "Shoot, got to go, Pidge is chasing Baby again". You stop that Pidge!! pppppppppidge...

err. well not as stressed anyway.....

:-\ Julz

[cgrim10]

julz, i am not sure, but i think they can read. or at least read lips!!!
i was so taken by discus along time ago, that i sufferered nightmares about soaring temps, horrible parasites and many other abnormalities. i judge myself as another "never pleased perfectionist". but now i have reached a happier plateau. i resent the time spent, (thats because i am so unorganized) but i don't stress anymore. that is unless it is baby time!! always worried for babies. and as fish mature, i don't like the fights, some are pretty severe. i do worry about a breeder being dealt a lethal blow while on break with others. cg

would i consider other fish? NEVER

[Tim_Ellis]

I would suggest apistogramma or pelvicachromis species. They come from the same kind of water as discus, eat relatively the same things, show strong cichlid parental skills and are not near as demanding. With most of the domesticated strains you could even keep them in tap. Careful though, they were the gateway to discus for me. ;D

Tim

[allan_mark76]

STRESS STRESS STRESS STRESS STRESS STRESS STRESS......... That's what I've had for the past 3 weeks as I've been doing everything right with the water changes (50-100% WC daily) and 4-6 feeding a day (CBW,frozen blood worms/shrimp, Tetra Color Bits and etc.) and what I'm finding right now is the fish are ruling my life and NOT vice versa. I mean I started this first as a hobby when I was given two PB discus as a gift. After that I was hooked and was purchasing discus from LFS and Breeders (thanks Jeff for the advice & help
http://www.discusfarm.us). So I felt that I had a good handle on Discus and was reading the boards every minute that I had, even at WORK! ! ! Then I had a turn for the worse....my discus started to get sick... I became emotionally caught up in the fish that I started to take time off of work to take care of them, feed, and medicate them. I mean I was treating them like kids as I'd cry :'( when they weren't feeling good or talk to them feeling that I would hopefully nurse them back to good health (weird huh??? ::)). Just like other members said previously... you would notice everything that would happen to your discus. Why??? Well because you love your discus. Well what was happening for me was that I was in turn getting stressed out and sick just like my fish cuz I stressed soooooooooo much about my fish that in the process I forgot about my personal needs i.e. I was taking care of my fish more than myself. Now is that weird or just me???? ??? What I'm saying here is that keeping discus now wasn't a hobby, but a chore while yet being much more depressing than fun. So right now I'm looking into getting back into the basics - just having a simple fish tank:-\. By all means I'm NOT:-X quiting DISCUS as I do not have any intention in selling off my babies, but what I'm thinking of is keeping something simple that I can just take a step or two back that's not discus related and enjoy their company without all the hassles of a water change and sickness. I mean we all started out with something simple at first and then worked our way up, right? Well that's what I'm doing. About the Flowerhorn.... that's just a possibility....right now keeping Angelfish is also a possibility.

Thanks all.

Allan Mark Asuncion

Allan.
You are so right. I just read your last post thoroughally and you took me back thru every emotion I felt daily the minute of purchase. We Discus keepers are indeed a one of a kind bunch. These guyes can steal your heart in an instant and once stolen there is no turning back. But BELIEVE me, once you fill your precious empty tank space with anthing but Discus and you suddenly cure your original babies, you will be looking for a way out to free up space again. ONLY for more Discus. I am not saying it is true for all of us nuts, but is a living fact for me. I started out with Angels about 4 years ago (am I remembering correctly Weezy?) and they WERE my life until I first laid my eyes on the almighty. I fought with troubles right and left (until I went bb) and after they got better I had felt this sence of accomplishment that I hadn't come close to in a very long time. Soooooo to make this story shorter...... Angels are a good alternative. They do have a schmidgin of the personality that the Discus do and are much easier to care for.... But beware...You may be looking for homes for them sooner than you think........

Julz

[brewmaster15]

Hi Allan,

All the things you describe are perfectly normal.... for a drug addict, and discus are a drug with only one cure.... more discus! :)

I have seen this time and again, and am there myself, though Ihave gone a bit farther than you in my obsession ;) ;D

Break it down to the basics.... are you happy with the fish? if yes , no probelms. IF no...for whatever reason, then back off and try to find a level of involvement that you are happy with. I'm still looking for mine, but I'm running out of time in the day! ;D

good luck,
al

[korbi_doc]

:bounce: :bounce2: :bounce: Allan, DO NOT DESPAIR!!! This is normal learning curve...We all got thru it.. This month is a year since I started with discus. have finally 2 tanks seemingly under control, 90g & 125g with 23 discus, 9 cories & some Rams to be added soon. Now mind you, I will be vigilant 'bout problems, cuz there seems to be always something out there that will threaten, but have 2 happy tanks of fish to which nothing will be added until QT. I can vouch that, now there is time to sit, admire & enjoy my discus, & enjoy bantering with my discus friends on forums. There is that light at the end of the tunnel, then what happens???? WeWant More!!!! J/K one does need to get to a comfortable level. & yes, you can enjoy other fish as well, but discus is KING!! At least in my tanks, hahahahahahahahahaha Brew & Jultz said it very well!! JMO Dottie ;D ;D ;D

[allan_mark76]

I'm now retired.

[allan_mark76]

I'n now retired . . .

[BobDaniel]

Allan, the issues about sick fish are not unusual for LFS fish. You can bet money that you will have problems when a person buys LFS fish. A far as water changes. consider going with a wet/dry filter. I had one on a 150 and I really only had to vacuum poop off the bottom of the tank and do two or three WC's a week.

I think some of the fun in aquaria is coming up with solutions to the problems that pop up. You may be trying too hard too. Relax, it's supposed to be a calming hobby.

[Second Hand Pat]

Bob, I doubt Allen is stressed now. This thread is from 2002.

[Poco]

Retired = more time = more tanks :D

[Donno]

Retired=less work=don't have to deal with it anymore.

[Moon]

I'n now retired . . .

retired from work or discus?

[vickie52]

I saw a video made by Wet Pets in Pa. They have a 120 gal show tank with 15 adult discus and a horde of neons filled with plants etc. It is filtered using a refugium filter and the shop owner claims he has only made 12 water changes in 6 years. I don't hear anything about these filters on this forum. The 50 % water change a day is getting me down especially since I still deal with health problems with my fish. Can someone tell me if this type of filter helps?