DarkDiscus
02-14-2003, 11:23 AM
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Happy Valentines Day! And to commemorate this holiday, the staff of Simply Discus voted to give you a special interview this month with two of our lovebirds, Ari and Scott, live from Australia. Please enjoy the spotlight with these two extremely interesting individuals and with luck we will provide a few surprises and a lot of fun.
JOHN: Please tell us all a little about yourselves? How did you two meet, how did you get into discus, what do you do for a living? Anything at all that tells us more about you!
ARI: Well... this will be a long one.... lol. We met, when I was a third year university student at RMIT in Melbourne, and I was doing a vacation employment over summer at an Aluminium Smelter in Tasmania. Scott was already working there as an engineer. So, we met through work and the dating went on over summer. A lot of people thought it was only going to be a summer fling.... And to tell you the truth, so did we. But then, we kept on going out even when I had to go back to Melbourne to continue my study. We would never thought that we would be married one day.
Hhhmm.... How did I get into discus?? Well, we always have a tropical fish tank, full of tetras, rainbows and all sorts. We know about discus long before we got into them, but we always thought they were too hard and expensive... so we were not even considering them at that stage. But one day, we were walking around a local pet shop in late 2000, and we saw these little discus, they were called fuji red, for $15 ea. That was cheap, we thought. So, we thought we might buy a couple and see how they turned out in our community tank. Little did we know that it led to something bigger and better...lol. Of course, we lost one a few months after, and the other one was stunted to the max.... and yes, we still have the other one for sentimental reason until now. And then, Scott started going beserk and buying discus left right and centre. I was enjoying them, but not really involved with them at first. I was busy with my cats... . And a few months after acquiring those discus, Scott took this job in Nothern Territory that required him to travel 4 weeks out of 5. That was not ideal, and he begged me to look after all the discus for him. Gee... I would not know what to do. I always have fish, but not discus. That is when I found all the websites, and finally simply , cause I wanted to learn all there is to know about discus before I killed them all. After many trial and errors (yes, I did loose discus to disease and stuff), I finally found a way to keep them happy and healthy. Not that I have perfected the art of keeping discus, but at least I know what to expect from healthy discus and be able to react accordingly if I see something out of the ordinary....
Scott and I are both engineers, but Scott's work keeps him away a lot. He is now back in Brisbane, Thank God, no more travelling for him.
SCOTT: You want the short version or the long? Ari and I met in December of '95 in northern Tasmania, when I was a first year graduate engineer working at Comalco Aluminium, and she was a 3rd year vacation student (undergrad) doing her industry experience at the same place. She was a good little Indonesian girl when we met, and I corrupted her... Well, that's the story she'll tell you anyway. When Ari graduated and went back to Indonesia in '97, I sold all my stuff and moved to Indonesia with her, after finding work in a mining contracting company. After a few not so subtle hints from her (extended) family, we were married in Jakarta in December of '98 in a traditional Java wedding.
Ari and I have always liked fish, she had guppies and mollies when she was eight, and I had goldfish when I was around the same age. I had some wild caught marines for a little while, and went back to comets when I was in university. I used to pack all the fish up 4 times a year and drive home with them in an esky in the back of my car! When I was in Tassie I had a pair of oscars, and when we moved back to Australia in 2000 I had a 4 foot tank that I filled with tetras and other tropicals. Then it was a slow transition to Discus, who have not completely supplanted other species, but now dominate our fishtanks.
We also like other animals, and have 2 crossbreed dogs, 3 cats (Burmese, Persian and himalyan) and a lime fisher.
JOHN: How many discus do you currently own? How many tanks? What strains do you have? What strain/s do you like best?
ARI: Do I have to give the exact number??? Gee... I guess about 50 of them. I have to count them..lol. We are currently running 4 tanks for my discus.
I like the classic strain, like rsg (my most favourite), turq, and alenquer. I mostly love wilds, but I have given up on them. The kind of wilds that enter Australia are mostly sickly and very expensive, so I think I will stick with the classic strain instead.
SCOTT: Right now we are overstocked. Without counting exactly, we have around 50 discus, from juveniles right up to adults. We have bought the odd adult discus (5 or 6 total) and the others we have grown out ourselves. We have 3 tanks of discus (one for adults @ 120g, one for 2 to 4 inch fish @ 55g, and one for sub 2 inchers @55g. We also have 2 brood tanks (1 is occupied), a growout tank (empty), a hospital tank, a quarantine tank (both empty), a 65g octagonal goldfish tank, and a 55g full of rainbows, left-over tetras and some apistos and bolivian rams. Oh, and a 1/2 gallon tank with a northern purple spotted gudgeon that I caught in the Northern Territory. He's a fish eater, so he has his own quarters.
I like pigeons and their derivatives the best, and of course whites!! At the moment we have a bit of everything, 2 golden snakeskins, a blue diamond, 2 MRs, 2 RSGs, 4 white pigeons, some RTs and derivitaves (scribbles, chequers etc), browns, alenquers, goldens...
JOHN: Which of you is more this discus addict? What strains/fish do your partner like best?
ARI: Well... Scott started this whole hobby... and I have to say at present, he is more into it than I am. Up until a little while ago, I was crazy about my discus... there was nothing better to spend my money and time on....if you ask me...lol. I think I am actually a better discus keeper than he is...lol. I have more patience... I will get into them again though, I love the fish... and I don't think I ever give up the hobby whatever happens.
Scott absolutely loves the pigeon variety. Anything with pigeon in it!! Pity it is hard to get clean pigeon here in Australia... He loves those whites too and their crosses... red white, yellow white, etc. Still hard to find in Australia... and if there are any, the prices are ridiculously expensive. He still wants them though...but I guess he has to wait.
SCOTT: Well... I worked away in the Northern Territory all last year, so Ari was the discus nut then - she couldn't stop buying discus. I had a trip for for a week every month, so we bought a new tank and some discus each time! Now that I'm home and working in the city, I do most of the discus chores now. Ari has something new to occupy her time now. But more about that later...
Ari's favourite strains are definitely wilds. If she could have a planted biotope tank of wild Tefe greens and heckels she would be in heaven.
JOHN: Are you presently breeding any discus or is it something you plan on doing?
ARI: We are not breeding them at the moment. Every now and then, we would pull out a pair and let them raise a spawn or two. Scott is too busy and I am too lazy. It is not hard to get them spawning and raising a spawn, but far harder to raise the babies to good size... A lot of work involved. We are lucky though, to have perfect tap water.... The water is coming out of the tap at 28deg C (at the moment in summer), and very soft with the pH of 7-7.2. So, the discus loves it!! I think, we will get into breeding, because most of our adult discuses are well and trully ready. At one stage, we had 4 pairs spawning in our community tanks at the same time!! It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the tank... And they all do partner swapping and all...lol. It was definitely fun to watch though.
SCOTT: I wouldn't call what we're doing breeding in the true sense of the word. We have 5 pairs of mismatched discus that breed in our adult tank (which just happens to be planted), but so far we've only raised 2 spawns. The first (SSxMR) was culled completely since they runted out, and the second spawn (RSGxSS)is too early to cull yet. I have a lot to learn about culling, and only cull the obvious deformities. A real breeder would be much more ruthless in the pursuit of excellence. It's more of a learning period at this stage.
I currently have a white pigeon paired to a blue turq that continually raise wrigglers in the adult tank, so they are in the brood tank with a clutch of eggs at the moment. Should hatch today actually, so we'll see what we wind up with.
Long term, I'd love to develop my own strain, or at least "fix" some of the existing strains. I love the red whites, golden whites and blue whites. If I could fix the strains to breed true, I'd love to name them!! There are so many discus out there with arbitrary names, you never know what their parent were. And even if you breed brother to sister, you wouldn't get 100% of the offspring looking like their parents. I'm guilty of crossing discus strains, but if it looks like a pigeon or a red turq, that's what I'd call it.
JOHN: What do you feed your discus? How do you have your filtration set up?
ARI: We feed beefheart, frozen bloodworm, frozen brineshrimp and tetra bits. Nothing fancy. We can't get cheap and good source of live blackworms, so we are staying away from live food.
For our big community tank, we have wet and dry filter. Great filter!! We absolutely love it, and the discus seems to like it as well. And for other 2 juvenile tanks, we just run cannister filters. I know they are a pain to clean, but we never have any problem with them, and they require less maintenance than those AC filters, so we stick with them. We also put a sponge filter in each tank. For pairs and babies, we only use sponge filters, without any mechanical filtration.
SCOTT: Our discus get frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen beef heart and tetra bits (not necessarily in that order)! Every now and then, they get red wrigglers from the compost heap. We have live bloodworms breeding in a bucket outside, but the rainbows eat them at the moment, along with mosquito wrigglers. I'm still hesitant about live foods, but I'll experiment with a cull to see how they go. If I had access to CBW, I reckon they'd be eating those as well.
The filtration on the adult's tank is wet and dry (20% of the total volume) and a hydrosponge. The other 55s are on canisters and hydrosponges, and the brood / growout tanks are on hydrosponges only. We also have a couple of internal power filters we use for the quarantine/hospital tanks, be they are essentially high flow compact hydrosponges .
Water changes are semi-automated using permanent syphons. Our water comes out of the tap with 1° of hardness, neutral pH and this time of year, at 28°C. We filter through a domestic ceramic/carbon filter to remove chlorine, and fill tanks without water aging. Water changes are 50% per week on the adult tank (planted) and 50% twice weekly on the BB tanks. Growouts are done daily or at least every other day @50% We have mostly via-aqua heaters and one tronic. No titaniums as yet, but I expect our dream tank (8 footer!!) would use those in the sump of the wet & dry.
JOHN: What is your most exhilarating moment with discus?
ARI: Watching my first pair spawning and raising babies.... That was just magic. I was home at the time... and I just sat in front of the tank and watched them for hours.
SCOTT: It would have to be when our discus successfully raised their spawn from wrigglers to free-swimming fry. Before that, we just enjoyed the discus, and had no intention whatsoever of breeding them. It was too much like hard work I thought! But when we started to have pairs forming and spawning in the tank, we thought we'd take it to the next step and see what happened. Seeing my pet fish covered in clouds of fry was certainly a high point in my discus experience.
JOHN: What is your most frustrating moment with discus?
ARI: When fish refused to grow at all, and then stop eating... and get disease in the end. I really hate loosing fish, but I guess some fish are doing better than others, and some are growing better too.
SCOTT: Which one - there have been many! If I had to pick one, it is having a discus runt out despite all my efforts to make him grow. If I buy half a dozen 1" fish, it is always the cleanest or the most interestingly patterned that refuses to grow. His tankmates double, then triple in size. So I'd isolate him and try metro to kill of internal parasites. Discus do best in groups, so I'd rearrange the stock in the tanks to put him with similar sized tank mates. Even then if he perks up and starts interacting, the damage is done, and he'll never grow as well as his siblings. Sometimes they are just a sickly fish that hang at the back during feeding, and slowly waste away. These are the most frustrating moments, but if his tank mates are fat and healthy, I just write him off as an under-achiever and leave him to his own devices. We probably have 5 or 6 fish like this that I'm hoping will recover and become fat, healthy albeit stunted and pointy adults. But I'm not holding my breath.
JOHN: Do you have any future discus plans?
ARI: Well....we get into discus because we love the fish, so I don't think we will be a big time breeder or anything like that. I would be happy to raise a spawn or two every now and then. But, most of the time, we just want to enjoy the fish. We still like travelling and being a big time breeder will stop us from doing our travelling. So, we try to get a balance there. But, we will always have discus, we can assure you that. This hobby will stick with you forever, I think, once you get into it.....
SCOTT: Who doesn't?!! Like I said earlier, I'd love to concentrate on the white crosses and see if I can breed them into their own strain. That is a long way off though.
I'd like to experiment with philodendrons as nitrate removers, and fluidised sand filters. I toyed with the idea of central filtration, but in the end decided it was just too complicated and too risky. I'll leave that to the commercial breeders. And then there's the kiddie pool growout idea from Cary, John and Beth, which I think is a great idea. An aquaculturist friend of mine has worked on barramundi farms in Far North Queensland, and there is an optimum stocking level for their ponds. They don't change water, and there are no plants in the ponds. During summer, it would be an easy way of growing fry out to a saleable size. I always say that if necessity was the mother of invention, laziness was the father...
JOHN: What would be your ideal discus set up, within the realm of possibility?
ARI: Scott wants a fish room, or a shed for his tanks. At the moment, we have them scattered all over the house... When we finally settle and buy a house, we would only have 1 big tank in the house (hopefully a huge 8foot tank or something - and that my big dream at present), and the rest can go to the fishroom. I don't think it will be big set-up though.
SCOTT: We'd like a "dream tank" about 8' long by 3' wide by 3' deep (500gal), wet/dry filtration, planted and populated with discus. Knowing Ari, she would want wilds, and in a planted tank, I'm inclined to agree with her. As long as there are a few blue diamonds in there as well - they are my favourite non-pigeon, non-white strain I would need another tank for the pigeons - BB with potted swords (maybe). The pigeons definitely look cleaner in a BB with a pale background. Two discus display tanks would do us I think. THEN I'd need a fishroom, with brood tanks and growout tanks, nothing too ambitious, just enough for 6 - 10 pairs. I'd have to automate the waterchanges, and I have plenty of ideas that I'll use when this eventuates. We are still renting, so this is our
plan to be implemented when we buy a house. And fishroom space is high on the list of residential selection criteria.
JOHN: Do you think you spouse likes the discus better than you? LOL!
ARI: Definitely not.... Well I hope not anyway. I think we are both in it together, so we are luckier than most people that we can share the hobby and enjoy it together. There is a downside though, there is no voice of reason that will stop us from buying more fish and more fish and more fish...lol. I am too scared to even count how much money we have spent in this hobby.
SCOTT: Nah, I'm still her number one pet! And it's not as much work to look after me - most of the time
JOHN: So, important news, we hear through the grapevine that you two are expecting! Congratulations! Is there any chance that you are going to name the baby after one of the moderators here??
ARI: Yes... we are having a baby in late May/early June. It was rather unexpected. April actually knew that I was pregnant before I did...lol. I complained that I was tired all the time, and she told me that I might be pregnant. I said 'no way', cause we were not planning a baby for another year or two and I thought I have been careful. Well, a few days later I went to get those test kit and there it was... I was pregnant. Scary and exciting at the same time!! The baby was not planned, but we could not be happier nonetheless...
About names, Scott and I have picked a few boys and girls name. We decided not to find out about the gender of the baby. It will be a surprise for us and for everyone. And also, we have decided that we would not tell anyone about the names either...lol. One thing for sure, the name won't be a traditional western name, cause our baby won't be traditional western baby. We will definitely let everyone knows when the time comes....
SCOTT: Yes it's true, we have a wriggler about to hatch in late May / early July. So that means April is out of the running (Sorry Pril!!) As far as names go, all we want is a name that is pronounced the same in English as it is in Indonesian. So you'll have to wait and see, just like everyone else!!
JOHN: It is the Newlywed Show time! What are your spouses favorite:
Foods?
ARI: Subway!! He loves his subway sandwiches. But then, he eats everything and anything!!! So, this is a VERY hard question to answer....
JOHN: Scott said he liked Mrs Mac's steak and cheese meat pie with mushy peas and Worcestershire sauce above all else, though he did agree that he likes to eat anything. Scott, what about Ari?
SCOTT: Hmmm - Tim Tams
JOHN: Ari says she does not have a favorite, but that she prefers Thai food. What it a Tim Tam, anyway?
JOHN: Drinks?
ARI: Beer??? Lol. He just loves his beer... but I succeded in making him giving up beer on weekdays....
JOHN: Score one for Ari! The exact quote was: Beer, especially the Black Rock New Zealand Company Bitter, served at 2°C in a schooner glass. Sounds great to me!
SCOTT: A nice hot cup of Indonesian jasmine tea.
JOHN: WRONG! Ari said she likes your home brew alcoholic ginger beer! And gives it a YUM!
JOHN: Vacation Spots?
ARI: Lombok Island in Indonesia. It is an island next to Bali, very quiet and relaxing place to be. Not as touristy and the atmosphere is great. Although, he loves going to Thailand too....
SCOTT: New Zealand would have to up there, but I'd have to say continental Europe and North America. Not that she's been there yet!
JOHN: You both pretty much agreed on Indonesia and New Zealand. I have to say I will give you both credit for this one!
JOHN: Hobbies (other than fish)?
ARI: His hobby is motorbike at the moment. He has a little bike at the moment, a Yamaha Virago 250cc. Now, that he has his open licence for a bigger and meaner bike, he wants a new one...lol. Bad timing, with the baby coming and all, cause we have to buy a new car with 4 doors (we have a hatchback 3 door little car). But, he has his next bike picked out now... and I am sure he will find a way to get the bike one way or the other....lol.
He also likes gardening, but I think his love for motorbike is greater at the moment.
JOHN: Scotts exact quote was this: Hmmmm, scuba diving, riding my motorbike, brewing beer, gardening (orchids, bromeliads, saracenia and nepenthes pitcher plants), reading SF&F books (Robert Jordan has just released the 10th and final book in the Wheel of Time series in paperback! Woohoo!!), travelling and watching movies. And since we are about to trade in the Mirage 3 door hatch on a Nissan Terrano II 4WD, I guess off-road activities will start to emerge. Fishing, camping, that sort of stuff.
JOHN: Scott, I hate to tell you this, but Crossroads (Book 10) is NOT the last in the Wheel of Time series! Just one of the reasons I gave up on this series after book 6.
SCOTT: Ari's a great classical pianist and can play the guitar. She has a great singing voice, and used to jam in a group of like-minded enthusiasts. One could say it was a band. Ari likes to travel and see new places, and she's a SCUBA diver as well.
JOHN: Scott gets full credit for this one!
JOHN: Web sites?
ARI: Simply and motorbike website.....
JOHN: Ari again gets the score!
SCOTT: Simply Discus of course!!! And she likes thaigem.com. What is it with girls and rocks?
JOHN: She said Simply, but didn’t mention thaigem.com. Looking for any special kind of rock??
JOHN: Do you have any funny discus stories to share with us?
ARI: hhhmmm.... Can't think of any at the moment... I am sure Scott has some....
SCOTT: This one time, at band camp... J/K, but there was this time a female SS discus was having trouble passing an ENORMOUS loaf. She had been trying for a couple of hours, and was still looking pretty uncomfortable. So I threw in Epsom salts at the rate of one teaspoon per 10gal, and it had the desired, if rather messy effect. To this day, I don't know what she ate, but afterwards I counted the cardinals to make sure they were all still there! I wish I'd taken a photo.
Any then there's a white pigeon that likes to hang out inside a hollow piece of driftwood. Only she lays on her left side whilst relaxing, looking very unusual as she drifts in and out of the log. The clown loach seems most put out at having to share his bivouac. Whacky and crazy discus!!
JOHN: Do you have any thanks or credit to give for your success with discus?
ARI: We owe a lot to Rod Lewis. He has given me advice and tips all along the way. There were times I called him in panic asking him about my discus... and he has always been helpful.... I guess I am lucky that he only lives 15 mins away from me. And also April... for being there over the side of the world. She has been a great friend who helped me along the way and also directed me to simply.... I wish she was closer....because we get along so well...
And finally to everyone at simply!!! It has been a great site and still is!! I have learned heaps from simply and I am still learning....
SCOTT: I don't know that I'd go so far as to call it success, but there's too many people who've helped us along the way to mention without writing a separate book. I'd like to give a HUGE thank-you to Rod Lewis, without whose expertise and coaching we would be lost in the discus wilderness. And of course to all the mods and members of Simply Discus, without whose advice and encouragement we would have chucked in the towel long ago!! Our earliest forays onto the internet trawling for information led us to DPH, where Ari met April and Rod, and the rest is history!!
JOHN: Thank you very much for taking the time to be interviewed!
ARI: No worries.... John... Thanks for interviewing us... I don't think we deserve it, cause we are still newbies compared to some people who has been in this hobby for so long.
SCOTT: Thanks for the honour of being February's spotlight. I know I always enjoy reading the spotlights, and I hope people enjoy reading ours!
That's it for this month! I hope you enjoyed reading about one of our greatest couples. Next month we will be back to our regular format and I'll be taking nominations!
John
Happy Valentines Day! And to commemorate this holiday, the staff of Simply Discus voted to give you a special interview this month with two of our lovebirds, Ari and Scott, live from Australia. Please enjoy the spotlight with these two extremely interesting individuals and with luck we will provide a few surprises and a lot of fun.
JOHN: Please tell us all a little about yourselves? How did you two meet, how did you get into discus, what do you do for a living? Anything at all that tells us more about you!
ARI: Well... this will be a long one.... lol. We met, when I was a third year university student at RMIT in Melbourne, and I was doing a vacation employment over summer at an Aluminium Smelter in Tasmania. Scott was already working there as an engineer. So, we met through work and the dating went on over summer. A lot of people thought it was only going to be a summer fling.... And to tell you the truth, so did we. But then, we kept on going out even when I had to go back to Melbourne to continue my study. We would never thought that we would be married one day.
Hhhmm.... How did I get into discus?? Well, we always have a tropical fish tank, full of tetras, rainbows and all sorts. We know about discus long before we got into them, but we always thought they were too hard and expensive... so we were not even considering them at that stage. But one day, we were walking around a local pet shop in late 2000, and we saw these little discus, they were called fuji red, for $15 ea. That was cheap, we thought. So, we thought we might buy a couple and see how they turned out in our community tank. Little did we know that it led to something bigger and better...lol. Of course, we lost one a few months after, and the other one was stunted to the max.... and yes, we still have the other one for sentimental reason until now. And then, Scott started going beserk and buying discus left right and centre. I was enjoying them, but not really involved with them at first. I was busy with my cats... . And a few months after acquiring those discus, Scott took this job in Nothern Territory that required him to travel 4 weeks out of 5. That was not ideal, and he begged me to look after all the discus for him. Gee... I would not know what to do. I always have fish, but not discus. That is when I found all the websites, and finally simply , cause I wanted to learn all there is to know about discus before I killed them all. After many trial and errors (yes, I did loose discus to disease and stuff), I finally found a way to keep them happy and healthy. Not that I have perfected the art of keeping discus, but at least I know what to expect from healthy discus and be able to react accordingly if I see something out of the ordinary....
Scott and I are both engineers, but Scott's work keeps him away a lot. He is now back in Brisbane, Thank God, no more travelling for him.
SCOTT: You want the short version or the long? Ari and I met in December of '95 in northern Tasmania, when I was a first year graduate engineer working at Comalco Aluminium, and she was a 3rd year vacation student (undergrad) doing her industry experience at the same place. She was a good little Indonesian girl when we met, and I corrupted her... Well, that's the story she'll tell you anyway. When Ari graduated and went back to Indonesia in '97, I sold all my stuff and moved to Indonesia with her, after finding work in a mining contracting company. After a few not so subtle hints from her (extended) family, we were married in Jakarta in December of '98 in a traditional Java wedding.
Ari and I have always liked fish, she had guppies and mollies when she was eight, and I had goldfish when I was around the same age. I had some wild caught marines for a little while, and went back to comets when I was in university. I used to pack all the fish up 4 times a year and drive home with them in an esky in the back of my car! When I was in Tassie I had a pair of oscars, and when we moved back to Australia in 2000 I had a 4 foot tank that I filled with tetras and other tropicals. Then it was a slow transition to Discus, who have not completely supplanted other species, but now dominate our fishtanks.
We also like other animals, and have 2 crossbreed dogs, 3 cats (Burmese, Persian and himalyan) and a lime fisher.
JOHN: How many discus do you currently own? How many tanks? What strains do you have? What strain/s do you like best?
ARI: Do I have to give the exact number??? Gee... I guess about 50 of them. I have to count them..lol. We are currently running 4 tanks for my discus.
I like the classic strain, like rsg (my most favourite), turq, and alenquer. I mostly love wilds, but I have given up on them. The kind of wilds that enter Australia are mostly sickly and very expensive, so I think I will stick with the classic strain instead.
SCOTT: Right now we are overstocked. Without counting exactly, we have around 50 discus, from juveniles right up to adults. We have bought the odd adult discus (5 or 6 total) and the others we have grown out ourselves. We have 3 tanks of discus (one for adults @ 120g, one for 2 to 4 inch fish @ 55g, and one for sub 2 inchers @55g. We also have 2 brood tanks (1 is occupied), a growout tank (empty), a hospital tank, a quarantine tank (both empty), a 65g octagonal goldfish tank, and a 55g full of rainbows, left-over tetras and some apistos and bolivian rams. Oh, and a 1/2 gallon tank with a northern purple spotted gudgeon that I caught in the Northern Territory. He's a fish eater, so he has his own quarters.
I like pigeons and their derivatives the best, and of course whites!! At the moment we have a bit of everything, 2 golden snakeskins, a blue diamond, 2 MRs, 2 RSGs, 4 white pigeons, some RTs and derivitaves (scribbles, chequers etc), browns, alenquers, goldens...
JOHN: Which of you is more this discus addict? What strains/fish do your partner like best?
ARI: Well... Scott started this whole hobby... and I have to say at present, he is more into it than I am. Up until a little while ago, I was crazy about my discus... there was nothing better to spend my money and time on....if you ask me...lol. I think I am actually a better discus keeper than he is...lol. I have more patience... I will get into them again though, I love the fish... and I don't think I ever give up the hobby whatever happens.
Scott absolutely loves the pigeon variety. Anything with pigeon in it!! Pity it is hard to get clean pigeon here in Australia... He loves those whites too and their crosses... red white, yellow white, etc. Still hard to find in Australia... and if there are any, the prices are ridiculously expensive. He still wants them though...but I guess he has to wait.
SCOTT: Well... I worked away in the Northern Territory all last year, so Ari was the discus nut then - she couldn't stop buying discus. I had a trip for for a week every month, so we bought a new tank and some discus each time! Now that I'm home and working in the city, I do most of the discus chores now. Ari has something new to occupy her time now. But more about that later...
Ari's favourite strains are definitely wilds. If she could have a planted biotope tank of wild Tefe greens and heckels she would be in heaven.
JOHN: Are you presently breeding any discus or is it something you plan on doing?
ARI: We are not breeding them at the moment. Every now and then, we would pull out a pair and let them raise a spawn or two. Scott is too busy and I am too lazy. It is not hard to get them spawning and raising a spawn, but far harder to raise the babies to good size... A lot of work involved. We are lucky though, to have perfect tap water.... The water is coming out of the tap at 28deg C (at the moment in summer), and very soft with the pH of 7-7.2. So, the discus loves it!! I think, we will get into breeding, because most of our adult discuses are well and trully ready. At one stage, we had 4 pairs spawning in our community tanks at the same time!! It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the tank... And they all do partner swapping and all...lol. It was definitely fun to watch though.
SCOTT: I wouldn't call what we're doing breeding in the true sense of the word. We have 5 pairs of mismatched discus that breed in our adult tank (which just happens to be planted), but so far we've only raised 2 spawns. The first (SSxMR) was culled completely since they runted out, and the second spawn (RSGxSS)is too early to cull yet. I have a lot to learn about culling, and only cull the obvious deformities. A real breeder would be much more ruthless in the pursuit of excellence. It's more of a learning period at this stage.
I currently have a white pigeon paired to a blue turq that continually raise wrigglers in the adult tank, so they are in the brood tank with a clutch of eggs at the moment. Should hatch today actually, so we'll see what we wind up with.
Long term, I'd love to develop my own strain, or at least "fix" some of the existing strains. I love the red whites, golden whites and blue whites. If I could fix the strains to breed true, I'd love to name them!! There are so many discus out there with arbitrary names, you never know what their parent were. And even if you breed brother to sister, you wouldn't get 100% of the offspring looking like their parents. I'm guilty of crossing discus strains, but if it looks like a pigeon or a red turq, that's what I'd call it.
JOHN: What do you feed your discus? How do you have your filtration set up?
ARI: We feed beefheart, frozen bloodworm, frozen brineshrimp and tetra bits. Nothing fancy. We can't get cheap and good source of live blackworms, so we are staying away from live food.
For our big community tank, we have wet and dry filter. Great filter!! We absolutely love it, and the discus seems to like it as well. And for other 2 juvenile tanks, we just run cannister filters. I know they are a pain to clean, but we never have any problem with them, and they require less maintenance than those AC filters, so we stick with them. We also put a sponge filter in each tank. For pairs and babies, we only use sponge filters, without any mechanical filtration.
SCOTT: Our discus get frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen beef heart and tetra bits (not necessarily in that order)! Every now and then, they get red wrigglers from the compost heap. We have live bloodworms breeding in a bucket outside, but the rainbows eat them at the moment, along with mosquito wrigglers. I'm still hesitant about live foods, but I'll experiment with a cull to see how they go. If I had access to CBW, I reckon they'd be eating those as well.
The filtration on the adult's tank is wet and dry (20% of the total volume) and a hydrosponge. The other 55s are on canisters and hydrosponges, and the brood / growout tanks are on hydrosponges only. We also have a couple of internal power filters we use for the quarantine/hospital tanks, be they are essentially high flow compact hydrosponges .
Water changes are semi-automated using permanent syphons. Our water comes out of the tap with 1° of hardness, neutral pH and this time of year, at 28°C. We filter through a domestic ceramic/carbon filter to remove chlorine, and fill tanks without water aging. Water changes are 50% per week on the adult tank (planted) and 50% twice weekly on the BB tanks. Growouts are done daily or at least every other day @50% We have mostly via-aqua heaters and one tronic. No titaniums as yet, but I expect our dream tank (8 footer!!) would use those in the sump of the wet & dry.
JOHN: What is your most exhilarating moment with discus?
ARI: Watching my first pair spawning and raising babies.... That was just magic. I was home at the time... and I just sat in front of the tank and watched them for hours.
SCOTT: It would have to be when our discus successfully raised their spawn from wrigglers to free-swimming fry. Before that, we just enjoyed the discus, and had no intention whatsoever of breeding them. It was too much like hard work I thought! But when we started to have pairs forming and spawning in the tank, we thought we'd take it to the next step and see what happened. Seeing my pet fish covered in clouds of fry was certainly a high point in my discus experience.
JOHN: What is your most frustrating moment with discus?
ARI: When fish refused to grow at all, and then stop eating... and get disease in the end. I really hate loosing fish, but I guess some fish are doing better than others, and some are growing better too.
SCOTT: Which one - there have been many! If I had to pick one, it is having a discus runt out despite all my efforts to make him grow. If I buy half a dozen 1" fish, it is always the cleanest or the most interestingly patterned that refuses to grow. His tankmates double, then triple in size. So I'd isolate him and try metro to kill of internal parasites. Discus do best in groups, so I'd rearrange the stock in the tanks to put him with similar sized tank mates. Even then if he perks up and starts interacting, the damage is done, and he'll never grow as well as his siblings. Sometimes they are just a sickly fish that hang at the back during feeding, and slowly waste away. These are the most frustrating moments, but if his tank mates are fat and healthy, I just write him off as an under-achiever and leave him to his own devices. We probably have 5 or 6 fish like this that I'm hoping will recover and become fat, healthy albeit stunted and pointy adults. But I'm not holding my breath.
JOHN: Do you have any future discus plans?
ARI: Well....we get into discus because we love the fish, so I don't think we will be a big time breeder or anything like that. I would be happy to raise a spawn or two every now and then. But, most of the time, we just want to enjoy the fish. We still like travelling and being a big time breeder will stop us from doing our travelling. So, we try to get a balance there. But, we will always have discus, we can assure you that. This hobby will stick with you forever, I think, once you get into it.....
SCOTT: Who doesn't?!! Like I said earlier, I'd love to concentrate on the white crosses and see if I can breed them into their own strain. That is a long way off though.
I'd like to experiment with philodendrons as nitrate removers, and fluidised sand filters. I toyed with the idea of central filtration, but in the end decided it was just too complicated and too risky. I'll leave that to the commercial breeders. And then there's the kiddie pool growout idea from Cary, John and Beth, which I think is a great idea. An aquaculturist friend of mine has worked on barramundi farms in Far North Queensland, and there is an optimum stocking level for their ponds. They don't change water, and there are no plants in the ponds. During summer, it would be an easy way of growing fry out to a saleable size. I always say that if necessity was the mother of invention, laziness was the father...
JOHN: What would be your ideal discus set up, within the realm of possibility?
ARI: Scott wants a fish room, or a shed for his tanks. At the moment, we have them scattered all over the house... When we finally settle and buy a house, we would only have 1 big tank in the house (hopefully a huge 8foot tank or something - and that my big dream at present), and the rest can go to the fishroom. I don't think it will be big set-up though.
SCOTT: We'd like a "dream tank" about 8' long by 3' wide by 3' deep (500gal), wet/dry filtration, planted and populated with discus. Knowing Ari, she would want wilds, and in a planted tank, I'm inclined to agree with her. As long as there are a few blue diamonds in there as well - they are my favourite non-pigeon, non-white strain I would need another tank for the pigeons - BB with potted swords (maybe). The pigeons definitely look cleaner in a BB with a pale background. Two discus display tanks would do us I think. THEN I'd need a fishroom, with brood tanks and growout tanks, nothing too ambitious, just enough for 6 - 10 pairs. I'd have to automate the waterchanges, and I have plenty of ideas that I'll use when this eventuates. We are still renting, so this is our
plan to be implemented when we buy a house. And fishroom space is high on the list of residential selection criteria.
JOHN: Do you think you spouse likes the discus better than you? LOL!
ARI: Definitely not.... Well I hope not anyway. I think we are both in it together, so we are luckier than most people that we can share the hobby and enjoy it together. There is a downside though, there is no voice of reason that will stop us from buying more fish and more fish and more fish...lol. I am too scared to even count how much money we have spent in this hobby.
SCOTT: Nah, I'm still her number one pet! And it's not as much work to look after me - most of the time
JOHN: So, important news, we hear through the grapevine that you two are expecting! Congratulations! Is there any chance that you are going to name the baby after one of the moderators here??
ARI: Yes... we are having a baby in late May/early June. It was rather unexpected. April actually knew that I was pregnant before I did...lol. I complained that I was tired all the time, and she told me that I might be pregnant. I said 'no way', cause we were not planning a baby for another year or two and I thought I have been careful. Well, a few days later I went to get those test kit and there it was... I was pregnant. Scary and exciting at the same time!! The baby was not planned, but we could not be happier nonetheless...
About names, Scott and I have picked a few boys and girls name. We decided not to find out about the gender of the baby. It will be a surprise for us and for everyone. And also, we have decided that we would not tell anyone about the names either...lol. One thing for sure, the name won't be a traditional western name, cause our baby won't be traditional western baby. We will definitely let everyone knows when the time comes....
SCOTT: Yes it's true, we have a wriggler about to hatch in late May / early July. So that means April is out of the running (Sorry Pril!!) As far as names go, all we want is a name that is pronounced the same in English as it is in Indonesian. So you'll have to wait and see, just like everyone else!!
JOHN: It is the Newlywed Show time! What are your spouses favorite:
Foods?
ARI: Subway!! He loves his subway sandwiches. But then, he eats everything and anything!!! So, this is a VERY hard question to answer....
JOHN: Scott said he liked Mrs Mac's steak and cheese meat pie with mushy peas and Worcestershire sauce above all else, though he did agree that he likes to eat anything. Scott, what about Ari?
SCOTT: Hmmm - Tim Tams
JOHN: Ari says she does not have a favorite, but that she prefers Thai food. What it a Tim Tam, anyway?
JOHN: Drinks?
ARI: Beer??? Lol. He just loves his beer... but I succeded in making him giving up beer on weekdays....
JOHN: Score one for Ari! The exact quote was: Beer, especially the Black Rock New Zealand Company Bitter, served at 2°C in a schooner glass. Sounds great to me!
SCOTT: A nice hot cup of Indonesian jasmine tea.
JOHN: WRONG! Ari said she likes your home brew alcoholic ginger beer! And gives it a YUM!
JOHN: Vacation Spots?
ARI: Lombok Island in Indonesia. It is an island next to Bali, very quiet and relaxing place to be. Not as touristy and the atmosphere is great. Although, he loves going to Thailand too....
SCOTT: New Zealand would have to up there, but I'd have to say continental Europe and North America. Not that she's been there yet!
JOHN: You both pretty much agreed on Indonesia and New Zealand. I have to say I will give you both credit for this one!
JOHN: Hobbies (other than fish)?
ARI: His hobby is motorbike at the moment. He has a little bike at the moment, a Yamaha Virago 250cc. Now, that he has his open licence for a bigger and meaner bike, he wants a new one...lol. Bad timing, with the baby coming and all, cause we have to buy a new car with 4 doors (we have a hatchback 3 door little car). But, he has his next bike picked out now... and I am sure he will find a way to get the bike one way or the other....lol.
He also likes gardening, but I think his love for motorbike is greater at the moment.
JOHN: Scotts exact quote was this: Hmmmm, scuba diving, riding my motorbike, brewing beer, gardening (orchids, bromeliads, saracenia and nepenthes pitcher plants), reading SF&F books (Robert Jordan has just released the 10th and final book in the Wheel of Time series in paperback! Woohoo!!), travelling and watching movies. And since we are about to trade in the Mirage 3 door hatch on a Nissan Terrano II 4WD, I guess off-road activities will start to emerge. Fishing, camping, that sort of stuff.
JOHN: Scott, I hate to tell you this, but Crossroads (Book 10) is NOT the last in the Wheel of Time series! Just one of the reasons I gave up on this series after book 6.
SCOTT: Ari's a great classical pianist and can play the guitar. She has a great singing voice, and used to jam in a group of like-minded enthusiasts. One could say it was a band. Ari likes to travel and see new places, and she's a SCUBA diver as well.
JOHN: Scott gets full credit for this one!
JOHN: Web sites?
ARI: Simply and motorbike website.....
JOHN: Ari again gets the score!
SCOTT: Simply Discus of course!!! And she likes thaigem.com. What is it with girls and rocks?
JOHN: She said Simply, but didn’t mention thaigem.com. Looking for any special kind of rock??
JOHN: Do you have any funny discus stories to share with us?
ARI: hhhmmm.... Can't think of any at the moment... I am sure Scott has some....
SCOTT: This one time, at band camp... J/K, but there was this time a female SS discus was having trouble passing an ENORMOUS loaf. She had been trying for a couple of hours, and was still looking pretty uncomfortable. So I threw in Epsom salts at the rate of one teaspoon per 10gal, and it had the desired, if rather messy effect. To this day, I don't know what she ate, but afterwards I counted the cardinals to make sure they were all still there! I wish I'd taken a photo.
Any then there's a white pigeon that likes to hang out inside a hollow piece of driftwood. Only she lays on her left side whilst relaxing, looking very unusual as she drifts in and out of the log. The clown loach seems most put out at having to share his bivouac. Whacky and crazy discus!!
JOHN: Do you have any thanks or credit to give for your success with discus?
ARI: We owe a lot to Rod Lewis. He has given me advice and tips all along the way. There were times I called him in panic asking him about my discus... and he has always been helpful.... I guess I am lucky that he only lives 15 mins away from me. And also April... for being there over the side of the world. She has been a great friend who helped me along the way and also directed me to simply.... I wish she was closer....because we get along so well...
And finally to everyone at simply!!! It has been a great site and still is!! I have learned heaps from simply and I am still learning....
SCOTT: I don't know that I'd go so far as to call it success, but there's too many people who've helped us along the way to mention without writing a separate book. I'd like to give a HUGE thank-you to Rod Lewis, without whose expertise and coaching we would be lost in the discus wilderness. And of course to all the mods and members of Simply Discus, without whose advice and encouragement we would have chucked in the towel long ago!! Our earliest forays onto the internet trawling for information led us to DPH, where Ari met April and Rod, and the rest is history!!
JOHN: Thank you very much for taking the time to be interviewed!
ARI: No worries.... John... Thanks for interviewing us... I don't think we deserve it, cause we are still newbies compared to some people who has been in this hobby for so long.
SCOTT: Thanks for the honour of being February's spotlight. I know I always enjoy reading the spotlights, and I hope people enjoy reading ours!
That's it for this month! I hope you enjoyed reading about one of our greatest couples. Next month we will be back to our regular format and I'll be taking nominations!
John