I am New

[Sara]

Just want to introduce myself,

My name is Jo aka Sara and hubby is George.

We are avid angelfish breeders but now want to try our skills at Discus.

Have bred and reared angels for 3 years and had and still have alot of fun doing it but Discus seem to be calling us with a passion, We mastered the breeding of angels and guess our attempt at Discus awaits.

Not knowing a whole lot yet about Discus we have been to a million sites and places searching for all and any information we can get our hands on so we do everything right and be well prepared.

We are not getting any juvie discus until late August which is what we wanted to make sure we are as well learned and prepared as can be.

Your site came very highly recommended to us and I have been reading and reading and well you know how it is for days here and am completely and totally impressed at the knowledge all of you have and how easily you are prepared to share it so all us newbies learn and learn some more.

Our biggest concern is to get everything ready and when we get the discus to not kill them from our own ignorance.

I thank you for letting us join your discus community and plan to be around and ask as many questions as possible and if I get a pest well :)

Thank You
Jo

[ronrca]

Welcome to simplydiscus! You have definitly come to the right place (Im not bragging...really). You are actually well on your way with keeping discus as you have been successfully keeping/breeding angels therefore you have the basics well under control! ;) Another thing you have going for you is that you are learning and preparing yourself for discus before you actually have them.

Ask as many questions as you can and if you dont understand something, keep asking. ;D

[April]

Welcome Sara. im sure you will do extremely well with your discus as you are putting in the time to learn.
dont be afraid to ask questions..we;re here to help.
Glad your enjoying reading.
and welcome again to simply. :drummer: :wave: :balloon:
:wave: :drummer: :balloon:

Beware....warning!!!!! Discus are extremely addcitive in nature and will or can become habit forming.
Do not seek professional couselling...simply has its own cousellor here to help with the addictive nature.
now..start your 12 step program.
choosing tank size
setting up tank
which food to feed.
check water parameters
check filtration
set temperature
choosing strains
choosing how many according to size of tank
choosing where to get your new fish from
bringing fish home
acclimatising fish
sit and enjoy and let out screams of excitement

after all these 12 steps....start over again on the next tank.
;D ::) :o 8) ;D :o 8) ;D :o ::) 8) :thumbsup:
oh..and the next thing you need to do is take pics and share them with us so we can get excited also.

[ronrca]

LOL! April! Nice!

Just one minor revision to the very first step!


now..start your 12 step program.
choosing tank size
It should read
-choosing tank size - add another 50G

;D

[Sara]

April. LOL

One problem with the 12 step program here !!!!!

A little over 3 years ago we thought hhmmmm wouldn't it be nice to have a small aquarium with live bearers in it to look at? So we went and bought a 20 gallon and cycled it and got us some guppies, mollies, swordtails, platies and a couple catfish and a small pleco. All fishies did excellent BTW.

Guppies and platies and mollies had babies...... needed another tank for the babies. So another tank for the babies and the adults in live bearers don't seem to live as long so the 20 gallon started emptying.

Cleaned it out, kept the babies in their own tank and got 4 angelfish Koi babies for the 20 gallon. Don't you know it, the 4 angelfish were eactly 2 males and 2 females and we noticed a change in them not knowing ONE single thing about mating angels.

We watched them with their territorial rituals and sure enough we saw them cleaning. I panicked. I had no idea what to do... leave them, ignor them, what???

One pair spawned in the small 20 gallon with the other pair watching them, no one told us angels need about 10 gallons of space each and am amazed these 4 guys made it this far. Can you imagine being this ignorant?

Flew to the web and started searches day and night, found the AWF by accident and like here asked 10 million questions and figured well lets try and see if we can raise a spawn, once with parents once self hatched in a hatchout tank.

SSOOOOOOO 16 tanks later and mega spawns and 3 added sets of parents of silvers, 5 DD blacks waiting to get adults for DD blacks And many panicky days and many laughing days and LOTS of work this 12 step program doesn't work !!!!!!!

I've seeked out counciling ! Been to shrinks ! Worn T-shirts that said I NEED HELP and nothing works, now we have the Discus bug.

I have tanks in the kitchen, livingroom, family room, computer room. 1 bedroom so far. I am afraid there is no help for me out there. I breed angelfish and guppies and have Betta's and tetras and lots of catfish and pleco's and soon Discus. I really think the addiction is incurable and no one can help.

All I can say to date is my moto... I NEED MORE TANKS !

[ronrca]

Well, you said it! There is no help but be comforted! You are not alone! Check out how many members are registered at simplydiscus and you will see that there are a lot of people with your addiction, myself included.

What can be done about it? Get more tanks, more discus, more water, etc, etc, etc! Whatelse would you do? ;D I tell me wife it could be worse. I could be into cars (not thats a bad thing just more money) or skydiving :o LOL! or eating or whatever. She usually agrees that fish is a good hobby! ;D

[April]

LOL Sara. you are no worse off than most of us here. me included. but once you have discus...you will be madly in love. im willing to wager.that you will thin out some of your smaller little fish to accomodate some more discus eventually .lol. i had a tank full of swordtails and cory pandas . a 40 gallon. and some neat pleccos. but.broke it down the other day and am now using it bare bottom for discus fry. kept the little cories in a 10 gallon. oh.i have koi in my living room also. they will get too big..and have to move out eventually...
ok...so how well does the 12 step program work? Simplys revised 12 step program works just fine. we all cheer when someone gets a new tank or new fish..and all feel like it helped us a bit by seeing someone elses new fish.
when one of our members actually folds...we are all there like vultures wanting their fish they are selling...and tanks..and all very sad to see a friend leave us.
kinda one big family around here. ;D