Tell us about yourselves....Please

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
Once long ago there lived a Discus Forum with a handful of members and everyone knew everyone else. It was a small close community, but in time, news of this wonderful place Spread thru out the cyber lands. Soon Pilgrims traveled bandwidth by bandwidth to this new place of Discus and friendship,and soon the small Discus forum turned into a giant mecca for Discus enthusiasts around the world.

Well thats the History of this site in abbreviated cyber nutshell and some of us Old timers here remember those days while we play checkers out on the porch of the Discus General Section. Not being one to dwell too much on the past, I like looking at the Present and future and at this time I would really like to hear about all of You.. Who are you, where are you from, whats in your tanks, and hows your family deal with all this hobby addict stuff, any thing you want to share (well almost anything..we have kids watching this forum):)

Basically when I log in , I hope to see a bunch of friends out there...makes things more fun in here... and so.. I am asking... Please introduce yourself if you're new here... or even if your an old timer and want to introduce yourself to the newer crowd. This is a good time for the lurkers to step up as well.

Let me introduce myself....
My name is Al Sabetta. I tend to make my presence known here as needed , but aside from being the sometimes Dreaded ... Chief Cook and bottle washer here, I live in Connecticut USA, and have a very,very, understanding wife. My wife Carrie and I have 2 very special children, Becky 4, ethan 2. Together these people are my heart, soul, and life.

I raise discus and other cichlids and have done so for what seems a lifetime... Other hobbies... I Brew beer and make wine (hence the screen), make salsa and free lancing in the Kitchen, I am an advanced amateur photographer, field biologist and lab researcher was my trade until a short time ago. I Breed and study many kinds of critters...reptiles, insects, carnivorous plants... and I teach science and nature workshops to children and teachers. I am an avid gardener and die hard Bird watcher... and I enjoy tinkering with computers... I recently started raising chickens for a little back yard eggs.

I am clueless when it comes to cars and sports...but I still try to understand them. Don't get me wrong..I love cars..the faster the better, I just won't claim to be able to work on it... and as for sports.. Fishing is about my speed..though I appreciate the worth of a good super bowl party regardless of whose in it.:)

I think thats probably more than enough info on me...

Anyone else feel like standing up and introducing yourselves?


-al

[Discusgeo2]

We are old aren't we Al! it seems like I been around the block going thru quite a few Discus forums until only a couple have remained.

Let me introduce myself also:
My name is George Garcia and I live in Phoenix, Arizona and yes it get hot here but it's a dry heat. I have been around Tropical Fish almost 40 years with my dad and brother. I got interested in Discus about 15 years ago while still in the U.S Air Force in Frankfurt, Germany. I use to run around the country looking in the Pet Stores and seeing those nice fish. Well I told myself when I retire from the Air Force I was going to get some, so in 1993 nearing the end of my carrier I got my first Discus. I then purchased a house and use my garage to raise all my Discus. I currently have 13-100 gal tanks and 20-29 gal tanks running. A couple of the tanks house some German Blue Rams and the rest have Discus. I work full time now for the U.S Postal Service and after work and on weekends I spend the time with my fish. I have no kids so it's only me taking care of the Discus and my wife admires them. I have imported my own but mainly purchase from others for my future breeders. Right now I have Red Melons, Albinos, Eruptions, Ocean Greens and Snakeskins. Just sold off all my breeders except one pair of Snakeskins to clear out some room for the upcoming Melons. Unlike Al I am not clueless to Auto Mechanics. I spent 25 years repairing Heavy Equipment like Bull Dozers, Road Graders, Backhoes and anything else running on Diesel and Hydraulics

[Westie]

Hi! I'm Scott! I'm pretty new here and like the place a lot. I live in the California Bay Area USA, where I have access to many great LFS's. I'm almost 40 (eek!) and have been arround fish all my life. I do freshwater and pond, have tanks at home and work. I am always searching for the perfect Discus and I just given up saltwalter. The cost was killing me. I do property management for a living which is a cool gig if you don't like office life. And I'm a motorcycle racer by hobby which consumes the rest of my moneys. I try to keep my hands out of the tank when I'm wrenching! And I build models when I have spare time and collect rock n roll and sci-fi memorabilia. I am always accompanied by my ever loving sidekick and wife as well as our 12 yr. old roller skating champion daughter who consumes every last penny I have, needfully. Here we are at DisneyWorlds Coral Reef Cafe. Try the blackened catfish!

[cobaltblue]

Great Idea Al, here goes.

Hi all, i'm Chris ( cobaltblue) and have been on simply only since the summer of 2005. Ive had fish on and off since i was 8, but this is the most hardcore ive ever been. THis forum has been a HUGE help to me.

Im 38 years young, with a wife ( Kerry) and 3 daughters. ( mikayla 6, megan 5, and kylie 2). My family is my life, the most important thing in the world to me.

I have 4 tanks right now. A 90g show tank with 8 discus in it, ranging from 3 in to 4.5in. All fish are under a year old. Also have corys, cardinals and clown loaches in this tank. It is planted. I have two bare bottom tanks downstairs, a 33g with 6 3in fish which need to get into a bigger tank soon, and a 25g bb tank which will have a pair in it soon out of my show tank. I also have a 20g tank with guppies and platys in it. We also have a dog, shih tzu, named Bailey.

I am a manager with the Real Canadian Superstore ( kinda like Wal Mart)
Been there for 17 years now. I love to fish. Lots of salmon up here year round, so plenty of big fish. Caught a 37lb spring (KING for you americans) salmon this year, and many, many sockeye in the 8 to 12 lb range. I fly fish for steelhead and rainbow trout in the many river and serene lakes in the British Columbia interior. I like computers and most electronics. Other than fish stores, my favorite stores are Best Buy and Future Shop.
I love hockey ( as do most Canandians eh!) and football. Big time Vancouver Canucks fan, hate the Toronto Maple Leafs. I love both the CFL AND NFL AND college ball. Im a big DAWGS fan, no not the Georgia variety, but the Washington Huskies. But since they suck the past few years, ill cheer on the Trojans....GO USC. Im also a big Steelers fan, ever since the Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swan , Mean Joe Green days...

Amyway, im looking forward to getting to know more of you. Cheers

[Ryan Smith]

My name is Ryan Smith (which I think is pretty obvious) and I'm from a small town in central Florida outside of Daytona Beach. I grew up here in a very rural country setting and so I've spent most of my life around agriculture and animals. We've always had dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, chickens, you name it. My parents bought me an aquarium when I was 5 because they thought it would be easier, cheaper, and less time consuming than a puppy or a kitten. Boy, were they wrong. By the time I was 13, I had 6 tanks crammed into my tiny bedroom and at one point I had over 100 fish. That's a lot for a kid in junior high.

I started keeping angels in my first tank at 5, and then bred them at 13. You'll notice that I mention angels a lot in my posts here, and that's why. They are always a big part of every tank I have. It's the one species I feel really confident with (whereas I'm always a nervous wreck with discus!).

I met Al the Brewmaster about 4 years ago through a mutual friend, April. I was fairly new in the world of discus but I really loved any kind of web-related techie stuff, so I agreed to try my hand at running a forum. Almost 4 years later, and here we are. It's definitely been an eye-opening experience. Who knew there'd be so much interest, politics, challenges, and rewards in such a seemingly passive hobby! You know, they say watching fish lowers your blood pressure and is good for you health.. but apparently those fish keepers haven't tried their hand at running a fish forum :)

I work for my dad here in central Florida. He owns his own directional boring company. Up until a few months ago I was working out in the field but now I'm in the office, which gives me lots of time to oversee what's going on here.

Currently I have no fish, mainly because I recently moved and money and space have been tight. I plan to change all that pretty soon, though. I'll turn 23 at the end of January, so maybe some new fish will be a birthday present to myself. :)

Ryan

[DarkDiscus]

Okay, I can do this!

My name is John Erdman and I have been raising and breeding tropical fish since I was 10 or so. I used to specialize in African cichlids and some South/Central American cichlids. Nothing commercial, but I bred and sold enough to pay for my hobby and even buy new tanks and stock, so I was happy. A few years back (12/22/01) I got married and moved into an apartment where I had limited space. I wanted to try my hand at a fish which would maximize my limits by being especially challenging and interesting. SO I picked discus. I was rescued from a website full of angry and cranky people by Al Sabetta, aka the Brewmaster, and he pointed me in the right direction. Oddly enough we are from the same state and we met and he helped me learn about discus husbandry. When he started up SimplyDiscus with Ryan and the rest of the crew I was invited to join as a moderator. Since my discus knowledge was more limited, I stuck to helping answer general fish questions and started doing member spotlights to help out.

Since then I have learned quite a lot about discus and about a year and a half ago I bought a house. My housewarming present to myself was a 180 gallon acryllic show tank in which I keep about 20 wild discus. I'm enjoying being a contented hobbyist and not trying to breed anything at the moment, but you never know when that might change!

I went to college at Colgate University, where I graduated with degrees in Political Science and History. I'd have been an English major, but didn't want to be a professor. Not that I ended up in a field related to my degree.

I work as the Regional Recruiting Manager for recruiting and placement firm out of Connecticut. Which basically means I'm in charge of a bunch of recruiters. I like my job and a lot of it is internet based so I can stop in during the day and monitor what's going on at SimplyDiscus. I am married with no children, yet, and have one cat who is a recent addition to our family.

My main other hobby at the moment is spending vast amounts of money repairing, restoring, upgrading and beautifying my 1839 Colonial home. My brother once called it the money pit, but it's coming along and looking sharp after a paint job and new roof (ouch!). I am a huge fan of red wine and try to keep a small collection of good bottles, but mostly end up drinking them... I am a pretty good cook. I am a big sports fan and follow the Dallas Cowboys and Boston Red Sox in rabid fashion. I used to be a huge Hartford Whalers fan, but they stupidly moved down South where people don't even care about hockey... (Yes, I am still bitter!) So I was assigned by a member here to be a Philadelphia Fliers fan, but I can't get into it..

I am also a big reader and tend to always be working on reading a book or two - particularly in the fields of science fiction, historical fiction and sword and sorcery. I don't watch any non sports television with the exception of the Science Fiction Channel, poker and the History Channel.

I feel that this place is my second home and it's fun to come here and get lost in the passions and problems of other hobbyists. I've had a great time at the two Northeast Discus Association meetings and have met a lot of great people. In particular Al and I have become good friends and enjoy talking fish and hanging out eating good food, drinking good wine and beer and smoking cigars. In fact we are due to get together again, soon!

That's about it. I'm always around, so if anyone wants to know anything else, just ask!

[John_Nicholson]

Well I have been messing with fish since I was 7 so that is.....oh god....33 long, hard years (many of those without discus). I have been on the forums since about 1999. It started on the old DIP forum (man those were the days). Then I kind of left there and helped Jim Quarles with his new forum. It was called Daah. Not to get into a long drawout history of that but after Jim Died I inherited that forum, It now has new ownership, and I have absolutely nothing to do with it....LOL. I keep anywhere from 2 to 6 breeding pairs at all times. Last year I started counting fry raised in January and got tired of counting in June. The count was approximately 3000 at that time. I very seldom buy fish and I never import of resale. We also raise angelfish, halfmoon bettas, and loads of killifish. I am a member of to many fish clubs to list and try to make all of the ACA's. I have been married for the last 18 years (19 on 1/5/06) and am blessed with 3 children.......And now for the most important deal of all.......if anyone needs to know secrets on any of the other oldtimers just ask me....I am bound to know something that is embarrasing to them...LOL.

-john

[Dave C]

And what John doesn't know or can't remember I can usually come up with... or make up.

[Kindredspirit]

I could never do this in person.....



My name is Dawn Marie Rivera, but I go by Marie~
Ya think?

I was born in Illinois and as an Army brat I have lived in Okinawa, France, Virginia, Colorado, and now in Cali~
I grew up in San Francisco, and moved to Sacramento, where I was married for 16 years, divorced and I think, now, I may have found my last love~
Time shall tell as time tells all, yes?
I have two children, 18 and 19...( yes, Jason, I am old )

We have a daycare/preschool out of our 6 bedroom house for the last 20 years and on nights and weekends I am a residential counselor for severely emotionally disturbed teen girls~
I have learned that you have to have pretty much a license to do anything in this world, but just any one can have a child....go figure~
Hug your kids everyday please~

We have four dogs, 2 Newfoundlands Shamu & Echo, 1 Great Dane Titan, and Raja, our Siberian Husky four cats, and ...
of course...

Fish...
three tanks, to be exact~
I am now poor... if I wasn't before , I am now~

One day I bought Ms. Pringles from our lfs and that night I typed in 'Discus Sites' into Google~

and here I am~

I have met great people here...
Candy, Barb, Colette, Tina, April, Angie, Angela, Ryan, JM, Greg, Frank, another Frank, Al, another Al, Jarrod, Dave,
o.k.a.y....
Jason....aka Kiwi, aka Brat~
from the first day I was here to the first moment Jason pm'd me and said 'hi'
...it felt like home~

It is nothing like any other site, make no mistake about that~

I am all over this site a lot...I really do not help many, but I have learned much, and wonder sometimes if I will ever 'get it'!

There isn't another place that compares to Simply
and I think for that reason alone
it will always Be~


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_70v.gif

[Cosmo]

Hi,

My names Jim, I was born in a log cabin my pappy built around 1812.... :o wrong story :o But my name is Jim :) and... I can also say... I've been around longer than there's been an internet - OMG. My first modem was 300 baud and you had to dial the connection number on the phone, then hurry up and unhook the phone and plug in the modem... come a long way huh? Thank's Al LOL

I got my first fish tank when I was 5 years old.. a couple of guppies to start... hundreds not long after :) That as almost 50 years ago :( I've had tanks pretty much my entire life, Angelfish, groumei's, oscars, a whole pouperei until the one day I fell in love with Discus :) That was somewhere in the late 70's and have had nothing but Discus since :) Almost two years ago, I build a fishroom in the basement, but had to downsize cause my daughter moved in.. one of these days.. maybe.. I'll be able to expand and do what I really want to do lol Currently, the fishroom tanks are empty, but getting ready to move a couple pairs downstairs and looking to bring in some juvies pretty soon too :) Love watchen grow up from little guys to big monsters... awwwww Have 19 fish in a 180 gal BB on the second floor right off our family room.. gotta admit, is nice being able to see them all the time :)

My wonderful wife, who swore we'd never have a fish tank when we first decided to get married, now fully supports my addiction... lol My adult kids are so used to it they don't pay any attention... it's the norm :) Then there's Jake and Katey, our Dobermans who are both the wife's and mine alter addiction... they have such a reputation but are really sweet dogs :) , unless that is.. I pay too much attention to the fish and not enough to them :D

Used to build PC's, write database code, and install networks in my younger years.. got tired of studying all the time LOL, but hey Al (Brewmaster this time).. I can build or rebuild an auto engine in my sleep ha ha Used to be a gearhead in my late teens... drag racing up and down the streets of the NW suburbs of Chicago... shhhhh... don't tell RandalB... LOL

Jim

[Ardan]

I have been in fish keeping since my early teens. I had a paper route, and everyday I had to walk by that pet store. I started to stop in and spend money on fish and tanks:D then I got a job there:D This was early 1970's. I ordered some discus out of Miami, but they flew into Montana on a cold snowy day and had had a delay in a cold unheated airport room. they only lasted a day.

Since then I have tried discus off and on throughout the years.

A few years ago on the internet, I saw Great Lakes Discus. :p Ordered some. Got some great help. Found a few forums. SImply fit the spot.:)
Was learning a lot and discus doing great. I had 18. Well, one fateful day last year, the city unknowingly increased the chlorine from .3 ppm to 3 ppm. I did my wc's and hurried on, only to come back and see my discus dying. All died. I still have a few oscars, guppies, and assorted other tropical fish.
I will get back into discus, hopefully next year, but priorities are my children in college(2) and private high school(1).
My wife and I also decided last year to support our 2 sons interest in fishing on Lake Michigan. SO we bought an old boat, and started into it. Well, its expensive to begin with , to get all the gear, but also the old boat needed more work than we expected, remanufactured head, carbureatur, new fuel tanks, fuel lines, transom seal, tilt motor, ..............:D Get out the credit card:D
I am a welder and metal fabricator by trade (25 years at this job). Was a medic in the army for 4 years after high school. We have a 21 year old son studying forestry in college. We have an 18 year old daughter, studying cosmetology, and a 15 year old son in high school.
Anyway, I really enjoy it here. I was very busy working and fishing and fixing the boat, among other things for quite a while this year and wasn't around much. I found I really missed it here. I have met some great people here.:) And that's the best thing of all. the fish and the science are great, but the people make Simply what it is.:) :cool:

Ardan

the pic is me, driving the boat, the boys run all the lines and trolling tackle setup:)

[discusfever]

I am Lance Shieldnight (discusfever) 35yo in Oklahoma I am in Law enforcement and Security. I am a single dad of two beautiful children Clay 9yo son and Hunter Ann 5yo daughter speaking of Hunter that were the Discus come in, almost a year ago to date. Hunter wanted some fish for Christmas. So my roommate had taken her over to a neighbors house to see there fish. they come home telling me all about this neighbor guy across the street that breeds Discus fish. I said what in the world is a Discus? So across the street I went to investigate these Discus fish. That is when I met my now close and personal friends Andrew & Angela Richardson (aagreencountrydiscus) Andrew was sharing his knowledge of these beautiful fish. And during my investigation I learned some about Discus and told him my problem of Hunter and the fish for Christmas. So he advised me that he would help me get started in to the hobby. So off to Wal-Mart I went to get my first 29gal. Tank then the next thing that I knew I had come up with a second 29. Andrew said that we needed to build a stand for the two. So the next Saturday there we are building away. I managed these two tanks pretty well and decided that it was time for am up grade. So I bought a new 80gal. tank. I was talking with the guys at work about my discus and a coworker sold me his 75gal. Set up. I donated the two 29gal. To Andrew & Angela we built his new fish room with automated water change outs. That was an experience. You should have seen the look on our faces Andrew demonstrated the glass drilling. On one of the 29gal. That I had given them shattered on our laps. LOL well that’s enough for now.

Lance
:bandana:

[traco]

Hi all. Good thread for this time of year. Okay, my name is Barb Almond, I'm 45, been married for 23 years to my high school sweetie, John, and have an 18 year old son, Chevy (as in Chevy Chase, not the car Chevrolet ~ although we are all die hard Chevy fans!).

We live on the beautiful West Coast way up here in Canada. in the Great White North.http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_64.gif Vancouver Island to be exact. I work out of the house for John which ties in nicely with keeping discus. We keep pretty busy here with Chevy racing karts between March and October. In the "quiet" season, keep busy with stained glass, quilting and looking after the "zoo". I have always loved animals. Always had a dog, had pet chickens, a horse, and my current pets. The "zoo" consists of Traco, our doberman, Squeak and Spike, the two cats, my discus tank with 6 discus, 33 gallon community tank and am setting back up my 65 gallon.

Now that Chevy is pretty much grown up and gone most of the time and John is working away during the week, I decided I'd dismantle my saltwater tank and try discus. Figured it would be way easier to maintain than salt, talk about head in the clouds, heh?! I got some beautiful baby discus from Barb Newell and have made my lion's share of mistakes with them. Barb stuck by me the whole time, I've persevered, have also been helped along by you guys here, as well, and I can now say that I am enjoying the fish finally. This forum has become like my second family. I've met some great people, talked on the phone to a few and made some great friends here!


Merry Christmas, all.http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_15_18.gif

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Barb~


Got your pm...I am very proud of you!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_9_16.gif Very nicely done!



Marie~

[White Worm]

Great idea,,,,

My name is Mike Watkins, i'm 35 (mikscus) I have been the USAF for 13.5 years, 12 as a mechanic on airline size aircraft, 1.5 years now as an airforce recruiter. I have been keeping fish forever as fun. Tried all kinds (salt and fresh). I just wanted some fresh water fish that were good looking and had nice colors so I came across discus. I bought some from lfs and had no luck. Will only purchase from local breeders from now on. I have 3 tanks (85g 2 4 inch discus, 1 blue turq and 1 red turq semi adults, sampson and dalaila) (35g corner tank with breeder pair, romeo and juliet, one BD and 1 yelow-white, proven pair from my friend kenny) (75g had 16 assorted juvies until unfortunate problem with tap water contamination took them all)
My wife lisa of 7 years thinks I have lost my mind when it comes to my obsession with discus. Then she sees the fry on a pair at local breeders and allows me to spend $200 on a pair. HEHEHEHEHE. Get them involved boys and you would be amazed. My kids take up alot of time 17 Brittani (drives now :shocked: ), 15 Brandon (driving permit now :scared: ), 6 Bailee (daddys little girl, thinks she is 17 :angel: ). Yeah,,, Went with B's.
Came across this site because i was looking for quality discus and now I have 5,000 new friends that have the same passion that I do. How cool is that!!
Marie,,,,,, I'm hurt,,,, you didnt add me as one of your friends here :(
Yes, some say watching fish lowers the heart rate but.........
discus??? Is that hex, flukes, bacterial, not eating, shape, size, wc, wc, wc, nites, nates, ammo, clorine, breeding, ph, kh,gh,hardness,etc
Are you sure this a relaxing hobby???? Love it though!!!
I've found many contacts for local discus just from being part of this site since Oct 05. This is definately like second family!!!
Thanks to everyone and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all and your families!!

[Kindredspirit]

and, MIKE!!

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/14_1_28.gif



I knew someone was going to say that. I am so sorry, Mikey!!! You are such an Angel to this place and in such a short time too!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_55.gif







Marie~

[JMArtist]

Hi All,
I'm John Mansueto, fine art landscape painter, freelance illustrator and staff artist at the "Fire Island Tide Newspaper"

Let me start at the beginning:
First the Earth cooled, then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat and died...then the Arabs came and started drilling oil....Mmm, I think that's too far back...let me start over...

First I was born, which goes without saying.
I didn't do my first water change until I started Discus...but that's skipping ahead...you all following me here???
Good.

I live in Islip Hamlet, First Crown Patent 1683, Colonial Government Formed 1710.
It must have been an English Colony. There is an Islip in England and another in Washington State I believe.
Islip is located on the south shore of Long Island, New York.
Some people think we Long Islanders have an accent, and pronounce it Long Guyland...maybe I'm just not hearing it. But I think my accent is all confused because lived and worked in NYC for a number of years and was around a lot of old Italian types.
I spend much of my summers on Fire Island across the Great South Bay, a narrow barrier island that protects the mainland (Long Island) from the storms of the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm a second generation Italian.
My Father was born in the Bronx's and my Mom in NYC.
I have two brother's, one older, one younger then me and a sister, who's the baby of the family.
My Mom's side of the family owns a well know bakery in NYC called DeRobertis Pasticceria Est. 1904 by my great grandfather. It has been used as a location in a few movies and cable show such as Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and the very first episode of "Sex in the City"
I worked there (managed the store at nite, no, I do not bake, we hired people for that) for about 14 yrs while I slowly built my art career and established myself as an artist.
It's only been the last few years that I have begun looking into and exploring the gallery scene, moving away from illustration, so far, so good.

I went to collage at Parsons School of Design, in NYC and received my BFA in 1983.
I am an active collector of "American Flyer "S" Gauge Trains, but at the moment I have no layout...I always figured that when I retire (In Neveruary) I'll have a lot of toys to play with!!!
I've always been the one in the family with all the pets.
I've always had a fish tank of some sort. I've had turtles, chickens, rabbits, and most of all dogs. After my Golden Retriever "Monty" had to be put down because of cancer at 6 years of age, I couldn't bring myself to get another dog...that was almost two years ago.
I get too darn attached to puppies and what happened to "Monty" truly broke my heart.
So I decided that since I always wanted to try my hand at keeping Discus, now was as good a time as any. Which brings me to my first water change!!!
Yeah!!!
I'm sure there s something I left out...like, I'm single and will stay that way.
I'll always remember the words of one of my teacher's at Parsons:
"Don't get married, your an Artist, your already screwed up"
I'm a big SciFi fan and was a "trekkie" for years until the greatest SciFi TV show of all time came out: "Babylon 5"
In fact my quote below is from the last episode of the show and really says a lot if you think about it.

[nacra99]

My name is Marc Wong, i'm 27 and i live in New Orleans, Lousiana.

I was born and raised in Singapore where i spent the first 20+ years of my life. My first fish that i can remember having was when I was 5 or 6 or so. It was a pair red swordtails that my Great - Grandfather bought me. I still remember that it came in a an ice cream tub and i kept the tub my my bedside when i would go to bed every nite. Since then i've always had an aquarium in my bedroom, my fishies are the last thing I see before i go to bed at nite and first thing I see when i wake up in the morning.

I spent 4 years of my life in the military and most of those 4 years in the jungles of borneo training soldiers in jungle fighting and survival. Finally decided to go to college at the nice young age of 22, so i enrolled at the University of Michigan GO BLUE! It felt so good to be the only one who was of legal drinking age at the frat parties... :D

I've been breeding Angelfish and Bettas through college and supplied a couple of LFS with good quality fish, in order to help pay for some of my college expenses. (My job before college didn't leave me enough savings).

My fav hobby is photography.

Been working for a Naval Architecture firm in New Orleans for the past 2 years designing jack-up rigs and semi-submersible drilling platforms, and am loving every moment of it.

Currently i don't have any fish. They all had to go when Katrina struck and i got relocated to singapore / korea temporarily till New Orleans opens up again. But i'm hopeful that i'll return soon and those empty tanks will once again be filled.

Here's a screenshot from the local military publication.... I'm not crying.. it's the downwash from the chopper!
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hmwong/lancer_chopper.jpg

[Jarrod]

Ok guess I'll tell a little about myself. I'm Jarrod..I live in Eagle Point Oregon which is just outside of Medford. I'm 51 yrs old. I'm disabled due to MS..I've been involved in the aquarium hobby (AKA addiction) since I was about 15 yrs. old. Back in the days of the metal frame tanks. At one point I had about 17 tanks all up and running at one time. Typical start with live bearers and related tropicals...progressed to cichlids and larger tanks...lol...go figure. I had 2 55 gal tanks up and going at one point with african cichlids and SA cichlids. I got out of the hobby after a move from Calif. up to WA...and then after being trnasferred down here fianlly getting back into tanks. Currently have a 15 gal set up with a few basic tropicals in it and am getting ready to set up another 55 and FINALLY keep and eventually try to breed the fish that I have loved since forever and never had the opportunity to raise. I found this site after searching for info on Discus and joined...have to say one of the best moves I made in learning more about Discus! :) I've met soo many great and knowledgeable people on here it's unreal!! I used to sort of work in a LFS years ago when I got into africans and SA's. I want to take the time here to thank ryan and all the moderators for this wonderful site and to thank all of the members here I've met and those I hope to meet. All your help and supportis a real godsend to me!Someday I just hope that I can help others like all of you have helped me. Thank you ALL for everything and the fun I'm having here and for all the input and support. you are ALL :angel: IMHO ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH and I almost forgot Al!!.....grrrrrrr...thanks all for settin up this site!!

Jarrod

[AADiscus]

My name is Angela Richardson. I live in Coweta, OK also known as green country. I have only been in the discus game for almost 4 years now. (I think, maybe 3) lol Me and my hubby were at a local fish store that had some. We had a few tanks of african chiclids and I thought the discus were awesome when I saw! Andrew had them and breed them back in the 80's but I had never had them. We decided to get some. He told me then to watch out because they were additing. I thought right!!! Boy was I ever wrong. Sent all the Africans to Tx for Andrews daughter to keep so that the 80 gal could turn into ANOTHER discus tank. I can't count how many discus we have now. We currently have 8 breeder tanks. A community tank of breeders we are not using at the moment. Another tank for young adults/future breeders. Then last but not least 4 grow out tanks and 1 hospital tank. Andrew just built our fish room which got done about 1-2 months ago. It is great.

I have a wonderful hubby named Andrew (Green Country Discus) we both enjoy the discus and it really helps out when both of us are doing water changes, fills, cleaning sponges, feeding, you know the routine. It's nice to enjoy the same hobby as your spouse. We are always together doing something. I enjoy hunting, fishing, camping games and watching football. Yes I love football. GO COWBOYS!!!!! (sorry) We have 5 kids between us. Jake-8, Samantha-12, Justin-15, Drew-17, Mandi-26 and son in law Mike-26, and a grand baby that is due the end of January. We have 1 dog, 2 cats and an african grey parrot (he is like a kid also). So needless to say, there is always something going on at our house. It's alot of fun though. The kids are wonderful, the younger ones will sometimes help with water changes or feeding. The two teenagers don't like the fish, we give them a hard time. We tell them they have to sleep out in the fish room with the discus if they get in trouble. :D

I work for the local police department. So needless to say I know everything that goes on in our town which is only about 8,000 people.

I am one of the newest moderators on the board and sponsors. I'm no expert but I am always willing to help if I can. I learned everything I know from Andrew, reading and research. Simply has been a great site. Lots of knowledge on this board. Everyone is so friendly and helpful.

Happy Holidays Everyone

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Angela~


I had to say what a great post! For real~ I never knew you were married to Andrew! I know, I'm outta the loop, ya think?



Sounds like a wonderful life, woman!!


Marie~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_76v.gif

[AADiscus]

Thanks Marie :) Lets just wait and see what he posts. lol

He started one the other day and was doing emails, etc. at the same time. When he went to post it, it had logged him out and he lost everything.

[CliffsDiscus]

Hi my name is Cliff Young, I live in San Francisco, California.
I grew up in a family that had tanks inside and outside of our house, it was
not until 1963 that I first saw and first bought some wild greens. I remember paying $10 for a semi adult Discus that was kind of expensive 42 years ago.

It was not until the Pigeon Bloods first came on the market that there was a
large demand for the newbies and oldies to learn how to take care of these type
of Discus. Not being a member of the San Francisco Aquarium Society(sfaquarium.org) I was asked if I wanted to head a Discus mentor group, this
was in the early 90's. I did accept the position which had most of the meeting
at the California Academy of Science. The group first started up with
many members, many questions and too many levels from basic to semi-professional Discus keepers. As this Discus Group progress, I also
moved into one of the board position, and still headed the Discus Group.
As a board member there were also two other board members that were
actively buying, selling and breedering Discus, so it was not to difficult
for the board members to vote for a Discus monthly speaker. With that we
were able to bring one speaker from Germany, one speaker for Asia
and another speaker from the U.S.. The speaker from Germany was
Heiko Blair, from Asia there was Wayne Ng, and from the U.S. the
god father himself Jack Wattley.

During 1999 my start up business as a Aquarium Maintenance and consulting was taking
most of my time, I resigned the Discus mentor group in Nov. 2000. There has not been any replacement since my resignation.


Cliff

[brewmaster15]

Thanks for posting everyone..I have really enjoyed getting to know you better !:)

Now how about the rest of the 5000+ members? Any more takers here?:)

-al

[Kindredspirit]

umm....Candy.....I'm not seeing you here, babe....Now, why is that do you suppose?




hmm...........?http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_35_3.gif

[Carol_Roberts]

I am a native Oregonian and grandmother of six. Elected Justice of the Peace in 1994, my job entails hearings on small claims, evictions, traffic tickets and misdemeanors with the occasional wedding thrown in for good measure.I started keeping discus in 1999. I made all the beginner mistakes and sought help on the internet. Rafael Buffo's Discus Breeders Web Site (DBWS), one of the first internet discus forums had recently started up. It changed my life. I found people from all over the world as addicted to discus as I was! I found answers to my question, pictures of discus and learned the importance of water changes and stable pH.Over the years I have participated on many discus forums, becoming one of the first moderators. Currently I am a moderator at Simply Discus and have been there since its inception in 2002. I enjoy helping other discus keepers and answering their questions.In 2004 a group of hobbyists came together at the American Cichlid Association show in Denver, Colorado to form NADA. I was elected president and we set ourselves the task of starting a discus association from the ground up. During the first year by-laws were adopted, the club was incorporated as a non-profit, the website was built and now we have our first newsletter.I am just a small hobbyist with 6 or 7 tanks of discus scattered throughout my house. I breed for my own enjoyment and prefer brightly colored Asian imports. I enjoy fish shows and meeting with other discus keepers. Besides discus, I've kept Africans, Koi and goldfish. I enjoy reading, crocheting, walking and playing with my grandchildren.

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Carol!

I have to say that is a great picture of you!


I take horrible pictures.....( of my fish too!)


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_77v.gif



Marie~

[RockRiverfish]

Hi, I'm Dan and live with my wife of 2 years in Watertown, WI along the beautiful Rock River. I have been in the aquarium hobby for 25+ years and ran my own aquarium maintenance business for 4 years. That was long enough to realize that I would rather spend my time doing water changes on my own tanks. I have since earned a degree in Environmental Geography, and currently work in the transportation divison of a large printing company.

My wife and I spent the past summer building a pond and landscaping the entire back yard. We still have a few odds and ends to finish next Spring, but are looking forward to sitting back and enjoying the hard work. My next project is to build my first ever, real fishroom. I currently have 5 assorted tanks scattered around the house with various African cichlid species. It would be nice to get everything in one room, so I could focus more on breeding and expanding my collection. I am trying to get away from the more common species, and would like to try breeding some of the rarer Tanganyikans.

I am like many folks here in that I studied all the books on how to keep discus (ie soft water, low ph, etc). I tried my best to alter our local water chemistry, bought what I now know were sick/stunted fish from the LFS, and then proceded to fail miserably in keeping discus alive and simply gave up. That was 15 years ago. Recently I got the bug to try it again, and stumbled upon this site. I have been lurking here for the last year trying to un-learn everything I though that I knew about these fish. I have a 90 gallon ready to go, and will be ordering some quality discus after the holidays.

Thanks for all of the information, and for making me feel welcome. I'm sure you will hearing from me again soon.

[April]

Alrighty then..my name is April as my avatar says..im getting old.... er. well not ancient..but not 20 either.
I live in Vancouver B.C. i was born in the interior of bc canada. in the west kootenays. when i was quite young..i remember a department store that just opened was handing out free goldfish to kids. we got one each. guess how long they lasted? not long. most likely 7-10 days. lol. just enough time for the ammonia to go through the roof.
my next experience was when i was in grade 7 our class had an aquarium. we got to take some home at the end of the year. i had lots in a goldfish bowl. no idea why they lived..i had a 3 spot gourami..mollys..swords etc etc. my aunt bought us an aquarium for xmas. a nice shiny silver edged one. i was in love. when i was a bit older my aunt bought me a book on breeding tropical fish. it had discus in there..and described how they used to take the babies away and theyd all die. and then they realized they need the milk off their bodies to survive. saw some in a lfs..but was told they are hard to keep. not to mention they were out of my price range..sure loved them though. eventually i saw someone selling babies in the paper. bought 6 turqs..meant to be wattley turqs..maybe a few generations back..didnt grow..runted out..but got me going.
i went a bit out of control..and ive ordered many many shipments from many breeders. right now..ive cut back a bit as i took over the pet grooming salon ive worked at since i was 20. So..ive been doing some renovating and trying to improve it. i have 3 large plexi tanks for now. my goal is to get an automated system going..so i can do a bit more enjoying..and less work.
ive kept discus for about 10 years now. time flies when your having fun. i cant imagine never having any.

[candyl70]

Ok, my turn (thanks for pointing that out Marie!!! Brat!).

I am 26 and live in Santa Rosa, California. I was born in a little mountain town called Jackson, in California. Since I was young I have moved all over California, Nevada, Texas, and back to California. I got my G.E.D. In Feb. of 1997, and have since earned an AA degree from Santa Rosa Jr. College. In the fall I will be transfering to Sonoma State to earn a BA in Human development.

I moved to Santa Rosa with my boyfriend a year and a half ago. We decided when we had some extra money, that we would get a fish tank. My b/f was really into studying everything he could about fish. He got his first discus a few months after getting his 55 set up. That was when i fell in love. He was the cutest, friendliest little fish. He would follow us across the tank whenever we walked by, and would come and eat out of our hand. Shortly after, I bought a 36 gal. and received 2 discus as a birthday present from my dad. I loved them so much that I decided to get 2 more, but made the huge mistake of not qt'ing them! They all got sick and I have lost one. The rest are now in my b/f's tank with his other 7 discus and seem happier. I then got my 55 gal from out apt manager (for free!!!) and went on a little adventure with Marie to Cliff's where we both picked up 8 a babies. I am happy to say they are all thriving and growing in their new home.
Since the incident of not qt'ing my fish, I have been online everyday trying to soak up and learn as much as I can about these beautiful fish. I even try to help out with questions from time to time, although I don't know much!!

Simply has been a wonderful place for me! I have made many great friends and have had the opportunity to even meet some! I hope to keep learning and growing as a hobbiest and eventually get to meet some more of the friends that I have made here!

Thanks to everyone who has made this place so great! l

Candyhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_3_16.gif

[Brack1008]

Ok, I guess I will go next. I am 38 years old, married (to the same woman for 17 years) and have two kids that are growing faster than I can keep up with. I was raised in West Virginia, with a brief stay in the mid 70’s in Victorville, California and Casa Grande, Arizona. I left WV in 1986 to serve in the US Marine Corps. After being discharged from the Corps in 1990 I went to work in Charlotte NC as a police officer, I left Charlotte in 1991 and have been a NC State Trooper for the last 13+ years stationed in Salisbury NC. When I am not at work, most times I am S.C.U.B.A. diving as I am also a PADI certified open water scuba instructor.

I got into keeping tropical fish in the mid 90’s when I inherited 2 Oscars and a Jack Dempsey from one of my younger brothers when he decided to leave NC and go back home to WV. Needless to say with him just up and leaving I got a crash course in fish keeping and fell in love with it and over the next few years I grew in the hobby to 14 tanks ranging in size from 5 gallons to 125 gallons totaling a little more than 500 gallons scattered through out the house. Because information was not as easy to come by back then I gathered many books on Discus and made many a road trip to visit out of state hatcheries and talk with breeders to get any type of information I could. I have kept and breed the usual assortments of live bearers, and then got into Angels, Discus, and Oscars. I actually got burnt out on the hobby in 1999 after about 5 years. I found that I was keeping more fish for my family members than I was for myself, and since I was the only one tending to them and with the exception of the Discus and Angels the rest were not mine, I said “enough is enough” and walked away from the hobby. I currently only run one 125 gallon tank for a breeding pair of Oscars.

When I first found Simply I thought it was so cool that all this information was available in one place, and that breeders were willing to share their “hush hush trade secrets” with the new guys on the block. This was not the way it was 10+ years ago in the hobby. I am basically a Lurker on this forum. I visit often to try to stay current on what is happening in the Discus world and to gather ideas. I will chime in, if I have something of value to add or to share info I have found elsewhere. This is truly a wonderful resource, and if it would have been available in years gone by, I probably would never have left the hobby.

Best regards
Dennis

P.S. I still remember when a Blue Diamond or a Marlboro Red were fetching $250.00+/ fish at quarter size.

[Kindredspirit]

Now, tell me Candy Dear, what was so hard about that? You are such a integrate part of Simply, you Simply had to post!

Very nice, woman!



Merry Christmas Candy to you and Mike!

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_16_16.gif


Marie~

[CAGE-RATTLER]

OK ..... I'll Bite!

Short & Sweet tho .... lol.

My Name is Rick Davis, I'll be 45 in January and I've lived in Baltimore, MD my whole life and i actually live right next door to my parents house where i grew up. I'm in the process of buying the house now. My father had bought it when our neighbors passed away and me and him completely gutted it and rebuilt it.

I was in the printing business ever since high school and about 5 years ago i started my own printing company cause i was tired of making everyone else rich. I run my business from home to avoid all the over head and also avoid all the walk ins that just 1 one copy of something ..... lol.

I'm in the middle of a 10 year plan to build up my business and find someone to run it for me when I'm 50 so i can retire and do some traveling. So far I'm way off schedule of being able to do that but a few more good customers in the future will hopefully get me back on track. Anyone here need some commercial printing done?? :D I offer excellent quality at reasonable prices and shipping is no problem! I take a lot of pride in my work and i wont sell anything i wouldn't purchase myself!

I'm not married but have been living with my fiancee for almost 12 years so in all reality i really am married just without that little piece of paper .... lol. Sandy ..... my better half .......... has made a huge change in my life and I'm a better person now because of her.

She has always kept fish but i was never really into it that much and we had 3 small tanks and decided to get a large tank to combine them in. Well i found a great deal on a 100 gallon tank and it came with 2 discus and i fell in love with them real quick.

After reading some books on discus that i got with the tank and then doing some research on the net about them ....... i found this site and have since been intrigued with wanting to breed them myself. I just picked up a 30 gallon tank for a breeding pair and am picking up a 55 tomorrow and hope to have them setup by the end of the holidays and purchase some juvies to grow out and maybe a pair for the breeder tank.

I've learned a lot from this site and the members here are fantastic. I find myself checking in here many times each day to see what new info i can learn and also to try to help others too ............ even know I'm still learning!

I'll be here for a long time to come!!

edit: Well i thought it would be short & sweet ...... lol

[candyl70]

Merry Christmas Marie
To you and A, and T!!!!

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_103.gif



Candy
p.s. you know i don't
like talking about me!!!

[White Worm]

Merry XMAS ladies and gentlemen (my friends) http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_99.gif, especially some of you,,,you know who you are http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_39.gif!!!!!

[candyl70]

Merry X-mas to you and yours Mike!!! And to the rest of the Simply family too!!!



http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_15_3.gif


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/8/8_2_61v.gif

[Y0uH0]

Hi Guys,
Guess i am one of the very new members in this fantastic forum that has helped me learn so much about discus. I only joined simply about 4 days ago!

My name is Derrick Li and i am from Singapore,living in Hougang estate. I am 19 this year and currently serving my national service in the Singapore police force.My family consists of 5 members namely me,my dad,my mum and 2 brothers aged 13 and 8yrs.

Fishes have been a part of my life ever since the day i was born as prior to my birth,my dad was already rearing goldfishes in this pagoda shaped tank. As i grew up,he imparted skills to me like how to wash the fish tank as well as how to manually suck the water out from the tank.Eventually,i took over the entire tank from him and we shifted all the goldfishes over to a 3ft tank that was given by my father's friend.After the goldfishes died of old age,i started keeping small fishes like neon tetras and guppies in BB's. Occasionally,i had a potted plant or 2 in the tank for decoration but i never planted them in substrate or removed them from their pots. In the end,the leaves just turned yellow and rotted away but i never knew the reason why then. I then went on to keep arowanas in the 3ft tank but they soon outgrew it and i managed to convince my dad to purchase a larger 5ft tank. Eventually,i gave up keeping arowanas as the cost of keeping them was far too high. In 1999,i chanced upon a LFS with a planted tank and that sparked my interest in planted tanks.I have been keeping planted tanks since then. Took an interest in discus this year and there are now 8 juvenile turquoise as well as a juvenile snow white in the tank together with my other fishes like cardinals.

Plan to persue further studies after completing my national service however,in Singapore there are no courses related to aquariums and fish keeping. Looks like i will have to settle for a business course as i plan to set up an LFS as a part time hobby if it is within my means.

A picture of my planted tank is shown

[Kindredspirit]

Welcome, Derrick! You will like it here~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_30_8.gif ( feels like home!)



Nice tank!!



Marie~

[sugio]

Hello All,

My name is Srini and I live the San Franciso Bay Area. Moved to the U.S. from India back in 1983. I have been married for 19 years to an absolutely wonderful woman that I met and fell in love with in grad school. We lived in the midwest (Kansas and Missouri) for a long time then moved to N.Carolina for a couple of years and moved to the Bay Area almost 10 years ago. I work as a Software Engineering Manager for a Biotech company. We have two wonderful kids; the 13-year old doesn't care much about the fish. She is too busy with her "life". My 8-year old son is hooked to the hobby and inspired me to get into the Discus hobby as soon as he saw his first discus in a book (!!!) and kept pestering me to get one!!
And, here I am, fully addicted to the Discus hobby. I started with a 37 gal tank and then quickly got a 29gal that is now in the garage. And still negotiating with my lovely wife about upgrading to a larger tank :) I now have a pair of golden/yellows (I just go by the color for now!), a pigeon blood and a fairly good size blue cobalt. I have befriended Kenny in Daly City (screenname: loverboy) and have become even more addicted to the hobby since.
My brother runs a LFS in my hometown in India and has been giving long-distance advice over the phone (pricey!!) He has bred a number of varieties of discus and arowanas in India. He currently imports his stock from Singapore and Malaysia. I have been contemplating investing in his business to keep the family thing going.

Looks like there are number of members in the SF Bay Area - large enough to get together once in a while and exchage ideas/thoughts/tips or just shoot the breeze!!

BTW, Cage-Rattler, I come from a printing background as well. My dad is 78 and still runs a printing press in India!!! We should chat sometime!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!!!!

[KIWI13]

Well I see that Al always waits for me to be outta town to start up the interesting posts....

Hi, I am the most prominent kiwi on here, the only active on here representing a population of just 4 million people...

The flag you see in my avatar is the NEW ZEALAND MAORI flag, the only flag I recognise cause I do not recognise the queen and the so called english empire that only colonised NZ. The maoris are the rightfull owners of this country

my name is Jason Fonseca and I am a new zealander living and working in France.... BUT I write you this while I am visiting my beautiful country down under....

I am 27 years old, married with one child of 2 and a half years old.

I love discus and my motivation for being on here is people like Al who bend over backwards to help people out and also for people like Marie that make us laugh... I have met some pretty cool damn people on here like my trusty friends Jim, Brian, Mario, Barb and the list goes on.......................

I cant wait to go back to france now and thats only because I have 6 blue diamonds to pick up.... LOL

well I gotta keep it short so thats it for me...

Jas

[Kindredspirit]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_27.gifhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_27.gifhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_27.gif



http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_4_108.gif's Back!

[jeep8rus]

Hi all, my name is Russ. I'm currently living in Las Cruces, NM which will soon be the home of the new spaceport. I recently started back into school after working on a submarine in the Navy for the last 5 years, and I am currently pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. I did a lot of work with communications equipment and electronics in the service so I'm building on that.

I can be an egghead at times, but my life abroad in other countries has opened my eyes. I enjoy watching sports, socially drinking a few beers, maybe some wine when I pawn it off my parents (who until recently were E.J. Gallo execs), and just kick back.

I currently am mainly running a 55 gallon and 20 gallon aquarium (both planted). The 20 has some bolivian rams, snails, and otos in it while the 55 is my wild discus tank with about 6 of them. I really didn't know anything about the hobby until recently when I moved here last year I just kind of fell into it when I bought a tank. I mainly wanted something I could look at when studying that wasn't a television. I only just started keeping wilds in the last few months actually, but already I'm an addict. There isn't any decent source of Discus that I've found in my area and if my local LFS had them I wouldn't trust them at all. Instead I buy them whenever I visit my family and bring them home on flights. My next big project will probably be a moderate 55 gallon reef aquarium.

-Russ

[Condor]

Hey everyone,

My name is Adrian and I am from Columbus Ohio. I am 27 years old and have a beautiful wife and a son who is soon to turn 3. I am training him to do water changes so he can take over for his old man one day :D I began keeping fish when my uncle and parents collaborated to get me a ten gallon setup when I was a kid. Enlisted in the Marines for four years after highschool and got out in July of 2001. Went to college and got my associate's degree at Columbus State. Right now I am applying for the State Highway Patrol here in Ohio. I have been fascinated with discus all of my life but only recently decided to make the jump. Love every minute of it. I also love blue rams and I am on Simplycichlids.com as well. (Great place for rams :) ) I have learned so much on this forum- it is a tremendous resource for all discus keepers. I do not post all that much but I am working on that. :)

Adrian

[goheel]

Well, I guess it's my turn.

My name is Huy. I'm turning 21 next month. I was born in Vietnam, moved to the States about 9 years ago. I've been living in Raleigh, NC ever since. I love this country. IMHO, this country is the best country to live in if you're hard-working. I'm currently studying to be a pharmacist at University of North Carolina. Go TarHeels! :D I've had discus when I was little kid, but I wasn't old enough to take care of them, so they always ended up dying. About 2 months ago, I've decided to try discus once again, and so far, no problems thanks to this site. My goal eventually is to have a planted discus show tank one day when I have a real job.;)

[BIGFOOT]

Hi my name is Brian and i live in Cincinnati, Ohio. I started the hobby 17 years ago when i told my wife that i always wanted a tank butt knew nothing about fish. She told me well lets get one and find out about them. So we went and bought a 55 gal. tank and a Oscar and headed home. I knew so little about fish that 4 or 5 Oscar died(quit laughing it not funny). Until i met a person who could explain the nitro cycle and water conditioning. Then i was able to grow a Oscar to full size. At this point i thought i was the man boy was i wrong. Next i came across an Angel fish i thought surly i could keep this alive wrong again till i learned that these where warm water fish.
So from here i start getting my library full of books so i could learn all could about these fish. I learn enough to get them to breed and so i had filled a two bed apartment with fish tanks about 50 of them in all. Since then i have done Reef tanks for friends and a plant tank for my self. And have failed at Discus once so far. Butt this was before I owned a computer so as you know a lot of books are out of date. With new information and you nice people helping me i hope to be able to keep Discus coming at the end of February. That's my story and i am sticking to it. lol

[roclement]

Hello, My name is Rodrigo - Rod- Clement

I am 34 years old, from Brasil and now living near Philadelphia,PA.

Had fish tanks in a way or another since I was 12, had some Discus here and there but it was not untill I moved to the USA in 1997 that I really got into this hobby. Untill I joined Simply back in 2002, all my fsh were store bought, at absurd prices, this forum is directly responsible for me staying in the hobby, as well as saving the life of lots of my fish!
The most tanks I had was around 2003, when my fish room was fully operational, had about a couple of hundred fish at some point!
Now, with work taking most of my time, I am down to a 150gl, a 29gl, and a 55gl. My favorite fish right now is my redtail cat fish "Mongo", but I still have 8 discus that have been with me for about 2 years now, looking to ad a couple soon.

I also have a cat, a dog, two parrots, and a snake...all in my house were I live with my girlfriend Lauren.

I have a degree in Food Marketing and my Masters in International Business Managemet. I work with private country clubs, I manage operations and am currently opening a new facility close to Valley Forge in PA. Anyone for golf!?

Other hoobies include riding my Harley and enjoying cigars, wines, and scotch.

Well, nice to meet all of you that I hadn't met yet, I am here if anyone wants to talk fish, golf, or just stop by for some wine or beer.

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
Since I can't do spotlight interviews on everyone... I thought I'd bring this one back up if anyone wants to interview themselves or update us ...

so.. Tell us about yourself!:D

-al

[bastalker]

Name is Mark. I am 47 years old. Feel older sometimes. I have a lovely and patient wife named Carol. We reside in Mystic CT. I also have a 24 year old daughter Kelly living in Dover DE. with her husband an 2 kids. The third one is due Nov. 18th.(Never thought I would be a grandfather at 47!!) I also have a 21 year old son Mark Jr. who lives in Stonington Ct with his fiance.

I was born in Mass. but grew up in SA Texas. Joined the Navy in 1979 an wound up in Scotland for 5 years where I met my wife. We came back to Ct in 1985. I got out of the Navy in 1988, stayed here an kept welding which was my Naval occupation.

I pretty much got tired of welding back in 2000 an started a landscaping company which is doing very well to this day. This is also the reason you dont find me on SD alot during the summer months. :o

I have had aquariums since I was around 12. I actually had Discus when I lived in Scotland back in 1983. Unfortunately I knew nothing about them. They never had a chance. I moved to Marine tanks shortly after which I spent alot of time on. Once I moved back to the states, I dropped the aquarium hobby an started racing here at the local track. That took up every bit of time an money I had. I grew weary of dumping my hard earned money into something that was eventually going to find itself head on into the back stretch wall!

I started a bass fishing club in 1985 and started fishing bass tournaments thru out New England. This is where the screen name comes in...The club is still active today. I on the other hand, I am not

I got back into the hobby in early 2000, courtesy of a friend who wanted to relieve himself of his 55G tank. It was setup with drab tropical fish, driftwood and plastic plants. :o Surfing the web, I found abundent amount of info on fish and aquarium plants. The more I read the more I wanted to dive right in to aquariums again.

I currently have a 75G heavily planted tank, an a 55G BB with 6 RT's courtesy of my good friend brewmaster. The rest is history.

A couple picks of us an the kids...

[fredyk]

mARK very inspirational. I like your pictures. My name is Mark. I'm a wage slave pushing papers about to be kicked to the curb in December, being a temporary worker FOR TWO YEARS. Formerly, I was a vegetarian chef for over 15 years, but I lived like a communist, in that all the employees were volunteers getting room & board, like a commune, working for the Transcendental Meditation organization, which I loved, but that's another story.

Always had an aquarium, and around 2000 wanted to grow plants like when I was a teen. But I had to order online and discovered a whole new world of possiblities. I have four planted tanks and a pair of discus, Fred and Ginger. Ginger is feeling a little under the weather. lol
Hope to give her some new meds next week. :o

Edit
Adding another picture of me-in the mirror :D Another picture of a sterile office. how boring right? not nearly as exciting as a cafeteria kitchen, I can tell you that. Anyway the picture is a small betta bowl on a file cabinet, which is growing a nice java fern. The main point of the picture is to tell how far from the window is the bowl and yet tons of light enters thru to grow the plant really well. It's actually a co-worker's desk-not my file cabinet, And it's a recent pic.

[mikel]

Ok, I am so busy with everything else on this informative board that I did not realize that I need to do this introduction too. So please excuse my tardiness...here goes.

My name is Mike, and I am in my early thirties. My grandfather had tons of aquarium fish, and he used to breed angels, so keeping fish has always been a natural thing during my childhood. But of course, the discus fish is absolutely brand new for me.

I find animals facinating, and I was always taught to be respectful of them. I currently resides in Milton, just outside of Boston, with my partner of 7 years, our 4 dogs (three cockers, one peke), three parrots, and this new tankful of discus. In fact, the new tank and the whole setup, along with the discus, are all a gift to myself because I recently quit smoking. It is a very nice reward, and one that helps me keep my promise to stay smoke-free everytime I look at the beautiful discus.

Aside from my avian, canine and fishy interests, I am also an avid gardener. We bought our house three summers ago, and since then, I have planted 4 magnolia trees of various cultivars, several tree peonies, a huge number of facinating daylilies, orientpet lilies and irises, along with about 7 different types of clematis and their own trellises. I recently planted a bunch of David Austin roses too....so as you can imagine, our house is full of noise and life. i wake up at three thirty each day to do chores for these animals; I am a teacher so I do have time in the afternoons to keep everone happy.

I usually do about 50% water changes each day, sometimes more if I have more spare time; I find the discus a very graceful and intelligent fish. I hope very much to be able to learn from the experst on this board. It's really such a help to have such a place to go to for help and advice. Thanks mike

[scolley]

Hi. I'm Steve. Though I grew up in the deep south, I'm thrilled be a 20 year resident of the lovely state of Connecticut. I'm just shy of 50, and live on the coast, in a town I can't afford, with my lovely, long suffering, and intelligent (except for spousal choices) wife Mareen, and my two wonderful teenage sons - Stephen and Michael.

My past, most passionate hobby, was bonsai. That heavily influences my planted aquaria hobby today - greatly influencing my aesthetic sense. Bonsai are not judged independent of their pot, their stand, and their immediate surroundings. So I don't set any of my tanks up with the thought of... "Well it will look good when I use Photoshop to crop out the boarders beyond the tank", nor "it will take a better picture when I pull that out of the tank", or even "when I do this significant trim, it's gonna look awesome!" So my tanks are set up to be viewed in their actual settings. As such I avoid hard cropping or alteration of camera shots. I leave everything in the tank. If you see it in my pics, that's how it looks in my room.

With respect to maintenance, I model my planted discus tanks after my bonsai maintenance - recognizing that while major work is periodically required, the object itself (the tank in this case) should look pretty much the same both before and after limited regular maintenance. Small changes consistently applied.

I also travel a lot for a living. Working as an IT consultant takes me far and wide. So this has also caused me to go to great pains to create tanks that run themselves. Or at least, don't get out of control if I go away for a few weeks.

The mythology that pervades both fish keeping and planted tanks is a real sore point for me. And I can't stand misinformation being passed along in the hobby. So apologies up front if you see me challenging conventional wisdom. It happens a lot. And to keep information as reliable, and accurate as possible, if I make a statement as fact, it will only be because I've proven it to my own satisfaction. I won't repeat what I've heard - but haven't proven - nor will I say what I "think" but don't "know" without making that distinction clear. And to help backup my own findings and learning, I keep very detailed records on my tanks. If anything goes into, or is removed from one of my tanks, or if maintenance is performed, or any setting or tank parameter is changed - it all gets recorded. So not surprisingly this detailed record serves as proof to myself of things I've learned, and sometimes even teaches me things - observed over time - that I was not expecting.

I was attracted to planted tanks because they are beautiful. And hard. I was attracted to planted discus tanks because they are even more beautiful (IMO) and even harder. Anything worth being proud of is a challenge. To me.

So I've got a lot to be grateful for, in my wife and family that put up with my hobby passions. And I've got more to be grateful for when I consider the fun, informative, supportive, online communities I've been lucky enough to find. Not the least of which are you, my wonderful friends, at SimplyDiscus.:)

I hope I can give back as much as I take. Your support has been invaluable, so I consider myself in your debt.

[cktrimble]

Hello from Noblesville, Indiana! Hi, I am a new member of this forum and am new to the discus addiction! :) I have 3 discus, one blue diamond, one red checkerboard, and one alenquer red. I currently have the alenquer in a tank of his own. He is being overly aggressive. In reading this board, I see where I should have 5-6 so the aggressive one shares the wealth. :)

I have a 55G currently with 2 discus in it (3 with the bully) and 1 adult angel and 4 juvie angels. I almost have my wife convinced to let me get a 4 ft 150G tank. We were looking at it today. I'm wearing her down. :) I also have a 29G and 2 10G fully setup and running. The alenquer is currently in solitary confinement in one of the 10G.

Anyway, I am fairly new to the whole aquarium arena all together. But I am a huge researcher due to my career (Technology Career). I have read just about every post here... :) I currently do 50-60% WC every other day with straight RO water. I use RO Right and a PH buffer 6.5 to stabalize my PH. I keep my water temp around 86 degrees. I just purchased a sponge filter to add to my tank. I currently have 2 Pengium 350's on it. I have been feeding them a mixture of Tetra bits, FD brine shrimp, FD blood worms, frozen beef heart, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, and Tetra flakes.

I look forward to continuing to learn and read these posts. I really enjoy this forum and it has helped me tremendously with getting my tanks going and keeping them consistent. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful posts and all the information.

TAKE CARE,
Kevin from Indy.

[2sybs]

It's about timed I got around to this. :p

*Stands up, looks around, feeling nervous and stammers out*

"Hi I'm Ray, I live in Castle Rock, Colorado and I am a discusholic....."

Uh wait thats a different place isn't it? Or is it..... ;)

Anyway I got back into this hobby when I picked up a 55 at a garage sale for $6. sat in my garage for over six months before I got around to setting it up. My last aquarium was over 20 yrs ago. Back then I had up to 7 tanks going at one point with anything from angels and discus to Piranha even had one setup with salt. Loved that one and decided right away with this one it was going to be either salt or discus. Discus won.
I now have a 75gal that I picked up not too long ago and unfortunately I sold the 55, sure could use it now.

Thank you SimplyDiscus for all the great information and ideas I have found here.
Just a sample of the things I have learned here, the importance of water quality and just how important it is to do regular water changes, But one of the most important things I have learned here is Patience.

[Anthony]

I have join this Forum by last week of September. I think is time for me to get myself introduce at everyone here, which I could hope by making some new friends indeed.

I was here introduced by a Discus Exporter by a name "Discus Sanctuary" He was a very nice guy & asking me to drop by at visitting this Mention Forum, from time to time.

Is my honour to be here.

My name is Anthony Phan, 36 of ages, staying In Malaysia, Sarawak, Miri. Being a small town of Miri as along the seaside, if you love peacefully, relaxing life then u are welcome....hahaha. Mulu Cave is almost 35 minutes by air from Miri, is our National Cave in Sarawak. The most Beautiful & natural cave I ever seen. Feel free to Visit.

I started by knowing Fish as water living creature at age of 6. My parents loves at keeping fishes as of part time hobby. I have two sister above me & I 'm the last from the Phan's family member list.

Last year I was visitting a Tropical Fish Show in Malaysia "Malaysia Aqua Fair 2006" in not cognizance of Discus, but in coincidence knowing the Grand Champion Discus winner. Upon knowing him, he have putting many effort introducing me some of his Discus, by the 1st ordering (after a month later) I'm so great to have them in my bare tanks. Within a month later, I have almost with heart breaking condition as all Discus die from time to time without specific reason uncounter.

I have been paying so much and loosing at a point by no reason given, at this hour I get to know some of those Discus fans in Malaysia during my visitting their Discus farm or house. Some of them but not every ones are in teaching at ready basis, as what we always say "self fishness" attidute.

During Last year, i need times for recovering my Liver status, I do reading alot of books & experince byself learning & of course two breeder advices as during problem incurred specially bacteria invention along the road. At times I have even imported second stages of Discus in volume to cater my experince by keeping them alive in no mistake allowed......I almost fail again by Bacteria & Virus invention, God Bless I got it through.

Last 6 months I have noted some but not all at the basic ways by keeping those Discus staying alive. Somehow I have even sucessfully breeds Alenquer Red at the fries volume by increasing to 400+ , Vietnam P.Checkerboard at 100+ fries, included recently another 100 + fries at Snow White & LSS.

To understanding Discus is not a day, weeks or months time......is to use your patience by knowing them " what they want from you" from their life style, water & foods needs.

Therefore, please don't give up easily exspecially to those silent Discus Keeper whom may dissapointed & failed many times, I believe everyone here are sharing & helping each other...right ? Even I'm still here for learning........;)

[Tropical Haven]

Well I posted a picture of myself on here quite some time ago but never actually said anything about myself so I guess better late than never.
My name is Scott Winefka and I am 41 yrs old and live in the Western suburbs of Chicago. I have a wife (Cheryl) and two sons (Mike & Danny) ages 18 and 13. I have been keeping fish since 1977 when I started out with mollies and swordtails. Over the years I moved on to the two types of fish that have always been my favorite which are Angelfish & Discus. Starting in 1988 I have been breeding both of these fish and this is what I truely love to do. In 1991 I was growing strong with my garage converted into a fish room and had around 80 tanks of fish going. I was about 1 year away from buying my own building to be a tropical fish supplier but one cold February night I had to shut off my main gas line to replace my water heater in the house. After I was done I turned the main gas back on but I forgot to light my pilot light back on in my furnace that was in the garage that heated my fish room. :(
When I went out there the following morning to feed my fish it was really cold in there when I opened the door. The first thing that entered my mind was OH NO my fish, I turned on the light and all of my fish in every tank was floating motionless on top of the water. I acidentally murdered over 3,000 fish in less then 24 hours. I was absolutely heart broken from that and quit with breeding fish for nearly 10 years before I caught the bug to start doing it again so here I am starting my journey all over again. Sorry for the long story but I tend to be long winded. :D

[back 2 discus biz]

Hi there,

I'm out in Colorado. I started in Louisiana with a 90 gallon tank and 4 adult discus. I was saved by vociferous reading about discus keeping and advice from the person I bought the discus from. We had some tough times but made it through with a few losses in eight years. When I tore it down to move to CO I decided to go African Cichlid. They were fun and hardy but their hardiness made me a lazy aquarium manager. I had been thinking of going back to discus for a couple of months when the family took a vacation. I changed the water just before leaving. When we got back they were all dead with the exception of one electric yellow. My air pump had given out and the recent water change took the water level up above my two canister outlets where they could not agitate the water. And so went about 20 beautiful ACs. I took that as a sign to go back to discus. I now have eight juveniles. In the old days I would have called them Pigeon Bloods, Cobalts, and Browns but I found the new names very confusing and not real descriptive. Anyway we are off and running again. This forum had some of the best info from weeks of trolling for discus news.


Thanks!

[back 2 discus biz]

Hey Ray,

I'm in Parker. Maybe we can hook up sometime.

Paul

[2sybs]

Hey Paul
welcome to Simply.
I'm just down the road, It would be great to get together sometime.
I have to agree this is the best site I have found for info, not to mention some of the nicest and helpful people.
Sorry to hear you lost your Cichlids though.
Oh hey, can I ask where you got your discus?
Ray

Go Rockies

[ffighter14]

Hi
Im from NY and have just gotten into keeping discus fish.I will have many questions as I raise these beautiful creatures and will appreciate any help I can get.I have a 55 gallon African chichlid tank that has given me pleasure for many years.I am retired from the Fire department and look foward to devoting more time to my hobbies.I do like to fish(dont tell the fish I keep in my tanks)and photography.
I look foward with getting to know the discus community and making a few friends.
Thanks

[fishmama]

Welcome ffighter14-

Glad to have you on board. Some buzz around here that recently some really nice imports arrived in NY.

Good luck,
Lisa aka Fishmama

[specialsuperK]

Hello everyone, My name is Jeff K. and I'm addicted to discus! I started my first tank a little over a year ago, and like most I started with oscars, after that I started to find great deals on fish tanks on Craigslist.com, so one by one I have set them up and started tank after tank, I started to breed Jaguar's, then someone wanted to trade my mating pair for some Discus. That is the first time I saw a Discus, soon after, I started to raise Discus, this was about 3 months ago, I now have six Discus in 1 55gal. I'm engaged to the most beautiful person in the world, the queens name is Sara, my son is turning 1 in a week, his name is Caiden, We live in Vancouver WA. I'm a mechanic @ Freightliner in Portland, and I have alot of questions, and a person at "the wet spot" in portland told me to register on this forum if I wanted answers, so I plan on hearing from all of you, It's good to know I'm not the only one as addicted as I am. Thanks

[calihawker]

Hi! My name is Steve, I'm 45, married with 2 boys ages 15 and 11 living in Cool California (yes Cool is a real town and actually spelled that way too;) After having spent 15 years in the music business I decided to get a real job and started a manufacturing company. We produce the Petrogen oxy-gasoline cutting torch system which is used by firefighters and our military around the world. Last year I got a chance to relive my career as a rock star and recorded a new heavy metal record with my bros from Dublin California. The band is Dublin Death Patrol and the record is DDP 4 Life! We did some huge shows in Europe last summer and starting next year we will be in cities around the world. Hope to see you at a show!!


Hobbies include music (of course) astronomy, brewing beer (let's swap some recipies brewmaster15!) and a few years ago I discovered falconry. It's impossible to describe the thrill of watching birds of prey that you've trained, hunting wild game and letting you be part of the hunt. The birds pictured in my avatar are Corey and Syd. They are my harris hawk team and during the hunting season, falconry is about all I do.

My aquarium experience goes back over 20 years. There was a time when I tried my hand at breeding discus. At one point I had as many as 15 tanks going but for the last 5 years or so it's been reef keeping. My show tank is (was) a 300 gallon in wall display and by the time I tore it down last year it was nothing short of spectacular. I don't know if it was boredom or the 400 dollar a month utility bill but I decided to switch over and do a high tech planted discus tank. Obviously going from reef I have overkill equipment for a planted tank, but it's a challenge changing the thought process from a nutrient poor environment with MASSIVE lighting and water flow to what is necessary to keep discus in a planted tank. As it stands my project is just underway. I have florite in the bottom and water in the tank awaiting my first delivery of plants. I'll be sure to post some pics as I go.

I want to thank everyone on this forum and the planted tank forum for helping me with this new project.

Steve

After posting this I noticed I was remiss in not including a picture of the boy's. Derek and Edward are great kids, polite and respectfull. Also pictured is Rochelle with my dog Polar Bear. No that's not photoshopped he really is that big! We are huge animal lovers. Our current count is 4 dogs 5 cats 11 goats and my birds (discus soon:D
Rochelle is my wife, my business partner and the love of my life. We've been in business together for the last 12 years. We're together sometimes 24/7 and we almost never fight. Truly magical. I couldn't imagine life without her. The concert photo is me on stage last June in the Netherlands in front of 30,000 crazy metal fans. One of my best days ever.

[Diamond Discus]

Whoa....You are living your dream life, calihawker. I am envious of your drive to do what you want and to make a living doing it. Thanks for posting and "Keep on Doing What You're Doing" man!! You are an inspiration!

[bastalker]

Hey Steve!! Welcome to "SD"... Cant wait to see the pics of the planted tank. :)

tc
Mark

[alxjss]

Hello. I will tell i guess. My name is Eileen Rodriguez. I live in Grand Rapids MI. I grew up in LINY when I joined the Navy in 1976. I served as a cook/hotel mgt. I met my husbund when stationed on Guam and got married one yr later. Had my beautiful son Jesse. Well, that marrage crashed and been on my own ever since.
I then met another man and were together for 5 yrs and produced another son Alex. Thirteen yrs difference between the two.:shocked:
My screen name is a short form of my sons name, alx,jss.:)
I wound up in MI for my son Jesse to be w/his dad.
I remember my father had lots of fish in the basement but didn't pay attention. Didn't have my first tank until 92 and had goldfish. WOW. Got pregnant and sold the tank to my bro.
I then bought a 75gal because my son Jesse had one and it was huge, i wanted one. Got one too.:D
I did the dumb thing w/no cycle and killed alot of fish. My son had fun w/that. I finally made it w/the fish and looked around but couldn't find anything that interested me and am scared of salt water tanks. I went to a lfs and saw discus many times and thought they were awesome. Too mucH $ for me.... My father told me they were very hard to take care of so i put it out of my mind.
The last trip to the lfs, of course, there were discus. I just loved them. Got on the internet and well, u no.....
I now have a 75gal w/6 discus from Cary Strong and they r doing well. I have been in the hobby since may of this yr. I still have alot to learn and will be doing it because i am getting 6 new juvies from Dan of Elite Aquaria.
I also have a 39 gal betta tank w/ about 17 danios and 2 green cories. I also have a lionhead and a bubble eye gold fish in a 55 gal which i will be eliminating soon. To many fish:crazy:
I have no grandchildren so far, but one day.
That is me.......:o

[asim amjad]

hi i guess my discription will be different from all of you.

my name is asim amjad,30 year old, designer living in Karachi Pakistan, and am discus nuts. its very hard to find good quality discus here so it makes my hobby more difficult. i have never heard of anyone breeding discus in pakistan either so i have a display tank with 6 discus and lots of mates.

i have been keeping fish since the last 2 years when my cat died after living for 17 years. i have 2 tanks. the discus tank is 100 gals and the other has live bearers and is about 20 gals.
i have joined this site to learn more about discus and one day i would love to be experienced enough to breed my own discus.

my best to all of you.

[fishmama]

Welcome Asim...and good luck with getting those discus to spawn!

[asim amjad]

thanks!!! let me try keeping them alive first :)

[majik]

hi everyone my names tanya lemon im 34 years old i live with my partner of 5years tui and have 2 children cody 11 and crystal 10 hehe i went with the c's not the b's im a hairdresser and have my own salon but ive done many things i have a skippers ticket and have skipperd fishing boats no longer wana catch them just look and loveem ive also worked on an asphalt gang i think u call it blacktop in the states yes i kno tough jobs for a woman i think i had somethin to prove when i was younger now im totally happy with who i am and where im at i was born in bermuda but have lived in nz all my life ive had tropical fish since i can remember but have only recently found discus and all others pale in comparrison i just adore them i have a 120g show tank with 12 discus from 50mm-170mm and a 50g couminty tank and 2x20g tanks at work my partner is very understanding she trys to take in everything i babble on about with the fish and will alert me if somethin dosnt look right to her(most of the time its nothing)but u neva kno id love more tanks but just dont have room at the moment i also enjoy building and doing up campervans when im not doin w/c lastly a big thank u to simply discus awsome forum and soooooooo friendly have taken all other forums off my desktop lol oh and im hopeless at computers and photography and totally cant load pics i dont kno how:o

[berrybear]

hi every one my name is Linda DEVOS i am the owner of angelfishouse299 i raise angelfish and discus in american canyon ca. http://angelfishouse299
my ph#707-645-7196

[thomasfoo]

Hi I am Thomas Foo from Penang, Malaysia. Have just retired from working life and looking forward to take up the challenge of raising this King of Aquarium again. I sincerely hope to learn from all the gurus and experts here. Thank you in advance.
(More about me in http://pengsan.fotopages.com if you care :))

Thomas Foo, Penang

[Trog]

Hi my name is Kevin AKA Trog.

I've been in the hobby for over 40 years but have only been raising Discus for about 2 years. Oh Ya & I had a full head of hair when I started keeping discus LoL!

[subcooler]

I been slow to respond to this thread, but here goes.
I'm a 40 y.o.married guy living @ Nj shore entire life.I'm an HVAC service technician(keep people cool or hot-as the season warrants).
I've had fish tanks off & on for decades-obsession started when some convicts decided to breed.Always loved cichlids-grew tired of the constant battling in the tanks though!Lately I've focused on angels-beautiful fish(no scrapping!)
I'm a new comer to raising discus.I fell in love with the fish a few decades ago.I resisted setting up a discus tank, because of many reasons(teenager,starting a family,listened to all the difficult fish stories @ LFS... etc).
Another key reason for not getting into raising the King of Freshwater Aquariums was, every time the Grateful Dead announced tour dates I'd find myself hopscotching my way across the east coast-imagine trying to fit W/C's into that schedule!
Well as it happens-I've aged,kids grow up,bands stop touring etc...
I was hanging around LFS(getting feeders for daughters Piranha's) and noticed 2 discus in a tankful of Oscars.It started with the thought- what a bizarre combination.Then it led to watching the price get slashed in half.The fish were beautiful & healthy, soon they moved in.I started with a 38g. tank(gravel bottom).I soon found that the info from LFS was not the whole story.I started hanging out here & learning what I needed to do to keep happy,healthy fish.
Of course the changes started.Pair of fish need companions,tank & filter too small,gravel a bad idea etc...
I surveyed attic and set up largest tank available(50g.), went BB tank.I grabbed 13y.o. daughter & trudged up Garden State Pkwy.80 miles & got some more discus.
I'm glad I gave discus a shot.I find it to be quite an obsession-always looking to expand set up(1 tank is never enough).Trying to decide on larger or several tanks?I've got a few ideas for the basement these days(all focus on tanks!)
The wife just shakes her head & is generally supportive. She thinks all the W/C's are crazy but that's OK! I'm sure she'll be glad when barrell behind tank in living room is moved to basement.That's the next project!
I'm glad to have found this forum.The kind folks here have been so helpful in the few months I've had discus.
Hope everyone has a safe,happy,healthy New Year!
Rob

[judy]

okay, I'm Judy Waytiuk, a Canadain who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I'm a former television journalist turned freelanvce magazine and travel writer/photographer (I got out of mainstream journalism when it started tuyrnign into infotainment). my website is http://www.wordsink.ca for those who want more details. I've been keeping fish for thirty years off and on, and have had two long spells of discus-keeping (this one's the third, and the permanent one, I think, as I slowly tail off on the travel-- used to be with all the travel, I couldn't keep up and spouse can't handle even the basics).
But I'm getting right sick of airports... so I'm just gonna stay home for a long time...

[Kindredspirit]

Judy, great website! The pictures are awesome too ~ did you take them?

[judy]

yup. Writer/photographer, that's me-- but I can't take a decent shot of the tank or fish!! go figure...

[happygirl65]

My name is Tori, I am 32 yrs old and have been keeping FW fish (sucessfully) for over 15 years.
Late 2006 I got into planted tanks and started researching Discus. Seeing these beautiful planted tanks with Discus are what started my recent obsession with all things aquarium related.
I now have a 46 gal tank set up specifically for discus display (with all tankmates established since July) and am ready to receive my first set of discus.
I am excited to meet some other discus enthusiasts since my family only understands THAT I love them....not so much why. :)

I just explain tell them it makes me happy and that is all that is important! ;)

[two utes]

Hi there Tori. Welcome to Simply Discus. Like you it wasn't that long ago that l set up a planted tank specificly for Discus. Research led me to this sight where l found lots of good and very clever people with the passion for riasing and keeping discus, and have made some new friends. I now have my established planted tank with six discus, and found myself being one of the 'Discus Challengers' raising 8 juvinilles. Hope you get out of this sight what l did.:)

[jnguyen4007]

Hi all,

My name is James Nguyen and I live in Manassas, VA. I got into fresh water keeping about 2.5 years ago then into discus keeping about 2 years ago. At one point in the past 2.5 years, I had up to 6 tanks in my house. Finally, my wife had enough of me spending so much time upkeeping them and not enough time to enjoy them, that she made me downsize. I currently have three tanks, one 35 gal, hexagonal acrylic tank that holds african cichlids, one 46 gal bowfront tank that holds discus, and a 30 gal tank that holds my salt water reef. I still love discus, but my hobby lately has been focusing more on my reef tank. My aim is to upgrade from the 30 gal reef tank to something between a 150 and a 180 gal tank sometime in the next few months.

DAAH was the first site that I joined and it was there that I learned much about keeping and raising discus. With DAAH site been down the past few weeks, I searched and found simply discus and from what I've seen so far, it looks like a great site for discus lover. I'm looking forward to spending more time here and to share what knowledge I have and hopefully make some friend along the way.

[happygirl65]

Hello again :)
While reading some of the other introductions I realized that I forgot to mention a little more about myself (other than the fish keeping hobby).

I am a very artsy person. I love to write. Novels, articles, letters, email, poetry...it's all good! :) It is my favorite form of communication. I am a poet at heart and just about everyone I know comes to me to write a really meaningful poem for special occasions.

I love to sing, play my guitar and write songs, draw, paint, craft, scrapbook. :) Graphic design, and web design are another hobby that brings me a little side money from time to time :)

My husband and I actually built our house with our own hands (and a few tools of course) on our 10 acres of forested land. We are about 100 miles from the closest airport. I grew up in Phoenix AZ a city girl through and through so it was a huge adjustment for me moving to a small town of less than 100 people in very rural montana. The wildlife here out numbers the people greatly. I have seen from my yard deer, coyotee, elk, a family of moose, wild turkeys and bald eagles. But my favorite was a small black bear that we lovingly named Clyde. One summer we would see him everytime we made pancakes! I never fed him on purpose but he did manage to steal some beef jerky from our truck. :mad:

It is a peaceful and virtually crime free environment (if you don't count the jerky theiving bear) in which to raise my three children. I have 2 boys ages 8 and 4 and a little girl who just turned 3 yesterday (my valentines baby :) )

I had recently gotten back into fishkeeping a year and a half ago when we added on to our house and finally had room to set up the 55 gallon tank we had in storage. I decided to try aquatic plants for the first time after setting it up and the rest as they say is history. :) I now have the 55 set up with an angel community, and a 46 gallon set up to be a small discus community.....although now that i have just purchased a 90 gal tank I am sure I will switch some things around ;)

My husband is very supportive of my hobby. He doesn't always understand my obsession with it but he enjoys the result of all my hard work :) He also supports anything that brings me joy so that makes me very happy. So I feel very lucky! :)

I am glad to have found this place and so many wonderful people that have already helped me save my first 3 discus that might not have otherwise made it.

Nice to meet you all!

[2075turner]

Hello, my name is Evelyn. I live in North Bay, Ontario Canada. I am the proud mother of twin boys, Antoine and Devin (16months) and stepmother to Rick (13years). My husbands name is Norm. I also am proud owner of two labs Marlo (12 years) and Vegas (2 years), a bearded dragon lizard Tequilia (4 years), and I don't know how many fish??? All are discus. I have 1 - 125, 6 - 35, 4 - 40, 2 - 30, 8 - 20, 4 - 75, and finally 4 - 55 gals. It all started out simple and then just went out of control somewhere! LOL! Now I am giving it a try to breed. That's what brought me here to simply discus. What a great site, I've learned so much just by checking out the threads that others have started, soon I will be asking some questions myself. So till then, later gator as I hear one of my little guys:):):)

[happygirl65]

Welcom Evelyn! :) You sure have your hands full with twin boys! I am a twin myself so I know a little something about it ;) at 16 months I bet they are into everything! :) I have had 3 kids and can not imagine how you can have two babies at once! The sheer force of will to go on when you are so tired! My mom said that my sister and I entertained each other a lot but I can only imagine it!
Good luck with your discus breeding efforts! :)

Enjoy those babies....the good news and bad news is they grow so FAST! :)

I wish you all the best.
Tori

[SimplyMe]

:) Hi Ya All . Is SimplyMe.

[PARCS46]

Hey All; I'm Bill W. was on here a long time ago as DiscusDevil, hardly recognized SD upon my return. One could browse almost forever, lol, still not sure if the exponential expansion is all good, or perhaps just a little difficult for me! It's like I'm almost a newbie again, although I've been in this great hobby over 60 years, the last 20 with Discus, hands down the most Beautiful of all the freshwater Tropicals ever! I gotta say it's like coming home again after a long time away, things changed,seemed to have gotten bigger! I now have to reaccquaint myself with the gang all over again!

I Picked up 16 small(Quarter Sized) RedMelonxPB from "MarkDiscus" last month, and there doing great, busted outta two tanks already! Got them in a 55 as of yesterday, and I'm already planing on the next move, there at almost three inches, incredible! I got 'em' on a very high protien gel mix + the norm diet. I will share the formula with all that wants, or needs same! Ok All, I guess it's a wrap for now, just wanted to touch base, and to let all know I'm very happy to be back! Later: DiscusDevil
Hey Al, How's it going, it's been awhile?


QUOTE=brewmaster15;268827]Hi all,
Once long ago there lived a Discus Forum with a handful of members and everyone knew everyone else. It was a small close community, but in time, news of this wonderful place Spread thru out the cyber lands. Soon Pilgrims traveled bandwidth by bandwidth to this new place of Discus and friendship,and soon the small Discus forum turned into a giant mecca for Discus enthusiasts around the world.

Well thats the History of this site in abbreviated cyber nutshell and some of us Old timers here remember those days while we play checkers out on the porch of the Discus General Section. Not being one to dwell too much on the past, I like looking at the Present and future and at this time I would really like to hear about all of You.. Who are you, where are you from, whats in your tanks, and hows your family deal with all this hobby addict stuff, any thing you want to share (well almost anything..we have kids watching this forum):)

Basically when I log in , I hope to see a bunch of friends out there...makes things more fun in here... and so.. I am asking... Please introduce yourself if you're new here... or even if your an old timer and want to introduce yourself to the newer crowd. This is a good time for the lurkers to step up as well.

Let me introduce myself....
My name is Al Sabetta. I tend to make my presence known here as needed , but aside from being the sometimes Dreaded ... Chief Cook and bottle washer here, I live in Connecticut USA, and have a very,very, understanding wife. My wife Carrie and I have 2 very special children, Becky 4, ethan 2. Together these people are my heart, soul, and life.

I raise discus and other cichlids and have done so for what seems a lifetime... Other hobbies... I Brew beer and make wine (hence the screen), make salsa and free lancing in the Kitchen, I am an advanced amateur photographer, field biologist and lab researcher was my trade until a short time ago. I Breed and study many kinds of critters...reptiles, insects, carnivorous plants... and I teach science and nature workshops to children and teachers. I am an avid gardener and die hard Bird watcher... and I enjoy tinkering with computers... I recently started raising chickens for a little back yard eggs.

I am clueless when it comes to cars and sports...but I still try to understand them. Don't get me wrong..I love cars..the faster the better, I just won't claim to be able to work on it... and as for sports.. Fishing is about my speed..though I appreciate the worth of a good super bowl party regardless of whose in it.:)

I think thats probably more than enough info on me...

Anyone else feel like standing up and introducing yourselves?


-al[/QUOTE]

[eric tiu]

Hi to all discus lover,
iam Eric Tiu and i had been lurking in this site for quite sometimes now and this is only my 1st post.
iam from Philippines and been keeping discus successfully for quite sometimes now.
i had been to several famous discus farm all over the world and cant seems to get enough of it.
i learn a lot from the topics posted in this forum and hope to learn more and be able to meet some of our friends here in the near future.;)

[LostAcres]

Hi, here I am to a discus forum. Wanting to learn. I come from a horsey background, having raised german warmbloods and competing them. After a lifestyle change which involved having to move away from the horses, I got into Jack Russells (well they were always in my life), still own 6 of them, started a new registry www.bandedmountainterrier.com, and had many many champions from my bloodline. As far as fish go I bred Bettas for many years, so I am not new to fishkeeping. I started here in my little mountain paradise, with a small koipond, now graduated to 3 koiponds, the biggest being 2000 gallons with koi that are now 6 years old and thriving. All DIY. After getting out of Betta breeding, I always kept a fishtank in the house, but decided to add a new large tank, and while studying, zeroed in on Discus. GORGEOUS fish, and not easy from what I hear. Well I love a challenge, so I JUST started a new discus tank. I am reading and learning

[ashaysathe]

Hello All,

I am Ashay Sathe. The name is Ashay Sathe (pronounced Aa-Shay (as in the stadium)). My wife, Rashmi and 2 awesome boys: Aditya (6 yrs) and Areen (18 months) and I live in Middletown, CT.
I come from Statistics, Mathematics, Management background and am an Analyst by profession. Amongst many, keeping fish is my hobby. It is so much that even when I moved from India, it made through the transit and now on this forum its like "on steroids".
I have to say everybody on this forum can prefix "Simply Amazing" to themselves. The dedication and/or commitment that each has put in is Simply Amazing..
I hope to gain a lot being here and contribute as and when I am able.

We will be in touch.
Ashay

[bastalker]

So...When ya comin down ta visit? ;) :D

[ashaysathe]

At the very first opportune moment... Keep that "Lesco substrate" bag ready...:D

[target]

My name is Daniel. I live on British Columbia. I am 26 and have been married for almost 4 years now.

I work as a mechanical designer by trade for a rather large company sporting over 8000 employees and 30 offices worldwide.

Some of my interests include snowboarding, woodworking when I have the opportunity, and travelling when I can afford it. I also enjoy camping, playing football, and of course, maintaining fish tanks.

I have been keeping freshwater fish for around 14 years and have been fairly successful. I haven't gotten into breeding them, but have had mollies spawn in my tanks without any interference. Right now I have a 33 gallon tank that has been running for 7 years. In it are 2 tinfoil barbs (now over 8 inches long), 2 irridescent sharks (8 inches) a bala shark (7 inches), 2 rainbow sharks, a gold barb, an albino tiger barb, 2 lemon tetras, a serpae tetra, a rosy barb, 2 pakistani loaches, a gold gourami, 2 white skirt and 2 black skirt tetras, and my big guy, a pleco that I have had for 11 years, who is almost 12" long. A mis-mash of fish I know, but it seems to work.

I recently purchased a 46 gallon bowfront which is to be a discus tank. I am cycling it right now using 4 serpae tetras. I would appreciate any input you may have as this is my first try with discus.

Thanks

[sophie68]

Hi everybody,

I am Sophie, I joined this forum around March 2007 because the discus bug had bitten me! I have learnt SO MUCH about discus on this forum since then it's unreal!!!! Before that, I was into angelfish but I got tired of them because of the constant aggression. I am fairly new to fish keeping. Started with angelfish about 2 and a half years ago as a way to relieve stress from teaching French in a high school!!!! Unfortunately, at the beginning, I knew next to nothing. So I am ashamed to say I killed quite a few gorgeous angels (no QT!!!!).... Then I finally learned....I still have a few angels because the angels I have left kept breeding. Last September, I was able to get 30 tiny baby angelfish...
At first, I was not really into discus. It took me a while. But to me, discus are now so much more interesting. I now have one 80 gallon in my dining room as well as a 55 gallon (some koi angels and 3 stunted discus with a gold nugget pleco). I have way too many tanks (I also have a green phantom pleco in his own tank). I need to consolidate to make space.
I am 39 (time flies), I am from Aix en Provence (South of France) and have lived for a long time in the UK (where I want to go back). I live in the Philly suburbs. I currently teach French in a college and my hubby teaches English in a high school. And that's it! I would like to become a recording engineer because I have always been a music junkie.....But it all seems to be done by computers these days.....:mad:

This is a picture of me!

[johnett]

Hi I am Johnett and I just joined as I was researching about Discus. I have a 55 gal and have 2 discus and get 2 more very soon. I have learnedd a lot in the forms already. I live in NC my hubby found the discus we bought one that was at the pet store that another fish had bitten the top fin off and it was still pretty. I come home and research research about them. Thank goodness we got a tank that was seasoned from a friend as we put it in my daughter's 10 gallon for a couple days. I had saltwater a few years ago well moved across the states so I sold them. I have a few questions I will find the appropriate thread for them though ;)

[DiscusDude85]

Well i bought my first discus a little more than a year ago. I can remember being 9 years old going into a very high class fish shop in Boca Raton FL and seeing my first discus, They were wilds i knew i'd have them one day! And here i am. I bought my little turk from a lfs and he was in BAD shape. Horrible hex took me forever to get him back onto track! Now that discus is the boldest and biggest one i have he's the male of the tank!.Ive been keeping fish since i was a tiny tike all my family has really. After my wife and I got married the fish tank was the first thing to be setup. Now i have a baby boy on the way due sept 5th. Im hoping to be able to pass this fish addiction on to my son.Make him a little fish nerd like his daddy in no time! I have learned so incredi