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]

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!!

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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!)


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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!!!



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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

[GrillMaster]

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!

[GrillMaster]

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

[GrillMaster]

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 incredibly much from this website and i appreciate all of the help from these professional and knowledgable people who are ALWAYS willing to help!.
Discus fish are my escape from my horrid job, I'd love to teach over what i do lol. Im a land surveyor here in florida! That means i see swamp ALL the time! Not just see it but move through it! About 2 months ago i was in 6 foot of cypress swamp with moccasins and alligators pretty fun job. But it is the second oldest profession other than prostitution! So discus take my mind off of my swampy adventures lol!. I want to learn as much as i can about these fish. Ive got a confirmed pair who has made soooo many babies in my community tank. I'd love to start breeding and i plan on it very very soon.
This is one awesome hobby and discus are the centerpiece of my home. Everyone who sees my tank is BLOWN away. They cant imagine they arent saltwater!. Well it was good sharing with all of you.


Joe

[KimR]

My name is Kim (as it is in the avitar). I have been keeping fish on and off for about 8 years. 2 years ago I started back again with a 10gal community tank, and complained all the time I wanted a bigger one, so this past christmas (2007) my hubby surprised me with a new 72gal bow front, from there it just escilated & I now have 10 tanks. I have community tanks, discus tanks, shrimp tanks & cichlid tank. I never in a million years ever thought I would own discus, I saw them in the LFS but thought that I wouldn't ever have any. The discus that I have were all given to me, by a great guy (thank you). I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them, caring for them, and seeing their personalities. I have had lots of help from April and Cobaltblue (thank you) in understanding them and how to care for them.

I recently have now got a pair, and they have bred for me, to the point of wigglers, my whole family was in awe of it, as I was. I am hoping one day it will go farther then that. Its been quite exciting.

I am married (2nd marriage), we met online, with 3 kids (mine). We live in Maple Ridge, BC. My husband is a paramedic & a RN, & I work for a grocery store. Along with fish we have a dog, my oldest son has a cooter turtle, 4 gnoles & 1 lizard.

I have enjoyed this forum/site and have learned alot, & will continue to read thru the threads and learn. There is so much information here.

Kim

[happyniu]

Ok~ I will go next~
My name is Ally Ji. chinese, i have been here in the states since junior highschool. it's been a long time... married, no kids, with a special little girl(my dog, in the picture of my avatar.) that i brought from china 2 years ago.
when i was little my dad made a fish tank with old matel window frames. i used to think it was the biggest, coolest thing in the world!! i went back to china a couple of summers ago and found the old fish tank stashed in our storage, turns out it was only a 20Gal~ funny how it seemed like i could swim in it at the time~

the year i got married, when to the Los Angeles downtown district to buy cheap wedding stuff and found two boys smashing 2 little baby turtles. i paid the boys for the turtles and thats how i got started.. funny how 2 little turtles turned into 4 fish tanks and a koi pond in the back yard... :p LOL. (my hubby one day asked me: how did this happen?? LOL)

i got into discus because my dad never had the chance back in the 80's. he'd love to have some now but he'd rather get grandkids i think.. so i am keeping them. and~~~~~ one of the most important reason is the people here. the 5000+ people that are so passionate and knowledegable. people like Mr. Every one's favorate Kenny~~

so here's my store. sorry for my spelling and grammar and such~~ never was that good in school~~ mostly day dreamed about when i will grow up~~ :p

Ally

[GrillMaster]

Hi you guys an gals! Glad you decided to join the gang here at "SD". :D :D Some of you are new and others have been at it awhile. I hope that the vets will indulge the members that have questions, and also hope the new guys an gals will indulge the members that have answers.

Welcome aboard! Glad your with us! :)

[MikeF]

Hi my name is Mike and I live in Ohio. I have been a member for a few months, but have never posted any comments. I am 30 years old and have 4tanks set up currently. A 55, 75, 150, and 155 gallon fish tanks. Have a total of 20-22 discus. Wife hates the up keep, but enjoys looking at them. Good thing she does not know how much I spend on them!

[mikel]

Huan Yin to you Ally and Mike! I am Mike too. Great to have you two here. mike:)

[Finman57]

Hello,
My name is Pat. I live in Forest Hill Maryland with my wife and youngest son.
You will see me at the ACA and the OCA conventions along with the local ones here in MD.
I currently maintain 53 tanks of mostly African Cichlids but, Yes I have a few small Discus I am trying to raise up. For several years a friend of mine has been after me to keep discus again. He finally won. LOL

Don't know how often you will find me on here. I am on several forums but hope to learn from you guys.

thanks
Pat

[Fishworm]

hmmm......something about myself..... :D

well.... my name is Alex and I am a fishaholic. I am 32 years old, living my redneck dream in the backwoods of Missouri. I have always had an aquarium as long as I can remember. started out with the usual goldfish in a bowl when I was little and it went from there. I grew up in Westminster California. I lived there till I was 13, then my father got transferred to Texas. we lived just south of Houston, in Leagoe City. I went to grades 8-12 there, and a little college. when my Dad retired, they moved up here to Missouri. so after college didnt work out, I moved up here too. I started up here working for Pet Warehouse, a small chain of pet stores around the Springfeld area. I worked there as the "district fish specialist" (a title they came up with to justify giving me a raise and to keep me from quitting) for 3 years. got tired of the lack of appreciation and the crappy pay, so I became a truck driver. I have been driving a truck for almost 9 years now. I really like it, but I cant have too many fish because I am not home very much to take care of them. my Dad moved in with me about 7 years ago so he feeds them while I am on the road.

now I just spend all my time trucking, or messing with my gun collection. my friend got me into building AR15 rifles. I have 3 built and 3 in the process of being built. I also have a bunch of other rifles. my newest one is an Armalite AR50 .50BMG bolt action rifle. that thing is really fun. :D when I am not doing that, I still do a little with my HO scale model trains. I do some custom building from time to time. mostly Southern Pacific. the license plate on my pickup is SD45T-2 (a SP locomotive type) :D I also try and get out and go fishing whenever I can. I like to head back down to Texas and fish the gulf every chance I get. but it's been 2 years since I made it down there last. I love fishing in the ocean, you never know what you will hook into next. I also do some fly fishing and I carry a fishing pole with me in the truck at all times, just in case I find a good spot to wet a line.


when I am not doing that stuff, I mess with my fish. I have a 75 gallon reef tank with all kinds of corals and some fish. I have a 125 gallon tank with Tropheus and Petrochromis. those guys breed like mad and I always have a bunch of fry laying around. and now, I am setting up a 150 gallon discus tank. with the help here it should work out great.

[1Chuck9669]

Hello, Everyone!

My name is Chuck Scoggins and I reside in Pueblo, Colorado. You know, that place you write to get government publications. :)

I am 39 y.o., have a wonderful wife and one loving daughter. I have been keeping FW fish off and on for over 20 years. Back in 2006 I saw my first discus and immediately fell in love. I had a 60 gallon tank with an undergravel filter that had just finished cycling, so I decided to take the plunge. I got six discus. After they died I was afraid to try again, so I got some angels and started breeding for the LFS. Since I decided to continue my education, I decided to retire the breeding operation. I wanted to try discus again, so I got a 125 gallon aquarium. I only wish I had found this forum before I got the fish, but I'll make the best of it. I have learned so much over the last three weeks, and I will learn even more as time goes on with a little help from all my new friends here at Simply.

Looking forward to a successful future,

Chuck

[Sandy W]

I'm Sandy Walker from Massachusetts, new to discus, but not to fish. Had tanks as a kid and beyond, and when I married Jeff we ditched my 55 gal in favor of his 90 and 75 gals. We had great luck with a 90 community tank and a sting ray in the 75, but all the rain in New England increased the copper in our well water and both tanks went south. So now on to R/O and something new!
I'm senior laboratory manager and cell biologist in a biotech (part of a larger pharmaceutical firm) and spend my weekends judging AKC dog shows. My husband and I breed Bernese Mountain Dogs (as pictured), and I am also a plant fanatic. We also have a fish pond in the yard. It was instead of an engagement ring, and while less portable, is fa rmore interesting for me..
I'm hoping to get our first discus in the next month.
Sandy

[happygirl65]

Welcome! This has been a great resource for me with discus. :) Be sure to vosit the sponsors to get some great quality fish! ;)

[miasria]

hey all, my name is joanne and i live in kaufman, texas. i'm a fish lover and just got my discus a month ago. i have them in their own tank, which is a 55 gallon. they are with tetras and all seem to be doing well together. i put one of my plecos in there and have tried to catch the other algea eater.. caught one. still trying to catch the other. i've found that putting a net at the bottom of the tank and putting a wafer in there lures them. this little guy is smart.

[rowedder]

Hello Everyone,
My name is John Rowedder and have been a member since this year. his site is like a Discus dictionary, anything can be answered. It's a great place to browse and make new friends, while learning tricks of the trade. I have enjoyed keeping fish for as long as I can remember. I am currently in the Navy, have been for the last 17 years. Andy is currently spending most of his time tending to our numerous aquariums we own. I also remember the first fish I owned that was bought for me by my father and mother when I was in elementary school, it was a pair of fancy tail guppies. Ever since then I have owned fish of different sizes and colors. I ventured into Discus a few years ago with the understanding of challenge. I bought my first Discus and have had nothing but great luck and joy raising them. My partner Andy is now very involved as well with these special fish. I own my own three bedroom house located on Whidbey Island Washington in the city of Oak Harbor. I've lived here since 1997. I can pretty much do as I please and own as many tanks as I wish. I do own a lot of aquariums and discus. My collection includes ten 29 gallon, three 75 gallon, two 15 gallon, one 210 gallon, one 150 gallon and last but not really the last yet is my 45 gallon. Andy & I have over three hundred Discus in our home, we love every one of them!!! We both enjoy making there homes the best we can. We are dedicated everyday making these guys happy and keeping them healthy. I hope to get to know some members here on Simply Discus to share experiences with and to ask for & give advice advice if needed. Thanks to everyone! :)

[mikel]

wow...that's a lot of discus to keep up!!!! best of luck to you and yours! I am up to my gills with only 5 discus!!!! (though I do have dogs and birds too)Take care. mike

[fisharemyfriend]

hi my name is Kejan it is pronounced (key-an) i am from germany but now live in houston texas i love fish even though i am at the meager age of 15 everybody tells me that i am very mature for my age so i figured why dont i try to raise discus seeing as i have kept fish since i was 6(till about 12 years old my dad helped my ) but anyway my father used to raise discus back wen all you could get was wild caughts so i always have someone close at hand to help me with my fish even if he is an oldtimer lo :) i also have alot of experience raising other animals for example i have a show hog which i will be showing at the houston livestock show and rodeo. i love animals and think that if anybody hurts an animal they shoul;d have to go thru the same thing that the animal had to go thruogh so anyway just wanted to let people know who i am :)

[Joshcat]

Hello all...

We are Josh and Cathy Eisenman, the reason for the user name Joshcat:)

I (Cathy) have actually been an avid fish lover for as long as I can remember. My parents had fish aquariums when I was a child and I would lay in front of them for long durations of time just watching the fish swim.:angel:

When I was a young adult about 19 (40 now), a friend of mine worked for a local fish distribution center that sold fish to local retailers. She had aquariums everywhere in her house, all shapes, all sizes, both fresh and salt water.

She actually gave me my first aquarium, a 45 gallon and helped me to establish and populate the tank. That was "all she wrote" so to speak I have been addicted ever since.

I did take a break from aquariums for a few years due to a divorce and very demanding career, which left me unable to do the necessary maintenance and care my tanks needed. At one point I had a 120 gallon, 90 gallon, (4) 55 gallon, (4) 45 gallon, 29 gallon and my girls each had a small 10 and 15 gallon in their rooms.

When I met my wonderful husband Josh that I'm married to now, I'd share my love of aquariums with him. He took an interest in owning one, so I figured we'd keep it small and just buy a 29 gallon (lol). We now own the 29 gallon, a 55 and 56 gallon aquarium and are trying to purchase (4) 55 gallons we found online at a steal. So much for keeping it small.:D

We are actually novices at discus aquariums, and are very excited about the new 56 gallon discus tank we just started. We have been cycling it and it is up and ready to go with all the parameters being perfect. I ordered 8 juveniles online from somethingphishy and am awaiting their arrival Tuesday.

We searched the local aquarium stores to buy discus in our area, but quite frankly we were very disappointed at what we did find or didn't find.:fish:
So we are taking a gamble and hoping for the best.

It is live planted, with a piece of driftwood and we have an awesome Pro Clear wet/dry system for filtration in the tank 300 gph bio area.

Josh actually found this site and we are hoping to form relationships and get all the advice and help we can get from more experienced discus lovers. I feel fairly confident with my years of experience owning aquariums that we can pull this off successfully (and hopefully a little help from fellow discus lovers).

Eventually we would like to breed and transition to multiple discus tanks. As these creatures in my opinion are more beautiful than any other aquatic life.

We look forward to making friends with many of you and hope that this site aides us on our new venture. Josh and Cathy Eisenman

[bigfry]

Hi all, I am Herb from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I joined SD just last week. Ever since I had set up my 77g planted tank in Jan 2006, I had been wanting to add discus to that tank. Well it took me almost three years to finally take the plunge and get a group of altum floras from April. I picked them up earlier this month...and I regret not doing it sooner.

Oh, the planted tank has been turned from high tech into low tech two months before I put in the discus. I pulled out all the midground and background plants to make room for the fish; only the front left and right have some ferns and some plants.

Anyway, hope to learn more from you fellow members.
Cheers, Herb

[biochemgeek]

Hi everyone,

I'm Greg (47) from Winnebago, IL, USA and I just joined this forum a week ago. I've been keeping african cichlids for years and just two months ago set up a discus aquarium; my local pet store is a distributor for Discus Hans. I keep 5 discus and a school of rummy-nosed tetras in a 55 gallon tank with a large trickle filter. I work at a local biotech company and like chemistry and biochemistry (that's why I call myself "biochemgeek"). I'm having a lot of fun with the discus and I'm shocked at how fast they're growing and how healthy they appear - I was a little hesitant to try discus because of all that I've read. My wife thinks that I'm a little crazy because I like all things fish and aquariums - but, Ive noticed that she enjoys the discus a lot too (Malawi cichlids she's not so fond of).

Peace

[PARCS46]

Reposted from March 23rd 2003:

(The Dark Ages) as per your request, and for all in The Forum with similar backrounds:

Hoping this finds everyone in good spirits at our Nations time of strife. I am thinking of our young people at the front and my prayers go out for them. Although I am a Korean Veteran, I was lucky enough to have a good education for the time, and found myself in the USAF as an A&E (aircraft & engine) mechanic, Stationed at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL.

Before that I had a pretty normal childhood. I am the second oldest of twelve siblings. My beloved parents were hard working American Patriots whose ancestry is from Bonnie Wee Scotland. For my tenth birthday I received a 2-1/2 gal. tank and two goldfish, which turned out to be native carp. That is how it all started. By twelve years of age (1949), I had acquired two twenty longs, bought and paid for by running chores and part time work before and after school. It was no picnic trying to keep tropicals then, tanks for the most part were chrome framed with slate bottoms. Silicone cement had not invented so the glass was set into the chrome frames of the tanks with non-toxic putty. We preformed routine maintenance to keep the leaks to a minimum. I do not remember seeing power filters, or reliable heaters, although in-tank filters were as varied as the colors of the rainbow. The filter medium, as you may or may not remember was glass wool and charcoal, that was it! If you stuck with the carp(goldfish) you had no problems with the heating. Right here you have to remember who is paying for the G&E, certainly it was not I, and so a bargain was struck with Mother and Father as for surely I must have some Tropical Fish.

I was to have only one twenty long to be placed at the south of the house, relying on the warm sun of only three seasons, supplemented in the cooler evenings with a large diameter candle alight and safely placed under the slate on the bottom of the tank. Although this system was not perfect, I was not the only one employing same and enjoying tropical fish. I have never belonged to any organized club for the advancement of the wonderful hobby of Tropical Fish. There was a loacl pet shop in my neighborhood, were most of my knowledge at that time was gleaned. I must say it was a very solid foundation for the coming years, as the discipline, now that I am looking back was quite vigorus. There weren't too many problems with the tropicals from mid-April thruogh late October, when at that time, you traded in your tropicals at the same neighborhood pet shop for the goldfish and some extra goodies.

It remained that way untill I was to enlist in the USAF. After my discharge from the military and some ten years later, my first born son and I stopped at the local pet shop. Well I nearly fell down in pure amazement, the technology had taken a giant leap since my absence from the hobby. There were tropicals from the world over,and powered filters, small air pumps not the old belt driven piston type(I still have two of the latter in perfect working condition), more medication that we had at home in the medicine cabinet. A complete library of books and monthly mags, dealing with every known subject by every notable ichthylogist of the time. Every modern convenience and contraption that never existed before. Of course this was all for the pursuit of the hobby and hobbyist, be he novice or expert.

My son was six then, he is now 51, and it has been nonstop since that day we walked into that LPS, except for an occasional hiatus now and then, we all need a break at times. So here I am all set up again and growing out Red Leopard Discus with all seemingly as natural as can be expected, getting ready to breed and be in happy land once more. I surely enjoy sharing with anyone whose been there, but unlike most I've never kept records, with having the foresight to realize that things always change(except for the basics), someone constantly finds new ideas, new techniques and so I have developed a mechanism for baselinse information retention, it works for me, like I've said we are all in the learning curve, somewhere or other so just keep on trucking: Sincerely, PARCS46 (DiscusDevil)

Hey Al, I surely hope this is a final?

[VIOLIN33]

you all sound like a good bunch of people,even if we are getting old...

[dpt8]

welcome back Discus Devil.. !! Great to have you aboard..

[guille2007]

Hello all,

I am Guillermo from Havana(49), been in forum for more than a year and have learned a lot from all of yours, electrical engineer as profession have been related with tropical fish hobby since child starting with guppies, bettas and goldfish breeding. Because of hard professional job I was out the hobby for more than 15 years and about two years ago I came back now only with discus.

Thanks so much Al and all of yours for accept me in forum and take care of all my post, I really appreciate that.

Guillermo

[PARCS46]

Thanks for the Welcome Back dpt8, happy to be back here again, to enjoy all the great people in this forum ~ I really missed my time away! DD :wave:

[Larry208]

Hello everyone:

My name is Larry and I live in Connecticut and while I am new to Discus I have been raising fish for about 12 years. I too started out with guppies and platies then moved onto bigger fish. I have a breeding group of Frontosa`s and while they are young they are tring to spawn. I also have a Nano tank set up and am raising some platinum angels. But I have always loved Discus and was always afraid of tring them because of all the things that you hear about them as to their care and etc.
I recently visted Al`s and that was it I just had to have Discus. He has set me up with somw really nice starter fish and after almost two weeks and a 12 hour power outage they are doing very well. :):)

I have learned a lot from this fourum and am still looking to learn a lot more......

Thank You

Larry

[scolley]

Larry, there seems to be a growing number of discus people in CT. Welcome to Simply! Please keep your eye out for our Northeast Discus meetings. There'll be a thread started in a few months to announce the next one. Would love to have you!

[GrillMaster]

Hi ya Larry! Good ta see another neighbor on board!! :D :D

A's place is pretty contagious isn't it? ;) :D :D

[Diskboy12]

Well, I figured I would add my info as well. :]

The name is Kevin Bullis and currently am 16 years of age, but will be turning 17 on January 24th. I have been into fish ever since the 7th grade when we had to do a hydroponics experiment in shop class. I have been keeping fish for 5+ years now and still love it. I think I first got on this site when I was 14 and very unknowledgable. A kind man saw how desperate and willing to get some discus even though I had no money for them (and as we all know they aren't cheap :p) and so he sent me EVERYTHING I needed to setup my tank and drove all the way from Mass. To deliver me the discus he was giving me, free of charge. I was still young and inexperienced and so they perished slowly one by one :[. I am now more knowledgable and plan to jump back into the hobby of discus asap. As for other hobbies that I like to do I ride freestyle BMX, Skateboard, cook, bake, fish, hunt, swim on the swim team, play soccer, hike, explore, research reptiles & amphibeans, watch tv, make movies, and photograph. I am in the 11th grade and when I graduatenext year I will be attending SUNY ESF (ESF=Environmental Science & Forestry) I plan to become either a Herpetologist, Zoologist, or Ichtheologist.

Well, I hope that's all you need to know.
-Kevin

[hedut]

Hello all,
I"m Hendri (28) and I'm from Indonesia and I just move to states 3 yrs ago and I live in Boston MA and I'm pretty new to discus. but I start raising fish from I was 5 strated with gupipes,mollies ,gold fish,oscar, koi, guramie, betta and some Arowarna(asian). Last five year I was breeding flowerhorn. I have 50 gallon tank, 90 gallon tank and 20 gallon as my hospital quarantine tank. I currently I have 16 discus and 10 mix anglefish.
I never like discus before cause very complicated fish and I just start like them since I'm here and now I become addicted to them because their colour.
Hendri

[yiapas]

hello,

my name is John
I deal 6 years with discus
I live in Greece and as you know we have enough warm weather here
so no problem for my discus ...they enjoy it:D
my first fish was the king of aquariums and i dont have in mind to change it
i like the biotopic's aquariums with wild discus
but also I like the breeding-form discus of blue colours
we have also a forum in Greece which is only for discus(like simply discus)

[manatee]

Hi Im just a guy in Ohio , i have about 70 Discus.
Mostly what i do is change water.
Got to love it.

[discus_lover_dxb]

Hi All Discus Lovers

I m Gulzar aged 25 working in dubai.Actually from India.I m Crazy abt discus and have been raising them for quite a year in my home country India. soon i will be buying them.

I m really happy abt this forum as it gives lots of info but i wld like to ppl to add videos or pics of their discus collections.

Back to my good memories in india i had 2 discus tanks.I used to raise them in bare bottam tank first whn they r small then get them to my planted tanks where i had adult discus.It was really gud.

Now soon i will be raising the discus here.i m yet to buy.

Wish me luck.:)

[FLGirl1977]

I've been here a month or so but haven't done this yet so here it goes: My username reflects where I'm from and my age. I'm 31 and live in FL (for the past 25 yrs) and hoping to be moving soon somewhere where there are actually seasons! I lost my job back in Sept. which has slowed down my hobby a bit. Before that, I've been in fish keeping for 3 years.

My dream was to always have discus, but starting out... was rightfully encouraged to start out with something more 'hardy'. Thank goodness I did! ;) I started out with juvie Tangs and moved up to Malawi Haps in a 75 gallon. Eventually I traded in my haps for a nice school of 22 juvie tropheus (cherry spot bulu point) and kept those for a while.

I had 3 tanks at the time (40 gallon with misc. tangs; 75 gallon with Tropheus, 29 gallon, and 10 gallon Medicating tank). I traded my tropheus for a used 120 gallon that is currently sitting empty and traded everything in my 40 gallon a while ago. I currently have 3 discus in the 40 gallon, along with rummynoses and cardinals. I also decided to convert my 29 gallon to a breeding tank for N. Similis since they are not readily available to the public too often and have some fry now. :D

Having an empty 120 is the sadest part. I've been dying to fill it with water and fish, but with too uncertain of the future, I don't want to fill it until we get to where we're going. I am getting all the supplies for it now though, so I'll be ready when the time comes.

So that's a little about me, there's much more.... but that would be entirely too lengthy. :) Oh, other hobbies include exotic, rare and strange plants, my love for new music and anything to do with nature itself. :)

[Triadtropz]

hi Im 46 year old male. I bred discus for about five years, then I bought a tropical fish farm in florida, bred mostly angels and africans..I sold the farm to land speculators about 5 years ago..now im down to 3 tanks two 75's and a 55. 2 angels 1 discus...I would never mix them, angels carry parasites discus cant deal with...im probably going to convert the angel tanks into discus soon...Im a deadhead from way back..what a long strange trip it's been...Triad

[1077]

Hello All,
I am 52 years young and work for the local school district in maint. department. I am charged with operating two boilers and eighteen heat pumps in the administration building. I have loved fish since high school but got out of the hobby due to fifteen year stint as section hand on railroad crew. Have started keeping fish in earnst for the last three years and always wanted to try and provide for discus. I have five presently and thanks to this site and others I am learning more and more. I currently have five tanks with fish of all kinds and when im not working or cleaning tanks my favorite pastime is fishing (catch and release).

[brewmaster15]

Welcome to SimplyDiscus Everyone!
Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourselves here!:)

Hope the community here continues to help you out with your Discus questions and gives you a place to share your Discus Experiences!

Best Regards,
Al

[marchmaxima]

I also haven't done the formal intro yet, so here goes.

I'm 31 and have only been into the hobby 2 years. Someone dropped off a tank 3 years prior and asked me to mind it. After 3 years and no news, or contact, I decided to get into it. The first 12 months were rough. I didn't know anyone who had a tank and was a little wary of turning to the internet for help. After all, the internet is full of garbage and how was I supposed to know the wheat from the chaff?! So I kept going back to LFSs for help. Hundreds of chemicals, ammonia balls, medications and money later (and not a single mention of the word "cycle") I turned to the internet for help. Move forward another 12 months and I have a happy tank, I am a lot wiser (even though I have lots more to learn) and have become a total addict to the hobby.

I'm here because I'm setting up my dream tank. When I started 2 years ago I saw a planted discus tank and it was love at first sight. I am here to learn, and to contribute where I can.

In my other life, I am married, no kids, 2 cats and I'm an IT Project Manager. I'm also a proud nerd. *spins propeller*

Thanks for having me.

[Eddie]

Well, where to start....

I am 31 about to be 32. I have a lovely French wife, a 9 year old daughter from my first marriage and a beautiful 13 month old boy. He just got his first tooth and it's a FANG (Canine). So weird :)

I guess I'll begin with my childhood. It begin with my fathers love for aquarium fish. He tried to keep discus when I was about 7 or 8. We had a tank of brown discus and angelfish. We'd go to the fish store ang get live tubifex worms to feed the discus. The discus died off at a pretty fast rate, imagine that. (Live Tubifex)

Anyways, my dad just ended up keeping a tank full of different cichlids, like texas, firemouth, oscars and all kinds of others. My first love in aquarium fish were cichlids. I read this huge book about breeding cichlids, the book was twice the size of a telephone book! When I was like 9 years old I can remember buying some baby convict cichlids and plopping them in a fish bowl, yes a fish bowl. I had three of them and one died, well the 2 convicts grew and I saved enough money to get a 20 gallon tank for my dresser. I was so fascinated with how cichlids raised their babies and dreamt of having my convicts having babies. Anyways, I set the tank up as if they would breed, flower pot on it's side and everything. After a few months, I kind of thought maybe I didn't have a pair. One weekend the family went on a ski trip and when we returned, there was the female, guarding her eggs in the flower pot. Never been happier in my life, well....at least until I had my own babies. I ended up raising all the little ones in the 20 gallon and when thing was pretty busting at the seems with little convicts, I gave them to the LFS for store credit. I was so content having been so lucky. I never really got back into fish until my first marriage back in 1996. I don't know how I stumbled onto discus again, I think it was a book in the pet store. Anyways, I bought the book and started reading about keeping discus. It was like a challenge for me, since it seemed so hard to do. I figured, my dad couldn't do it, I bet I could. So I read all kinds of books, started looking around on the internet. I had my tank cycled with large number of guppies. Then I found a breeder in San Fransisco, Universal Discus was the place. Well had a bad turn out because the fish had missed their connecting flight. The next morning my discus arrived barely alive. The fish were so stressed and I think the guppies had flukes because my fish were destroyed for about 2 weeks. The breeder recommended formalin and I hit em with that for a bit and did huge WCs. the fish recovered and they thrived well in my tank. I got divorced and kind of divorced discus too.

Then in 2004, had alot of time on my hands and plenty of water, I was living in the Azores Portugal. I saw some decent discus at the LFS and decided to try them again. Thats when I found simply and they were the biggest help ever, the team is amazing. I ended up with three 29 gallon tanks with about 6 discus in each. I always wished I could get a bigger tank but the 29 was the biggest avail to me there in Portugal. In 2005 I moved to the UK and didn't keep any fish. I met my current wife and we were married in the summer of 2007 and we had our son that winter. We moved to Okinawa almost a year ago. I thought of getting 55 gallon fish tank and what better fish than some discus. I wanted to get adults because I remember the heavy feeding and WCs I was doing with my youngins in the past. Here in Okinawa the discus are like house payments so it's not worth buying adults. They are not looking nice either except the wilds. Well one day we went to the hardware store of all places and they had some lovely 3 in discus really cheap. I bought them and I have been raising them ever since. I added 3 heckels, 3 BDs, 2 leopards and a flamingo in the past 3 months. My original discus are about 5 inches now and I have added another 55 gallon, three 29 gallons, one 10 and 2 five gallon tanks. I am looking to expand also. I would love to get some discus from Forrest in Malaysia if I can and that will be a whole other chapter in my life in keeping the undisputed king of the aquarium, the discus.

Et Viola
Eddie

[mkkessel]

Hello all. My name's Michael Kessel from South Carolina. First, I'd like to congratulate and thank everyone involved with this forum. My first go-round with Discus was pre-Internet, and the information available wasn't always the most helpful. The availability of information should have a great effect on my upcoming project(s).

Due to lifestyle and career changes my prior involvement with keeping and breeding discus were cut short three times without gaining the full satisfaction I know is possible. This time around I have a very stable situation, and can pre-plan my activities without any undo rushing to get things accomplished, thereby circumventing all the past mea culpas that I found both disappointing and costly.

My ultimate goal is to have a meditation room dominated with discus fish. I plan on having one planted show tank and probably eight 20G tanks for either breeding or growing out smaller fish. I have an alcove in my garage that will be walled off that has running water and an industrial sink basin in place already. I learned early on that convenience and proper space planning is key to ongoing maintenance. Well, ease of ongoing maintenance.

In any case, it's way too early to be thinking about fish, but the journey will be half the fun. Construction and plumbing work first, drilling and setting tanks, lighting and electric, RO unit, heaters, filters, an so on. I anticipate a year to have water in the tanks and ready for fish, and a lot of time here researching best practices.

So thanks in advance to everyone that helps along the way.

[Discus_Dezign]

Hi my name is John and I'm 28 and from Oregon. I got into aquariums 6 years ago. I started with the mollies, danios, gouramies, and ect. I didn't get into discus till 3 years later and been enjoying them ever since. I have gone through a lot discus since from raising then trading off to local stores. I stopped for awhile when I was finishing up school:computer: but now I'm back:drummer:. I can't wait till I can get my fish room up and start collecting and breeding these beauties. :):thumbsup:

[Jules4me]

My name is Julie. I live in Virginia...born and raised. Laughter is my favorite thing...I have "Peter Pan Syndrome" and no intention of getting rid of it!!:p No kids, two dogs, three cats and many fish. I have more hobbies than one person should, an aquarium hobbyist for #$% years and LOVE it!! I have tried all kinds of fish and my love of the angels and discus have proven to be my FAVORITES. Currently, I have three tanks and one very large garden pond that houses fancy goldfish, oranda's and a frog or ten!! I was looking online for some beautiful Discus to purchase and I found this forum. So....here I am. Very eager to learn anything new and maybe share something that helps someone else.

[Eddie]

My name is Julie. I live in Virginia...born and raised. Laughter is my favorite thing...I have "Peter Pan Syndrome" and no intention of getting rid of it!!:p No kids, two dogs, three cats and many fish. I have more hobbies than one person should, an aquarium hobbyist for #$% years and LOVE it!! I have tried all kinds of fish and my love of the angels and discus have proven to be my FAVORITES. Currently, I have three tanks and one very large garden pond that houses fancy goldfish, oranda's and a frog or ten!! I was looking online for some beautiful Discus to purchase and I found this forum. So....here I am. Very eager to learn anything new and maybe share something that helps someone else.

Welcome Julie! Check out the sponsors for quality discus and read as much as you can on their care.

Graham can give you lots of help with fancy goldfish.....right Graham! :D

Eddie

[frenchie100]

Hi, my name is Julie and 29 years old. My username describes where I am from but have been living in southern California for 11 years when I came here for college. Got stuck here when I met my husband 8 years ago. I love it here. When I was 19 years old I got a pitbull to "protect" me when I lived in a bad neighborhood. She is my first baby and now is surrounded with other pets. We also have 2 cats, a turtle ( in a pond with goldfish), an iguana and a 100 gallon community tank that houses 2 discus since the end of november or early december. My husband has a 46 gallon tank with four fancy goldfish in it, which include 1 ryukin and 3 orandas. That's his hobby and all his fish have names!!

I have been keeping tropical fish for about 7 years and have enjoyed every minute of it. In high school I had convinced the principal of my boarding school to let me have a 20 gallon fish tank with goldfish in my dorm room, when all animals were strictly prohibited. SO I guess fish keeping has been going on for a long time.

I had always been too scared to take on the discus world but decided to jump in when I went to my neighbor's house and he had just gotten some and explained how easy it was to care for them. So I got my own 2, and THEN started researching it for myself... Thank goodness I found Simply Discus. Easy isn't the word I would use now that I know more, but have fallen in love with these guys! I have a shipment coming in from Kenny on Tuesday!:D:D:D

I also have 2 children: my daughter is 3.5 years old and my son is 18 months old. They are my world and they have taught me patience! I am a stay-at-home-mom so my days are really busy with the kids, but as soon as they go down for their nap, it my time, but lately it has been discus time.

Okay, think that's enough!:p;)

[joenaustin04]

I haven't logged into SimplyDiscus in almost 2 years! I can't believe it has been that long. I have relocated from Austin, Texas to Seoul, South Korea. I have been a discus fan and avid fish keeper most of my life (35 years). I am going bonkers as of late due to culture shock from the move to Seoul and because I haven't had a tank to vegetate in front of for over a year. Does anyone know of a discus breeder in Korea? I am having trouble finding pet shops here, let alone a discus breeder. Any assistance would be appreciated...

Joseph

[plchacker]

Hello All,

My name is Robert, I have a wonderful wife and four children, all are priceless to me. I now teach Instrumentation, control and robotics at a local community college. I was a controls electrician for twenty+ years.

I've been working with aquaria for 35 years or so. I've never tried salt, and have kept a wide variety of fresh water fish. The one fish I have always wanted to keep, and never have is the Discus Fish. So I am about to start that adventure.

Its nice to meet you all.

[shawnhu]

Hi everyone, name's Shawn. I've been out of the hobby of fish-keeping for some time now, and just decided to jump back in as of late. I used to have guppies, and an Oscar back then. I can remember fish as far back as grade school, as my principle had 2 large tanks, with one Oscar in each. It had floating plants, and guppies inside.

I have been learning a lot about the new ways of fish-keeping, and the many modern techniques to go about in making things easier for the fish, and for the keeper. And with the advent of the Internet(yes, it's been that long) there's more information than ever about keeping your fish safe and healthy. That's when I stumbled on this forum, and have been reading ever since.

Just like the new car bug, the Discus Bug bit, and it bit me hard. I now have 10 Discus to care for, and learning fast on how to care for them, and prevent and treat illnesses. This forum has been a huge contribution to Discus keeping.

I'll see you all around.

Shawn

[Scribbles]

Hi, my name is Chris and I live in the Seattle area. I have had aquariums for about 25 years more or less. When I was a kid I always had a betta or one of those poor dimestore goldfish. I have kept most types of freshwater fish and took care of both fresh and saltwater fish when I worked at a lfs. I currently have a planted tank with cardinal tetras and am expecting a delivery of discus shortly. I have had discus in this tank before but, due to remodeling and a "bad batch" I got at the local lfs I have sadly been without any discus for six months or so.

I used to teach horseback riding and train horses. However, a medical condition left me nearly blind. Now I have plenty of time to spend with my fish, cockatiels, and dog.

This is my first computer and I am new to the internet so sorry in advance for my misstakes. I am looking forward to learning even more about discus through this forum and getting knowledgeable help when needed. Thanks .

[rickztahone]

Hello All,

My name is Robert, I have a wonderful wife and four children, all are priceless to me. I now teach Instrumentation, control and robotics at a local community college. I was a controls electrician for twenty+ years.

I've been working with aquaria for 35 years or so. I've never tried salt, and have kept a wide variety of fresh water fish. The one fish I have always wanted to keep, and never have is the Discus Fish. So I am about to start that adventure.

Its nice to meet you all.


Hi everyone, name's Shawn. I've been out of the hobby of fish-keeping for some time now, and just decided to jump back in as of late. I used to have guppies, and an Oscar back then. I can remember fish as far back as grade school, as my principle had 2 large tanks, with one Oscar in each. It had floating plants, and guppies inside.

I have been learning a lot about the new ways of fish-keeping, and the many modern techniques to go about in making things easier for the fish, and for the keeper. And with the advent of the Internet(yes, it's been that long) there's more information than ever about keeping your fish safe and healthy. That's when I stumbled on this forum, and have been reading ever since.

Just like the new car bug, the Discus Bug bit, and it bit me hard. I now have 10 Discus to care for, and learning fast on how to care for them, and prevent and treat illnesses. This forum has been a huge contribution to Discus keeping.

I'll see you all around.

Shawn


Hi, my name is Chris and I live in the Seattle area. I have had aquariums for about 25 years more or less. When I was a kid I always had a betta or one of those poor dimestore goldfish. I have kept most types of freshwater fish and took care of both fresh and saltwater fish when I worked at a lfs. I currently have a planted tank with cardinal tetras and am expecting a delivery of discus shortly. I have had discus in this tank before but, due to remodeling and a "bad batch" I got at the local lfs I have sadly been without any discus for six months or so.

I used to teach horseback riding and train horses. However, a medical condition left me nearly blind. Now I have plenty of time to spend with my fish, cockatiels, and dog.

This is my first computer and I am new to the internet so sorry in advance for my misstakes. I am looking forward to learning even more about discus through this forum and getting knowledgeable help when needed. Thanks .

welcome to all 3 from SimplyDiscus

[skelly63]

Hi gang! My name is Sean Kelly, and I've lived in Kansas City, MO for about 20 years now. I've got three kids (21, 22, and 25 as of this writing). My daughter, the youngest, is married and living on Oahu and the boys are local.

I've always kept fish, but have recently re-entered the world of Discus. My 110 acrylic was housing my last four big synspilum ("red-headed cichlids", to some) but tragedy befell the tank while I was on vacation in September. It sat empty for a few months, but I couldn't have that so I ventured out to a good ole LFS and stocked it up with a community of angels/tetras/rams/loaches/cats. While I was browsing at said LFS, I came across some REALLY nice young discus. I'm no expert, but I recognized them as superior to what I'd seen in any local stores for a long time, and subsquently bartered away my boa constrictor for a half-dozen of them.

I came to find out, through SimplyDiscus, that the fish originated with Jack Taylor (Discus_KC on this board) and on Superbowl day I was lucky enough to get a tour of Jack's famous fish room. I had no intention of taking anything home that day, but ended up scoring 3 fish anyway, and Jack was more than fair with me.

I've been poking around on the board pretty much every day, and have been very impressed with the sense of community and friendliness here. I did discus about 15 years ago and even had some spawns out of my red turqs back then, but didn't have a community to share that accomplishment with at the time. Looking forward to growing these youngsters up and seeing what happens with them!

I've just set up a few more tanks and am planning to stock up a bit more in the not-too-distant future. Your pictures, experiences, and advice are all very much appreciated! Thank you!

[wilson]

Hello Everyone,

Not sure this is right place to post....but my son and myself were really sad today....we have been keeping discus for 3-4 years and been sucessful since day one. This morning we woke up early and found that water was gone and all beautiful fish died, due to a leak at the tank bottow which was purchased within 2 months during last Christmas sale at Big Al to upgrade our 55 gallon tank that was the home for discuss for 2 years. My son posted all pictures on the link below (see P.1 and 2; you may need to cut and paste on the web):

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2801341#post2801341

We start losing confidence in keeping fish...probably should try "dry" animals in future!

Wilson

[fishyj]

Hi all, My name is Jim, I go by fishyj on this site. I am married with 4 kids ranging from 21 to 28. I have been keeping fish for 30 years. I kept everything from guppies to saltwater tanks. I never have kept discus, but always wanted to. Besides keeping fish, other hobbies are golf. My last tank a 125 was an african tank which was very sucessful. I am in the process of converting to discus. May have to wait a couple more months to get fish due to our daughter getting married. If you think this hobby is exspensive try a wedding!!!(lol) Take care all and hope to talk to you soon.

PS. Wilson sorry to hear about your tank leak and loss of fish. Don't give up.

[Moon]

Hello Everyone,

Not sure this is right place to post....but my son and myself were really sad today....we have been keeping discus for 3-4 years and been sucessful since day one. This morning we woke up early and found that water was gone and all beautiful fish died, due to a leak at the tank bottow which was purchased within 2 months during last Christmas sale at Big Al to upgrade our 55 gallon tank that was the home for discuss for 2 years. My son posted all pictures on the link below (see P.1 and 2; you may need to cut and paste on the web):

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2801341#post2801341

We start losing confidence in keeping fish...probably should try "dry" animals in future!

Wilson

I am sorry to hear about your loss. I've been through a similar loss. Many years ago I was keeping some Synodontis Angelicus. These are Tanganikan catfish. I got six of these beauties as young fish and raised them up over a period of five years to a size of about 10". These were in a 125g tank with rocks and driftwood. These had never been bred in captivity at that time and I was hoping to have them spawn. One day came home from work, one of the corner seams of the tank had opened up and drained all the water. All of the fish were dead. I was so upset and depressed that I gave up the hobby for 5 years. But then now I am back into it big time with discus.
So my advice is to get right back into it and give it another try.
Good luck
Joe

[Chad Hughes]

Well, I guess I'll pitch in as well.

My name is Chad and I live in San Diego, CA. I have kept aquariums since I was 6 years old. When I was in high school I started an aquarium cleaning service with the help of my grandfather. He was a realestate agent, so in no time I had a slew of contacts and customers! He used to run me all over town in he afternoons to clean the tanks of the customers he got me. When I left high school to attend college I quit keeping fish and abondoned the business.

Well, my softmore year of college the bug hit again. I was doing really well with school and work and had some extra cash, so I went bigger than I had ever gone and bought a 180 gallon tank, set up a marine tank and had a 2foot nurse shark in it until I graduated. Naturally, my house was the coolest with the big tank and a shark! LOL!

After college I, once again, shut down the aquarium and joined the U.S. Navy and toured four about 7 years. Most of my time was spent in Japan and San Diego, CA. After the Navy, I began a job as an electrical engineer in San Diego, CA. Since that time I also spent 2 years in Iraq working with the Navy, Army and Marine Corps. It was a proud time for me working with all those sailors, soldiers and marines. Iraq is a god for saken place, especially where most of the US troops are. I spent those two years between Mosul, Tikrit and Balad. I traveled all over the Middle East, Asia and Europe. It was good to return home.

Once back in San Diego I met my partner Jesse and I began to revisit my love for aquaculture. We set up our first 110 gallon tank in the living room, planted it heavily and added some community fish. The tank was so big that you could see it from the street, especially at night. Neighbors would knock on the door to check it out. I made a lot of friends that way, but sometimes it felt like we were the public aquarium. None the less, we loved it!

One day while on craigs list, I ran a search for aquariums. I had no idea how cheaply you could score great aquariums on that site! Jesse is an incredibly understanding spouse and supports everything that I love! So, my first purchase found on craigslist was from a guy that had to leave town quick. I didn't care why and immediately bought his 150 gallon with stand, canopy, filter, lighting, you name it... for $300. This monster sat in my back yard for a few weeks while I prepared it for resealing. Once it was good to go, I planted it heavily and started stocking with discus.

Today we have 16 adult discus in that tank. Spawning has gotten so frequent that we are building on our property to start making space for a new fish room. I hope to have it completed this summer and hopefully start filling it with tanks and discus then. We are slowly developing our hobby of discus keeping in to discus breeding. It's been a lot of fun and we have had excellent success!

I learned about SD late in the game. I had no idea what a great source of information and experience was out there. I read things on this site that I would have probably never been aware of, especially the disease section. I had no idea that discus could have such complex problems. I have been one of the lucky (few apparently) people that have not had to deal with any disease, but I'm glad I have you all to come to if and when I do. You're like my extended discus loving family!

Thank you guys and gals!

[Eddie]

Nice to meet everyone!

Good luck with the fish room Chad. I've been to Balad, 97 days of it.....yuck, don't ever want to got back. Glad you have alot of things going for you and your spouse.

Best of luck with the fishes!

Eddie

[Chad Hughes]

Nice to meet everyone!

Good luck with the fish room Chad. I've been to Balad, 97 days of it.....yuck, don't ever want to got back. Glad you have alot of things going for you and your spouse.

Best of luck with the fishes!

Eddie

Eddie,

Balad was OK. I think Tikrit was worse. Then there's Mosul, but that's a different post in a different forum. LOL! Thank you for the well whishes. I wish you the same with you and your family. Stay safe!

[koushik_man]

Hi,
I'm Koushik, 28 Years, and very much new to this forum :). I have 6 Discus in a 230 Ltr Hexagon aquarium.

[Eddie]

Welcome! And best of luck with your discus and hope you find everything you like in this site.

Eddie

[BABYJIZAY]

Hello all. My name is Jamie. I've been a silent member for a while but I figure now is as good a time as any to come out the shell and say hi. I have been keeping discus for about 3 years and learn something new every day. The love of discus is definitely a gift and a curse. I live in NYC and call my fish my kids. Seems they are probably about as expensive to keep lol... I have found so much information on these forums and only buy discus from sponsors of the site. I really appreciate the work you all do as moderators as well as members. Very insightful.

Thanks.

[Chad Hughes]

Welcome! How's the weatherin NYC?

[Goki27]

Hello Forum,

My name is Favian I was born and raised in Ceiba Puerto Rico. I came to the states in 2000 "military brat" I been in the fish hobby since i was 7, I remember the first fish tank my parents bought me, I was so excited I fainted lol.. anyways, I now Live in Tampa Florida, I've had fresh water, salt water, reef. I've moved so many times that I'm finally stable now with job and school. I keep a 20 gal planted with rams and cardinals and is my stress relief therapy on those hard study days lol. I'm looking foward on keeping discus! I be getting my tank this coming month and I pretty much have answer a lot of my questions in this awesome forum!!!!!!!!!
Thank you guys this is a great site! specially for newbies like myself in this addicting hobby
:D

[Chad Hughes]

Hey Favian!

GRat to have you here! Learn all you can!

Best wishes.

[Goki27]

Thanks Chad!

[pkumar]

Hello all,

I'm Prashanth. I live in Southern California. I have kept various freshwater aquaria since childhood. There has been a lapse during college and grad school. Now have entered this new challege of caring for Discus, and has been somewhat of a rollercoaster experience over the previous 2 months. I schedule my day around feeding and waterchanges! My wife certainly was surprised that I have started to come home for lunch all of a sudden. My fish are in 55g currently. Awaiting shipment of 180g display tank. Goal will be low light, planted display. We'll see how things go. Outside fishkeeping, I work as a kidney doc. Just had my second child one month ago. (My wife says that I spend more time with my fish, but has been very understanding about my passion). Many friendly people here. Have been lurking for a couple of weeks, soaking in information. Finally gathering up the nerve to start some threads of my own with questions.

- Prashanth

[Chad Hughes]

Prashanth,

Welcome to SD! What area of Southern California are you in? Best of luck with your new display tank!

Best Wishes!

[pkumar]

Hi Chad, I live in Apple Valley. Moved out here for work last summer. Lived in Michigan and Ohio for 20+ years, and still getting used the the "desert". I've learned a lot from your posts here and at AC. Nice to meet you. Sincerely,
Prashanth

[Chad Hughes]

Prashanth,

It does take a bit of getting used to, doesn't it?

I too lived in Ohio and finished college in Toledo Ohio.

Good to have you here!

Best wishes.

[adamsite]

My name is Adam, I live in Sacramento, CA. I've been an aquarist for well over a dozen years and had mainly African cichlids the whole time. I got into Discus about a year ago in my 46g bow front. They are absolutely beautiful and have made me an more devout aquarist...'ve been known to neglect my cichlids in the past...but always had an above average survival rate. I got into Discus for the challenge and beauty and don't see myself going back anytime soon! Next up is probably a larger tank...if my wife allows it in our tiny home!

[Chad Hughes]

Welcome Adam!

I just replied to your other "filtration" post.

Have fun on here and learn lots!

Best wishes!

[DaveZ.]

Well I am Dave and I have kept discus back int the dark ages before snake skins and blue diamonds for that matter when pigeon bloods were the wildest and most contraversial species.I used to Breed and sell some of the offspring when I sold out everything in 1999.But I have had salt water for awhile But my love of discus is always there.I keep pondering getting some 55 gallon tanks and buying some discus and see what happens.......I have to convince the wife:argue:

[DaveZ.]

Well I am Dave and I have kept discus back int the dark ages before snake skins and blue diamonds for that matter when pigeon bloods were the wildest and most contraversial speciesthat you could get.I used to Breed and sell some of the offspring when I sold out everything in 1999.But I have had salt water for awhile But my love of discus is always there.I keep pondering getting some 55 gallon tanks and buying some discus and see what happens.......I have to convince the wife:argue:

[rickztahone]

Hello Forum,

My name is Favian I was born and raised in Ceiba Puerto Rico. I came to the states in 2000 "military brat" I been in the fish hobby since i was 7, I remember the first fish tank my parents bought me, I was so excited I fainted lol.. anyways, I now Live in Tampa Florida, I've had fresh water, salt water, reef. I've moved so many times that I'm finally stable now with job and school. I keep a 20 gal planted with rams and cardinals and is my stress relief therapy on those hard study days lol. I'm looking foward on keeping discus! I be getting my tank this coming month and I pretty much have answer a lot of my questions in this awesome forum!!!!!!!!!
Thank you guys this is a great site! specially for newbies like myself in this addicting hobby
:D

hello Favian and welcome. the best thing you can do on this site is read, read, and then read some more. ask questions when you do not understand something fully and you will do fine. once again, welcome.


Hello all,

I'm Prashanth. I live in Southern California. I have kept various freshwater aquaria since childhood. There has been a lapse during college and grad school. Now have entered this new challege of caring for Discus, and has been somewhat of a rollercoaster experience over the previous 2 months. I schedule my day around feeding and waterchanges! My wife certainly was surprised that I have started to come home for lunch all of a sudden. My fish are in 55g currently. Awaiting shipment of 180g display tank. Goal will be low light, planted display. We'll see how things go. Outside fishkeeping, I work as a kidney doc. Just had my second child one month ago. (My wife says that I spend more time with my fish, but has been very understanding about my passion). Many friendly people here. Have been lurking for a couple of weeks, soaking in information. Finally gathering up the nerve to start some threads of my own with questions.

- Prashanth

welcome Prashanth. i'm also in SoCal and you are more than welcome to come on by and we can chat discus or we can go over what you plan on doing with that huge 180 :D. i live in Reseda


My name is Adam, I live in Sacramento, CA. I've been an aquarist for well over a dozen years and had mainly African cichlids the whole time. I got into Discus about a year ago in my 46g bow front. They are absolutely beautiful and have made me an more devout aquarist...'ve been known to neglect my cichlids in the past...but always had an above average survival rate. I got into Discus for the challenge and beauty and don't see myself going back anytime soon! Next up is probably a larger tank...if my wife allows it in our tiny home!

hello Adam, welcome to SD.


Well I am Dave and I have kept discus back int the dark ages before snake skins and blue diamonds for that matter when pigeon bloods were the wildest and most contraversial species.I used to Breed and sell some of the offspring when I sold out everything in 1999.But I have had salt water for awhile But my love of discus is always there.I keep pondering getting some 55 gallon tanks and buying some discus and see what happens.......I have to convince the wife:argue:

welcome back to the most addicting hobby in existence ;). it's great to have someone from back when discus were not easily attained.

[callen]

Hello.

I'm new to this forum, but not new to keeping fish. My wife introduced me to the aquarium hobby while we were dating, back in the previous millennium. While we were still dating we got into discus with a Brown and a Heckel in a 44 flat back hex. Didn't know anything about RO/DI back then, or any of the other stuff that goes with keeping discus, we just tried to keep them alive. At one point while we were out my (now wife)'s apartment was robbed. The discus saw everything. Unfortunately we don't speak Portuguese...;) so we never did find out who did it.

After we got married and moved north to a suburb we tried several times to keep discus... without much success. Water is very hard up here ('liquid concrete') Once we got a beautiful large pair of PB's at a LFS... We brought them home and put them in our brand new 54 Bowfront. They were the first Discus we'd seen that seemed to actually like our water. I had heard good things about live food. I rushed out and bought some live brine shrimp and fed it all to my beautiful new fish in a big pink cloud. The next day they were both dead... impacted gut, as I later learned.

Eventually our water inclined me to get into African Cichlids, which I have had fun with and which as culminated in owning the beautiful Polleni Madagascar Cichlid, my favorite fish (besides Discus. Don't ask me to choose.) But my wife never had much interest in cichlids apart from Discus.

Now we are at it again and are really serious this time. We have converted our 125g show tank (lately an African tank) to Discus. We bought three Discus (4.5" Heckel, 3.5" PB and 3" BT) at a LFS and invested in an RO/DI system, so we have total control over the chemistry situation now. The discus share the tank with 8 marbled hatchets, 7 Pristellas, and 10 Rummynose Tetras, as well as 4 German Rams (1 pair) an Apistogramma Ortmanni and a bushynose pleco.

We've had the discus about a week now and they are all doing well. The Blue Turquoise is a little stunted looking and not 'perfect', but my daughter Faith really wanted him and so we bought him. He has been eating like crazy, so I'm hoping he'll grow into a handsome fish. The big Heckel is definitely the boss of the tank. He's a little dark, but I believe this is because the gravel and part of the backing of the tank are black. He eats great and is quite active, and also is not afraid of people.

My wife is a music teacher and professional musician. I am a composer, producer and performing musician. I also like ship modeling as a hobby, and before you ask- no, I don't put the finished models in the aquariums:antlers:
I've only made one post prior to this one, but really like this forum. I am interested in finding out more about Discus and growing my fish out to their maximum potential.

[DaveZ.]

hey is there anyone form the philadelphia area out here in discus land?let me know.
Thanks DAve

[acroken]

Hey Dave,
I live in Wynnewood pa. Suburbs of Philly. How about you?


Kenny,

[DaveZ.]

Hey Kenny I live in Northeast Philadelphia.Right off 95.How many discus do you keep.Do you breed or just keep a tank full of them sort to speak.
Let me know.It would be great to have a discus buddy in the area.
DAve

[thebigone]

Want to welcome every who hasn't been here long. This is a great site with great sponsors and very knowledgeable people. Enjoy yourself.

I am from South Carolina and have learned a lot about discus from this site. I have a wife and 2 year old daughter. When I am not working I am taking care of my discus and chatting with all the great people here at Simply!

[acroken]

Hi Dave,
Welcome to SD. Great to see you are getting back in the discus hobby. You are welcome anytime to come and see my discus set up. I have been keeping discus since the late 80's and at the moment I have about 14 tanks going, which changes almost on a daily basis:D. I selectively breed to develop fish I like. I almost always have babies around. Hope to hear from you.

Kenny

[Moon]

Now we are at it again and are really serious this time. We have converted our 125g show tank (lately an African tank) to Discus. We bought three Discus (4.5" Heckel, 3.5" PB and 3" BT) at a LFS and invested in an RO/DI system, so we have total control over the chemistry situation now. The discus share the tank with 8 marbled hatchets, 7 Pristellas, and 10 Rummynose Tetras, as well as 4 German Rams (1 pair) an Apistogramma Ortmanni and a bushynose pleco.
Callen
Let me welcome you to SD. This is a great site to learn all about keeping discus. There is no need to have RO water to keep discus. I grow out all of my discus including Heckels in rock hard water. I have well water and it is rock hard. I too used to keep African chiclids. I do use RO water for breeding purposes. Both the general and carbonate hardness has to be low for the eggs to hatch. Discus can live quite happily and grow in hard water as long as it is clean and stable.
Good luck with your discus.
Joe

[jimtony63]

My name is Jim Anthony and I live in Denver, CO. I'm 45 and live with my partner of 5 years in downtown Denver. I had two West Highland White Terriers in addition to all my fish. I've had aquariums since I was 12 years old, have always loved them. I used to stop in the local fish store after school every day to see what they had. I've had angels and an Amazon community tank for many years. I tried discus about 12 years ago without much success and I gave up. I recently decided to give it another try. I started with reading all I could about them. I now have two discus tanks, a 40g and a 50g, both are planted with Amazon Swords and have several pieces of wood. I'm doing two 30% water changes per week and using about 80% RO water. My ph stays at about 6.4 and I keep the temp right around 84. The tap water is fairly hard here so its difficult to get the ph down here unless you use RO water, at least that's what I've found. All the discus seem to be doing quite well so far. They eat voraciously and swim around a lot, their fins are fully extended and their eyes look good - so so far so good. I do have one fish that seems to be very shy, he/she stays in a hollowed cave area on a piece of wood almost all the time and only comes out for a couple bites of food when I feed them. Do you think he's sick or just extra shy? When he does come out he looks fine, no obvious signs of disease. I was glad to find this forum and other folks who are as into their fish as I am.

[cyberhog05]

Well here I go. My name is Jarred I am 30 soon to be 31 and I am from Missoula Mt. I have an 8yr old daughter 3 cats, 2 dogs 4 tanks and one of the most understanding fiance's in the world. I like most on here have been into aquariums for a long time. The first water critter I had was a fire newt I kept in a gold fish bowl. I was 6 I think. It didnt last long:(. After that ordeal I got my first tank well my folks got a tank and I learned how to take care of it. When I hit about 10 I guess I got my own tank. It was a gold fish tank that I cared for for several years. Well that tapped out my interest and I got into reptiles until I was 16. I had an 11' Burmese python in a cage I built that was 3' tall and the size of a queen bed. Yes my bed was on top of the cage. I ended up having to get rid of the snake due to my mother getting a mini Dachshund and the snake got out while I was at school and apparently tried to eat my moms dog. Then When I came home to put him in the cage it tried several times to bite me soooo off to the pet store for some in store credit. I ended up seeing a 135 gallon I had to have and the credit wasnt enough so I got a job working under the table at the LFS to get the tank I wanted. I stocked it with Oscars, Severums, plecos and some various cichlids. I had overflows and a sump and to make a long story short the check valve failed on the return side(return tube was in the bottom of the tank) and flooded my parents basement. I learned how to do sheet rock and trim work that summer!!

So with my new found energy with the 135 I set out to make a fool proof design to keep all of the water in the tank. I had the 135 until I was 18 when I then got into salt water. I started small and eventually ended up with a 75gal reef. It was amazing to say the least. But on a cold Montana winter night I got into it with my daughters mother and had to move out of our place and I lost almost everything. That was enough of fish tanks for me for a while. I started into fish again because my daughter wanted a little tank. We got her a 5gal. tank with a couple gold fish and then for Christmas we got her a 15gal tank and let her pick out some better fish. She ended up with some white clouds, 1 gold fish, peacock eel, 3 gouramis and a dwarf frog. I got sucked into watching it one night and the next day I got on craigslist and bought a 110t. complete with everything but fish and substrate. After doing some research I decided I want live plants and discus. So here I am at present day with a 180gal hi tech planted Stendker discus tank. As soon as I get my new house built I will be getting a big tank finally. I also want to say thank you to all that have helped me so far and I want to thank you for all of the help I will need!!

[GrillMaster]

Hi ya Jarrod! I prolly never gave ya the warm welcome to "SD" so I will now...:)

Glad ya got back on yer feet again and into the hobby. Its all downhill from here. Or is that uphill? ;) :D :D

[Coralife205]

HEY!!!! My name is Brian and I am 19 years old. I have been into planted tanks for about a year now, and I think i have gotton pretty decent at growing plants.I am part of the forum, miapg.com (michigan aquatic plant group, join us if your intrested) over the summer I am going to buy a 125 gallon (or bigger) and I am going to start a discus planted aquarium. thats right, a discus planted. So i joined this website to help me prepare and do some reserch and to talk and meet people before i actualy get my self into this. ill be asking alot of qusitons, hopefully i dont get anoying.. thank you!!!!



-brian

[acroken]

Hi Brian,
Welcome to Simply Discus. There is nothing more beautiful than a planted discus display tank. You are in the right place for help with your new venture into discus.
Good luck!

Kenny

[Eddie]

Great to meet you Brian, welcome to Simply! It is a great place with lots of interesting people and tons of information.

Hope you find everything you are looking for,

Eddie

[cqdiscus]

hola, my name is carlos quintero, im from colombia, i just moved 2 month ago to washington. i graduated from medical school 3 years ago.
I used to breed discus back in my home country for 15 years.
i just love discus, i hope to start again here with discus, but i want to start with albinos.
hope i get to know all of u.
hope the best for all of you.

[Dubiadiscus]

Hi, everyone my name is john (dubiadiscus). I'm farily new too the site and so far i have been enjoying it. My wife and I are starting to finally get are life back in order after i have been jobless for 2 years now,but i finally have one i work for the post office and my wife works at caribou coffee as a manager. I live in Clarkston, Michigan I have 3 girls who i love and devote my life to each and everyday. I have had discus in the past many moons ago and im getting the bug again to get them. Im in the stages of seting up a 75 gallon tank and getting it ready for discus. I currently have a 29 gallon with with a couple of different breedes of chicilids. Well that enough about me for now im glad to be a member here and i plain on enjoying this community more.

[mareshow]

i suppose i should do an introduction, Hello my name is Marek i live in Edmonton AB and have been doing discus for about 6 months, i don't have a lot of experience with them but i did have wild angel fish before and fancy plecos have been along for the ride the whole time, i currently have one "golden sunrise" discus or at least that's what i like to call him, as he looks like a gorgeous sunrise and i'm horrible with names, one Wild Tefe Green Discus (heckel) who is the alpha female of the group and makes sure everyone gets along, one wild red turquoise discus(or at least i'm pretty sure its wild the black bars when its showing emotion gave it away, it could be F1 though i dont know) and last but not least the little baby red striped snakeskin who is the baby of the group. i got into discus because angel fish are fun but why drive a ford when you can drive a Nissan if you know what i mean. i have a lot to learn but i have really enjoyed them thus far and i know with time hopefully i will learn to treat them better

[Eddie]

Hey there Marek, great to meet you. Hope you find lots of information. Just to touch on your types of discus, a Wild Tefe Green is just a green discus, not a heckel. A heckel is a whole other animal. A red turquoise is a man made (hybrid) although there are some very nice red turqs that have been created in the wild, very nice looking too. If you post pictures of your fish in the photo gallery, you can get some better/exact names for your fish.


Good luck with you learning and hope you enjoy yourself. Lots of good people here and the Simply Team is second to none.


Eddie

[GrillMaster]

Carlos, John an Marek...Pleasure to meet you guys and welcome to "SD"! Pull up a chair chat and share your experiences with us. Glad ta have you guys aboard! :)

[mbviola1]

Hi; My name is Michael, in Princeton Junction, NJ. I am new to the board and have kept discus on and off for many years. I currently am running about 1400 gallons with 80+ discus including some wilds (would love contacts about them as well as all). I use only RO water and all seem well. Just got back in and things seem to be settling down.
I am a violinist and a teacher; other hobbies I am passionate about gardening, aquascapes, and discus of course. Also, very much love teaching and am a great student myself.
I hope to hear from people and learn. Am hoping to be included in the competition to grow out as I have the entire summer off and plently of time and it does sound like fun, a return to childhood competition.
That's about it.
Best to all, MB
More about me at www.michaelbandimere.com
As well as all contact information.

[lemondiscus]

My name is Ryan and I live in Richmond Virginia. I have been fish-keeping for over 10 years but somewhat recently got into Discus and now keep them almost exclusively.

I have 4 tanks right now that I keep:

125 - 15 Discus of different strains (6 Wild Heckels)
30 - Angelfish Breeding Tank
20 - Class N Endler tank

55 - I keep this running as a QT/Holding/Breeding tank as needed. Right now it is empty but running. My plan is to pick a breeding pair out of my 125 and keep them in here. It is a lightly planted tank with Driftwood. My goal is to get a breeding pair of Wild Heckels into this tank! That is why it is not a bare-bottom breeding tank...

I came from another forum over to here because there is not much interest in Discus on that forum. It kind of disappointed me that there was not as much interest in Discus as I thought there should be.... I am one of the top posters on that site and have donated a great amount of time and money to it but more people care about their sick bettas and their neon tetras that could care about Discus.... I dont get it!?

Anyhow I come here to hopefully learn some more, provide others with what little knowledge I have of Discus and to hopefully become one of the lucky few to breed Wild Heckels.... maybe help others to do it!!

[Chad Hughes]

Ryan,

Welcome! This is the place to learn! I learn something new almost daily. Have fun!

Best wishes!!

[mic_x]

hello all,

computers are not my thing, nor is typing or spelling or grammar or writing of any fashion.
so the forum thing is new to me, however i am here.
i am here because of the fish.
discus fish.
ive kept lots of fish.my original favorites were the clown loach and Geophagus jurupari.
now i have discus. they are the best , they are awesome maybe even super awesome.
so now i am here on this forum thing because i want to keep my discus happy and healthy and its fun to talk to other people about this super awesome fish.
So please excuse my poor typing ,spelling grammar and ramblings.

thank you for reading my post thing, goodbye

[lemondiscus]

Welcome and no problem! I am pretty new here myself... I personally have kept Discus for a little while and I agree that Discus are awesome :D

[discolove]

My name is Gerry and I am pretty new to the whole aquarium keeping hobby. I recently started my first 55g freshwater about 2 months ago. I find this hobby to be extremely interesting and I enjoy it very much. I discovered and became very interested in the discus fish. I decided, after doing research, that I would give a discus a shot so I did. Right now I have one royal blue discus who I call "Disco". He isn't a perfect discus but I love the little guy. When I realized he was only using one gill to breath I stumbled upon this forum when looking for a cure to his gill flukes. Well I already ordered some medication and I am very glad I found this place. I have already learned a lot by just looking around.

[Chad Hughes]

Mic & Disco,

Welcome! This site is great. Learn lots! Glad to have you on board!

Best wishes!

[Niev]

Hello, my name is Luli and I live in Georgia. I have kept fish most of my life and I discovered discus when I was in college. I have been lurking around this forum for a while and I appreciate the willingness of everyone to share information. Presently I am looking to get new discus for my 55 gallon tank. Thanks.

[Eddie]

Hello, my name is Luli and I live in Georgia. I have kept fish most of my life and I discovered discus when I was in college. I have been lurking around this forum for a while and I appreciate the willingness of everyone to share information. Presently I am looking to get new discus for my 55 gallon tank. Thanks.

Nice to meet you Luli and very big welcome to Simply Discus! Hope you find everything that you are looking for here. Best of luck finding your new discus. If there is one bit of info that I think is most important, its quality fish to start out with.

All the best,

Eddie

[arapaimag]

My name is Arapaimag. I have 100 plus tanks and enjoy many of the tropical and marine fish in the hobby. My favourite fish is the Arapaima gigas and I have 2 of them. I also keep Lungfish (SA, African and Australian), Arowanas (Silver, Jardini and Formosa), Piranha (Both genus and several species), Clown triggers, Honeycombe eel, Royal Gramma, marine angels, damsels etc. I enjoy & keep Goldfish & Koi, Rosy yellow minnows & Golden Orfe, Cichlids (Central, South American and African), Stingrays, Gars, Aba Aba, Fire & tire track eels, Electric eels, Many genus & species of catfish, Many mid to large barbs, Goramy, Monos and characins. I also have a 120g tank with 6 discus. I like Discus Hans and Jack Wattley discus.

[Chad Hughes]

My name is Arapaimag. I have 100 plus tanks and enjoy many of the tropical and marine fish in the hobby. My favourite fish is the Arapaima gigas and I have 2 of them. I also keep Lungfish (SA, African and Australian), Arowanas (Silver, Jardini and Formosa), Piranha (Both genus and several species), Clown triggers, Honeycombe eel, Royal Gramma, marine angels, damsels etc. I enjoy & keep Goldfish & Koi, Rosy yellow minnows & Golden Orfe, Cichlids (Central, South American and African), Stingrays, Gars, Aba Aba, Fire & tire track eels, Electric eels, Many genus & species of catfish, Many mid to large barbs, Goramy, Monos and characins. I also have a 120g tank with 6 discus. I like Discus Hans and Jack Wattley discus.

Welcome to SD! It sounds like you have a great amount of experience! It's nice to have new points of view and you seem to be pretty well rounded. Enjoy the site! I know I do!

Best wishes!

[simpleton]

Hi, I'm Russ. Twelve years ago I gave up breeding/keeping Discus for health reasons. At that time I had a basement full of fish. I had nine breeding pairs with tanks of babies of all sizes. I also was spending 4 to 6 hours a day doing the usual Discus stuff!

I NEVER HAD A SICK FISH! I believed in the KISS system and peat and sulfuric acid! (Jim Quarles) bless his soul!

My tanks routinly went to a PH of 3.9 no misprint, 3.9. Jack Taylor can verify that. I would draw down 20% of the tank and refill with a PH of 5.8! Fish never skipped a beat! happy as pigs in poop.

I also quarterly used Dick Au's treatment with potasium(sp) I had pairs that I could add others babies to and pairs that I would switch males/females etc.
After my experiences of "restarting: after my health concerns were addressed, I'm shocked at the "crap" out there compliments of the convienience of the WEB!

I now have (finally) a tank full of healthy fish at breeding size and a pair of spotted snakeskins that still enjoy eating their eggs and or young. Something else I never had a problem with!

I'm keeping things small till our current home sells and I can again have a "basement" for a fish room. At that time I will call Cary Strong and Jack Taylor(if I ever figure out how to reach him) and add fish I can trust to be healthy.

I want to add some pictures, but I need another dose of "smart pills" to figure out how!

Russ
ps; where's the spell check?

[Chad Hughes]

Hey Russ!

Welcome back! Good to have you. I love your background. Very interesting! Good luck on the home sale and rebuild of the fish room (basement).

Best wishes!

[Moon]

My name is Arapaimag. I have 100 plus tanks and enjoy many of the tropical and marine fish in the hobby. My favourite fish is the Arapaima gigas and I have 2 of them. I also keep Lungfish (SA, African and Australian), Arowanas (Silver, Jardini and Formosa), Piranha (Both genus and several species), Clown triggers, Honeycombe eel, Royal Gramma, marine angels, damsels etc. I enjoy & keep Goldfish & Koi, Rosy yellow minnows & Golden Orfe, Cichlids (Central, South American and African), Stingrays, Gars, Aba Aba, Fire & tire track eels, Electric eels, Many genus & species of catfish, Many mid to large barbs, Goramy, Monos and characins. I also have a 120g tank with 6 discus. I like Discus Hans and Jack Wattley discus.

Hi Mike
Welcome to SD. It's good to see you here. If you keep discus this is THE PLACE.
Joe

[shawnhu]

Russ,

Welcome to SD! I also enjoyed reading your background on fish-keeping. Hope you can add on to an already huge knowledge-base of information on caring for Discus.


It seems that I may not have introduced myself, not really my thing but since I'm here, why not.

Name is Shawn, and I'm from NYC. I was never really a fan of Discus(*gasp!*) as I thought they were weird looking and flat.. like Discs! I started caring for fish in my teens, and stopped as I went to high school and college. I started back in the hobby less than a year ago, and have learned much since then. The Internet has really re-ramped the way we get information.

I started with my old 10G tank, and started with Guppies. Within 2 months time, I've purchased a 46G and a bunch of sick Discus to keep the tank company(apparently I needed a challenge). With the help of SD and AC, I've gained an incredible amount of knowledge, and with the help of the Discus, experience with multiple Discus caring techniques. There's still much to learn, and hopefully with time, I'll be able to give back.

[Bgroovy2]

Hi all!
My name is Bill. I have been keeping freshwater fish since I was about 10. My dad and I got into this hobby together. I have benn absolutlly captivated by the discus fish. I know of no other fish that is as beautiful and majestic, be it freshwater or salt.
At this time I have a fourty Gal. discus community tank that I am playing with. It was planted but that didn't work out to well so I went back to a fish only display.
I am looking forward to getting to know all of you as best I can and learning more about these wonderful fish!

[zacrachhsv]

Hey guys,

Another Aussie here!

My Name is Zac and i am pretty much a noob to discus, I have been keeping tropicals for a few years and discus for about 8 months.
Unfortunately my intro to discus has not been as pain free as i would have liked and due to some bad advice and subsequent bad decisions i had some bad losses about a month back:(
But out of that bad experience i gained some knowledge and found this forum:angel: which has got me going back in the right direction and although i have not posted here before i would like to thank everyone for their great advice and informative posts:)
I think this forum definately saved what i had left and now i have a nice healthy breeding pair of blue turks (spawning as i type) and 6 other juvies which are going really well.

Other than that i have a lovely, understanding wife of nearly 2 years, i love most sports and anything to do with cars and bikes.
I currently have 4 tanks but some upgrades are in the pipeline:D
I look forward to getting to know everyone and learning as much as possible.

Cheers guys,
Zac

[joenaustin04]

Hello Room~
It has been over a year since I last checked in and posted anything. I am an American that is currently located in Seoul, South Korea. I have found a few shops that import discus but I haven't been able to find any breeders. Do any of you know of any Korean discus breeders? I am relocating to Manila, Philippines in a couple months. Do you know of any breeders there?

Joseph

[Eddie]

Hello Room~
It has been over a year since I last checked in and posted anything. I am an American that is currently located in Seoul, South Korea. I have found a few shops that import discus but I haven't been able to find any breeders. Do any of you know of any Korean discus breeders? I am relocating to Manila, Philippines in a couple months. Do you know of any breeders there?

Joseph

Hey Joseph, I know there is one in Pasay city. I can't remember the name of the place but they import from a TOP notch breeder. I will get the info for you and send you a PM.

Take care and have fun in the PI, its great!


Eddie

[mkv]

Hello to everybody.
My name is Marco and I have been keeping fish since I was 14. I currently have 4 tanks:

55 gal Reef tank running since 1995
55 gal Discus tank since 4/2009
40 gal freshwater community since 1990
29 gal turtle tank since 2001

In the plans is a 120 gal upgrade for the reef, convert the 55 to a seahorse tank and a 90 gal for a second discus tank.

I don't golf, drink or smoke cigars but I sure spend it on fish!!!!!

[GrillMaster]

Welcome to the forum Bill! Hope you will feel right at home here bud! :)

Zac!! Another Aussie?? My God this forum is gettin packed with you guys!! ;) :D :D Welcome to the forum bud and cant wait till you and the rest of the Aussies start buttin heads. :D

Marco...You dont drink, play golf or smoke cigars??? I wish I was like that!! Unfortunately I have all them vices!! :o :D Well then just buy a whole lot a discus and have fun with em! Welcome to the forum!! :)

[mkv]

Mark:

I used to but then marriage and kids took over and the rest is history. I live with a wife, 4 daughters, a son, dog, fish, turtles and canaries....... In my free time I go to work!!!!

[GrillMaster]

Mark:

I used to but then marriage and kids took over

Thats why I have all them vices my friend!! ;) :D :D :D

[mkv]

Tell me about it!!!! I spend most of my time chasing the teenagers. All they want is the car keys and 50.00

[mollie79]

hi ppl my names andrea i live in west yorkshire england i was browseing hte net when i came across this web site and so far im really impresseed with how friendly you all are ive kept tropical fish for 2 yrs now and started up with discus 2 month a go as im new to this site i just wanted to say a big hello and i hope in time we can become good friends :)

[mkv]

Andrea Welcome aboard. This is great place to find help and people that share the same interest.

[discus_newbie]

Hello everyone. My name is Nhat, background Vietnamese, I live in Melbourne, Australia. I've been a member of this forum since May,09. I join this forum to learn about discus and now I'm ready add a few discus into my 70G tank. This forum has helped my heaps and taught me tones about this awesome hobby. :D;)

[Eddie]

Welcome Andrea and Nhat, Simply is the best. You'll find a great people on the board and tons of information! Wishing you both the best!

Take care,

Eddie

[Lukan]

Hi,

My name is Marte. I've been lurking SD since last year and decided to join SD a couple of months ago. I use to keep Discus 18 years ago and left it for Reeftank. I visited a friend who had discus that needed help with his reeftank and then i realized that the DISCUS ITCH is still alive .Since the beginning of this year i've been reading post in here and visited a few LFS here in Toronto. Moving forward and needing a challenge, I started to research and one post that caught my attention was from SriAngel visiting Bob of UCC. I guess the rest is history as i currently own 14 juvies. Looking forward to meeting and learning from knowlegeable members in here.

Cheers,
Marte aka Lukan

[pinkjello]

Hi,
I dont think i have typed anything in this area yet. I figured since I am here often I should say hi, and introduce myself. My name is Gwynneth and I have a 13 year old daughter and i have been divorced for 10 years now. I bought my first discus upon separation, setting up my first 20 gallon in my bedroom. Unfortunately I wasnt sure of what I was doing and within a year or so I sold my tank and contents within. My daughter was 3 at the time so I found it quite time hard to keep care of. Since then I have dabbled in poisonous dart frogs (which I will do again one day), turtles, all the little critters (hamsters etc), all the while having a few tanks up and running for the past 5 years. We now have a horse, 2 cats, 1 beardy, and I have 4 aquariums, 13 adult discus, 30 baby discus, along with cichlids and goldfish. I have found a home for my cichlids as i need the tank for my discus..so they are going tonight. I do water changes on wed's and sundays, and whenever else they are needed, and we see the horse every day. My daughter received the horse from the CHildrens Wish Foundation because she has been diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease and she got 1 wish..and a horse was her wish! So we see her horse (Princess) probably at least 5x a week, and i work full-time at a local hospital. Last year I had a 3 level spinal fusion (L4-S1), and I was off work for 15 months, and I almost thought I would have to give up my fish because of the water changes, but my daughter helped me until i didnt need help anymore. I left my job of 14 years because I could no longer drive to VGH from Langley every day (4 hour daily commute) and found a job close to home :D. Now i have more time to sit and watch my fishies :D

I love my discus and i sit and watch them before bed every night and then every day i wonder why i have no time to exercise..:p.

My dream is to find a husband who will sweep me off my feet and for my wedding present he will build me a wall fish tank for my 1000 sq ft bedroom with a side room full of gym equipment..and a massive television so i can watch my fish while exercising and watching tv..

:p

anyways ...lol, this site is great in that i have somewhere to go to learn more and more about discus and learn about what other people are doing. Its great to see all the pictures and the help available is amazing!

I have had many great experiences with meeting people from here and my friends and family all think that im crazy..so its good to come here and know that Im not. :p

Gwynneth

[Eddie]

Big WELCOME Gwynneyth and Lukan, hope you enjoy yourselves and glad to meet you!

Take care,

Eddie

[mightymax860]

hi we are Juan and Carrie we are perents of two. max 5,and our new born aemelia 2 weeks. We got into discus 6 months ago. but have been keeping for about 7 yrs. We decided that after keeping aggresive cichlids ,and messy oscars,that discus are the most magnificent Juan was born and raised in miami and moved to ct in 2004 and currently works in pepperrigdgefarms in bloomfield ct. and i was born in sprinfield ma I work for eppendorf in enfield ct. we are hooked on our fish and use this site for information and ideas from you guys to keep our fish as healthy and happy as we do with our own kids.lol

[Eddie]

Nice to meet you Juan and Carrie! All the best in your discus ventures!

Eddie

[Moskau]

I only recently became interested in Discus and currently own two that I spend more time watching than the 42" TV next to their tank. ;)

I also own shrimp tank and a guppy/betta female tank but after getting to know the discus better in action I just keep enjoying them more and more. I was so happy when my skittish fish started racing towards me during feeding times! hehe

As for who I am, I am an air traffic controller in Iceland and enjoy stuff like horses (own one), mountain biking and being lazy. I also enjoy my fish a lot. I live with my boyfriend (who thinks tanks can be too big! :confused: ).

I joined this forum after lurking for a few days, I enjoy reading about the different colours (I'm still clueless about colour names) and how to best care for my own fish. There's so much information available here. :)

And yes, I'm female.

[Chad Hughes]

Welcome to SD!

Good to meet you. Enjoy the site and all it has to offer!

Best wishes!

[Eddie]

Welcome Moskau! Glad to meet you!

Eddie

[seasiderick]

Hi everyone my name is Rick Augusta born and raised in monterey ca,I have been keeping and breeding Discus since 1989 off and on .I took a some time off after a divorice in 1997 and sold all fish and tanks .In 2005 I started to buy a couple of discus here and there nothing to big.Last year I bought a couple of dozen of fry BD and red turqs and then in November of last year I met Kenny and since then I went from 5 tanks to 16 and know having pretty good luck overall .I sure wish I had this site back in 1989 this is a great thing
looking forward to talking and meeting the members here.Rick

[tdo]

hi all, name is tony, i'm from nebraska. go huskers! sorry its football season!

i started keeping discus a month ago, and i am hooked! i have always been a fan of discus, and finally decided to attempt keeping some of my own. I started the fish hobby raising arowaunas and cichlids, and when we moved into our new home, i decided to go for discus. i have a 90 gallon tank with 12 discus that i had picked up from a fish store about an hour away. the fish were in pretty good shape, about 2.5 inches in size, and now 8 of them are close to the 4 inch mark! the other 4 are currently in a 29 gallon tank because i think they arent getting enough food because of the bigger fish. so now i have the big 8 in the 90 gal tank, lightly planted, and they are doing exceptionally well.

I have picked up a 125 gallon tank and am in the process of resealing it. i just felt like these guys deserve more (my wife is upset with the amount of tanks already.) i have lurked on this site for a few weeks, and have learned alot of info! keep up the good work guys!

[Eddie]

Great to meet you Rick and Tony!

Tony, I know how you feel, the Boss (the wife) is always giving me crud about my tanks. :D

Rick, I Love Monterey, was always there as a kid. The bay aquarium is great too!

Take care fellas

Eddie

[tdo]

thanks man. the wifey doesnt know about my plans for the basement yet ;)

[Eddie]

thanks man. the wifey doesnt know about my plans for the basement yet ;)

LOL, just make sure you start receiving the Victoria Secret catalog, my wife forgets I even own fish, when she gets her hands on that thing! LOL

Eddie

[BruceWatts]

Bruce Watts

I have been in the aquarium hobby for 53 years and have been breeding fish since 1957. My first spawn was paradisefish. Since then I have breed somewhere between 300-400 species of freshwater fish and several species of seahorses. I have been doing mostly SW since 1999 but have gotten the FW itch again and have two small FW planted tanks and 5 marine planted tanks.

I got my first Discus in about 1965-6 and I still rmember watching them for hours as my 55 gallon tank was in my parents living room. The reason I joined this site was that I want to get several young discus and grow them out. Since this is my first post I am just starting to get back up to speed on all things discus.

I manage a rock climbing/backpacking store and my hobbies are hiking, horticulture, photography and anything to do with aquariums both FW and SW.

And yes I am getting pretty old. In fact I am so old I remember:

When there was no internet
When the only choices for discus were WC brown, blue or green
When silicone tanks were not invented yet
When there were no discus in the hobby
:):):):):)

Bruce

[Chad Hughes]

Bruce Watts

I have been in the aquarium hobby for 53 years and have been breeding fish since 1957. My first spawn was paradisefish. Since then I have breed somewhere between 300-400 species of freshwater fish and several species of seahorses. I have been doing mostly SW since 1999 but have gotten the FW itch again and have two small FW planted tanks and 5 marine planted tanks.

I got my first Discus in about 1965-6 and I still rmember watching them for hours as my 55 gallon tank was in my parents living room. The reason I joined this site was that I want to get several young discus and grow them out. Since this is my first post I am just starting to get back up to speed on all things discus.

I manage a rock climbing/backpacking store and my hobbies are hiking, horticulture, photography and anything to do with aquariums both FW and SW.

And yes I am getting pretty old. In fact I am so old I remember:

When there was no internet
When the only choices for discus were WC brown, blue or green
When silicone tanks were not invented yet
When there were no discus in the hobby
:):):):):)

Bruce

Hey there Bruce!

Welcome to SD!

I've been to Idyllwild a few times and it is absolutely beautiful there! Welcome to the site! Sounds like you have a ton to offer here with all your experience.

Take care!

[BruceWatts]

Thanks for the welcome Chad. If you ever make it up here to Idyllwild again stop into the shop and say hello.

Bruce

[JimG817]

Jim Geedy

I have been in the tropical fish hobby/business for over 35 yrs. I started off working at a local wholesale/retail store in suburban Buffalo, NY, i was the guy that cleaned the box filters all day on Saturday as a freind of mine worked the retail. He was a total fishhead (50 tanks in a heated basement)!! He got me hooked and working there helped peak my interest. My only previous discus was a 50 with 5 WC blues, 4 Uaru Cichlds a few corys and a 8" Syndontis Angelicus. A weird combo, especially the Angelicus, but when you get a $400 fish as a Christmas present in 1980 you don't complain. I worked at various tropical fish places from '76-'96 when I just needed to get away from it all. I moved to Dallas, TX in 2000 and have lived here ever since. I started off with a 100 reef tank and a 60 fresh that I was going to add discus to until it decided to leak one day! The 100 became a 215RR brick style, because my darling wife Jennifer liked the color of the wood on the canopy and stand. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! I tired of the SW scene and decided to go fresh again. So now my 215 is on its way to becoming a community tank with discus. I am 1 week into the cumminty phase with 50 cardinal, 25 rummy nose and 6 botia sidmunkia. I am waiting impatiently patient for the discus phase.

[Eddie]

Great to meet you Bruce and Jim!

All the best in your discus ventures!

Eddie

[JimG817]

Thanks Eddie

[Chad Hughes]

Thanks for the welcome Chad. If you ever make it up here to Idyllwild again stop into the shop and say hello.

Bruce

Will do Bruce! I'll give you a heads up so you know I'm on my way! Haven't been up in that part of the woods in a few years. Would be nice to visit!


Jim Geedy

I have been in the tropical fish hobby/business for over 35 yrs. I started off working at a local wholesale/retail store in suburban Buffalo, NY, i was the guy that cleaned the box filters all day on Saturday as a freind of mine worked the retail. He was a total fishhead (50 tanks in a heated basement)!! He got me hooked and working there helped peak my interest. My only previous discus was a 50 with 5 WC blues, 4 Uaru Cichlds a few corys and a 8" Syndontis Angelicus. A weird combo, especially the Angelicus, but when you get a $400 fish as a Christmas present in 1980 you don't complain. I worked at various tropical fish places from '76-'96 when I just needed to get away from it all. I moved to Dallas, TX in 2000 and have lived here ever since. I started off with a 100 reef tank and a 60 fresh that I was going to add discus to until it decided to leak one day! The 100 became a 215RR brick style, because my darling wife Jennifer liked the color of the wood on the canopy and stand. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! I tired of the SW scene and decided to go fresh again. So now my 215 is on its way to becoming a community tank with discus. I am 1 week into the cumminty phase with 50 cardinal, 25 rummy nose and 6 botia sidmunkia. I am waiting impatiently patient for the discus phase.

Welcome to SD Jim!

Best wishes!

[tdiscusman]

Hi,
My name is Tony Nguyen, as you can see, I've joinned Simply since Nov. 2003. I thought it's time for me to introduce myself.
I first saw and heard of discus from a cousin of mine, in 1986, and immediately fell in love. I brought my first brown discus from lfs in 1986, and by 1989 i've re-modeled my parent's garage to a fish room where I raise and breed discus. Unfortunantely, I've to give it up in 1993 to start a family. In Nov 2003, I was contemplating of getting back to discus, that is when I joinned Simply, but things didn't panned out. Now I'm back into discus, for real this time, as I've already purchased some discus from local hobbyists here in DFW area.

Looking forward to get accquainted with everyone here on Simply.

Sincerely,
Tony Nguyen

[David Rose]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to SD and getting back into the hobby again! Discus are simply amazing and once you’re hooked, you’re hooked (so to speak)!

Actually, it's pretty funny that I have a black Labrador Retriever that teaches people to fetch and have discus that can get people hooked. Gotta love the irony!

Enjoy SD and see you around.

Best Regards,

[tdiscusman]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to SD and getting back into the hobby again! Discus are simply amazing and once you’re hooked, you’re hooked (so to speak)!

Actually, it's pretty funny that I have a black Labrador Retriever that teaches people to fetch and have discus that can get people hooked. Gotta love the irony!

Enjoy SD and see you around.

Best Regards,

Thank you David for the welcome. I sure know what you mean about "hooked". For the past few weeks, all I can think of is getting more discus.

Regards,
Tony Nguyen

[zamboniMan]

My name is Josh and I joined SD about this time last year. I'm based out of the Cincinnati area and have been keeping discus for 2 or 3 years now. I've been keeping fish for about 15 years and it kinda runs together when I got certain fish for the first time. Anyway I've got around 20 discus at the moment in 5 different tanks. Apart from discus I enjoy keeping different oddball fish (elephant nose, African butterfly fish, etc) as well as some more common things like angel fish, killies, etc. Though I don't get alot of time to post on here I do really enjoy the forums and would like to thank all the staff for doing such an excellent job. :D

[David Rose]

Welcome to SD Josh/zamboniMan! You'll find the members here are great and the Sponsors the best.

I look forward to seeing more posts and maybe some pictures of your tanks in the Photo Gallery section.

Take Care,

[EddyTing]

HI everyone! Eddy here, from Malaysia. Very much new to Discus but will be keeping a pair next week. Having my tank cycled now...I've been in planted tank hobby for about 2 years now. Just keeping some cardinal tetras, loaches, corries, CRS and RCS. It's my first try on Discus and very much looking forward to breed them.

[David Rose]

Good to have you join SD!:)

Best of luck in getting your tank cycled and stocked. What size tank do you have?

[EddyTing]

Thanks, I have a 1.5ft, 2ft and 3 ft tank, one each. 2 footer keeping guppies outside, my 1.5 (hope it's able to be used as a breeding tank for Discus) and 3 footer planted with cardinals and stuff in my living room.

[discus21473]

Hello, My name is Leon, and I am new here. I breed and raise tropical fish. I have been doing this now for 35 years. My main interest are discus I have breed and raised many of them along with Angels and so on. I have many aquariums, my biggest being a 180 gallon in my home. I hope to make some new freinds here along with some open minded people.
I see that this site has many things to offer and many people who enjoy what they are doing. It's taking me a while to be able to use this site I am learning. :confused: You all be good and hope to talk at you all later. Leon

[Chad Hughes]

Welcome Leon! Glad to have you here!

Best wishes!

[EddyTing]

Hi, Leon. Wow, 35 years of experience in breeding? Man, you got to help me out. with my attempt of breeding discus.

[discus21473]

Hi, Leon. Wow, 35 years of experience in breeding? Man, you got to help me out. with my attempt of breeding discus.

I would be glad to help you out let me know where you would like a little help and I will give it a try. check out the pic. in my album I just put them there

[discus21473]

Welcome Leon! Glad to have you here!

Best wishes!

Thank you Chad, good to be here. Mistakes we make everyday and that is what we learn from.

[Chad Hughes]

Thank you Chad, good to be here. Mistakes we make everyday and that is what we learn from.

You bet!

Take care!

[EddyTing]

I would be glad to help you out let me know where you would like a little help and I will give it a try. check out the pic. in my album I just put them there

Wow,wonderful group you have there, Leon! Just got my 'pair' (i think) last Saturday. They're healthy and looks like already starting to get to know me. Swimming about and playing with each other, unfortunately in just a 1.5ft tank:(. That's the only tank i can offer them at the moment.

[Smiladon]

I guess I should formally introduce myself too :)

My name is Rakesh, I have been on and off fishkeeping since I was a kid. I've lived in different countries before and due to the nature of some countries (Libya), I wasn't able to keep fish. I always had a fish tank in home whenever I had a chance.

Obviously, I was young, so I had no idea about proper filtration, fish population, effects of bacteria etc. I just used to have either schooling fish or goldfish with some gravel and real plants and an airstone. I would do 100% water change every weekend.

After I moved to Canada and settled down a bit, I started on keeping fish again. This time I did my research and learned a lot (thanks to my Uncle who keeps fish too...he lives in the City of 1000 lakes).

Currently I have the following:
125G mixed african setup tank. I guess you could call this my "show tank" for now ;)
Tank dimensions:
72 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 23 3/8

Filtration:
1 x FX5
1 x Rena XP3
1 x Emperor 400
2 x Powerheads with the filters on each side
1 x Hydro Sponge V

LiveStock:
11 x Tinfoil Barbs: 6-7.5" [These are the versions that max out around 7.5ish
4 x Blue Moori: 4-5"
4 x True SAE: 3.5-4.5"
1 x Male Maleri Peacock: 5"
1 x Male RedShoulder Peacock?: 5"
1 x Male Fryeri: ~6"
1 x Featherfin Catfish: 7"+
4 x polits (2M/2F): ~3"
6 x yellow labs (2M/4F?): 3-3.5"

Total fish: 33
Here is a video of my tank from September (I had a few more fish then):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WUlTwEx4-c

My other tank is a 75G that is being prep'd for Discus. Right now the tank is in cycling for 2 weeks.
Current fish in tank:
1 x Super Vieltail Half Black Angelfish
4 x German Blue Rams (2 pairs)
Planning to add 6-8 Discus in this tank around 3-3.5"

Substrate:
Pool Filter Sand (silica)
2 Flower Pots for the Rams
(I had bare bottom for a few days after sterilizing the tank, but I really hated the look)

Decor:
Few plants (dont know the name)
2 pieces of driftwood

Lighting:
1 x 36" Coralife 96W
1 x 48" Coralife T5 fixture (6700k spectrum)

Filtration:
2 x Penguin BioWheel HoB
(Yet to add: Hydro Sponge III or IV)

Pictures:
(These pictures were taken 2 hours after I put the sand in, so its still murky)
http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2445.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2448.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2449.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2450.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2451.jpg

http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww99/frigy2/75G%20conversion/IMG_2454.jpg

Other than these 2 tanks, I have a 29G and a 10G tank that I use for Quarantine purposes now.
In the 29G tank, I have a female polit mom holding some eggs. :D

[Eddie]

Great to meet you Eddy, Leon and Rakesh! We all have something very unique in common, a passion for beautiful fish.

Take care and all the best,

Eddie

[amunoz7]

Hello everyone, my name is Aram and I live in Allen TX (just north of Dallas) and I currently have 8 Discus in my 55g tank. (6 juvies and 2 bigger ones about a year old)

1- 3 1/2" Snow White
1- 3 1/2" Red White
1- 3 1/2" White Snakeskin
1- 3" Alenquer
1- 3" Blue Turquoise
1- 2 1/2" Marlboro Red
1- 4" Blue Diamond (Female)
1- 5 1/2" Blue Diamond (Male)

[Audrey-mae]

Hi all! I have been posting for a while but never formally introduced myself!

My name is Audrey :) We always had goldfish while I was growing up, but 4 years ago a friend got me into tropical fish. I got some angels from her, and then a my white butterfly discus, and I have been hooked ever since!

Right now I have a 55 gal with three female discus, two 6.5" white butterfly, and one 5.5-6" turquoise. In about 2 weeks they will be joined by the two new discus I got a couple weeks ago. They are 3" mutt discus that are supposed to be turquoise and pigeon blood. I also use this tank to grow out male guppies, right now there are probably 20 young males in there.

30 gal that right now has the 2 new discus, 4 tetras, and two panda cories that all came with the discus. Once the new discus are moved in the 55 I will use this one to grow out female guppies.

Four 10 gal for my guppies.

Some time this winter I will be setting up two 20 gal for the guppies. I have no other tanks so once I get them set up I guess that will be it! Though, I suppose I could buy more lol.

At some point I will be getting some high quality discus, I will probably have to get another 55+ gal if I want to get more discus, because my other one will be as full as I would make it after I put the 2 new ones in there.

I use sponge filters, except my 55 gal has a penguin bio-wheel, not sure of the size but its pretty dang huge! I keep bare bottom tanks, with some decorations.

I also am a horse fanatic. I have 5 horses of my own, and a small boarding stable that I manage for my mom and stepdad. I am a very part time farrier (its very hard on the back), and will be going back to college to work on getting my psychology degree (likely with a minor in zoology) winter term.

I also have 10 cats! We moved here with two though, our neighbor is part of a spay/neuter coalition and has 100 or so fixed cats running on her 65 acres, 5 of her cats adopted us, then my mom got 4 from a friend, and a few months ago I trapped a feral tom who had been hanging around and got him neutered, now I am working on taming him, but its a slow process as he comes and goes as he pleases! Now there is another tom hanging around, so I guess I should make that 11!

[Slagter]

Hi Guys and Girls!!

My name is Sean. I hail from Johannesburg, South Africa. I've been keeping fish for a few years now and recently (about 6 months ago), a friend of mine recieved a shipment of Discus from Forrest, I believe. I purchased 4 of the Wild X discus. They are the most stunning fish I've ever owned and I've become obsessed!! He he he he...

They have paired up and I am wanting to breed these guys. They have had about 6 unsuccessful spawns so far and I'm hoping they get it right soon. I love these fish.


I also keep and breed South American Dwarf Cichlids. I currently have 22 tanks setup in my dedicated little fish room and I have 2 display tanks in my house.

Anyways, I just thought I'd introduce myself and I look forward to learning more about these guys.

Kind regards

Sean

[Eddie]

Nice to meet you guys/gals! Hope you enjoy the site and hope you find lots of useful information!

All the best,

Eddie

[mlw]

My name is Mary Lynn,
I live in NJ. I always had fish as a kid. Was the fish keeper in my 4th grade class. Once I got into college I got out of the aquarium hobby. Couldn't afford to buy books and fish. Husband (then boyfriend) bought me a 30 gallon tank for my birthday in 1992. He gave me back the hobby I loved, I knew then I was going to marry him! I have been keeping planted tanks since. At one point I had 4 tanks. Everytime we had another baby I had to get rid of a tank. Today I have a 75 gallon tank (he didn't buy that one):)

Tank:
75 gallon Oceanic
Washed Oak Stand
Lighting
Coralife Dual Strip Aqualight 4 X65 power compact
Substrate
Eco-complete/Flourite mix
Filtration:
One Eheim 2215
One Eheim 2217
Magnum H.O.T. (used to with Power Kleen and after water changes used with micron cartridge)
Misc Equip
Ebo Jager 250w heater
Pressurized CO2 system
Coralife Turbotwist UV sterilizer.

The 30 gallon was a community tank with all teh fish from my childhood. I ended up with a house full of guppies, molly's, swordtails and platy's. Funny thing is I also had a pair of angelfish (husband picked those out too) that I didn't know was a pair that spawned. Since that first pair and accidental spawning I became fascinated with cichlids. I have almost always kept some sort of cichlids. Started out with the dwarfs (rams, checkerboards, etc.)and soon moved back to Angelfish.

After having kept plants successfully and angelfish successfully and then plants and angelfish together in the same tank I have decided to try discus.

Have been lurking here for almost a year reading about caring for discus and making sure I do things right.

Just purchased my first five on November 25, 2009.