My name is Abdiel Villalobos, but all my friends call me Vilo!
Initially was a little hesitant the first time i logged on to this form because, I mean... this place is "enormous" and a little intimidating!!!
I felt overwhelmed and truthfully speaking, I really didn't know where to go or what to do here, there is just so much information that its just mind-blowing! and the idea of putting myself out-there for scrutiny by people that actually are experts at keeping Discus, was not very appealing as well. I have very little experience with Discus and sharing my journey with all its ups and downs is kind of embarrassing! But with a little encouragement from a new friend which is a member already, I am here giving this a second try (Thanks Liz!).
Like I said before, my name is Vilo and Im a fish-o-holic!
I live in Phoenix Arizona and I own a 240 gallon (semi-planted) aquarium which houses 13 Discus. But more on this a little later, let me start from the beginning...
I started my aquatic journey when I was stationed in Germany, back in 1989 while serving in the U.S. Army, one day my daughter brought home a little goldfish in a bowl that she had won at a school fair, and of course "I" ended up taking care of it, and it all progressed from there.
The first tank I owned was an African Cichlids 90 gallon tank, I think I had about 6 or 8 Peacocks of different colors, this tank peaked my interest for about 5 months and of course, I then "needed" to try the South American Cichlids, so I bought a little 40 gallon tank which housed Angels and other small dither fish which right now i can't remember what they were, but anyway, you can start to see the pattern forming here, at one point I even had a little saltwater cube with an anemone and its side kick "Nemo" because my daughters wanted one, and who am I to deprive my little angel of her wishes!!!
So what had started with that little goldfish in a bowl ended up with a fish room with 12 tanks of various sizes and multiple species of fish! My "at-the-time" wife, was not very pleased with my new found enthusiasm for the hobby since it was rapidly taking over much precious square footage of our already small house, and if you ever served in the military, you know what military housing is like (tiny)!
I had to take a brake from the hobby in 1990 due to a little business trip me and some of my college had down in the Southwest-Asia area of operation. Then unfortunately life got in the way (again) and the hobby had to be put on hold for a little while longer, but I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to set up another aquarium system. In actuality, my dream was (and still is) to retire and move to a non specific South or Central American Country and buy a House on the beach or a lake, then set up a big aquarium and collect the specimens that will be housed in the system myself. I'm still hopeful that I will be able to fulfill that dream someday.
Moving on, It was around late spring 2018 and I started toying again with the idea of setting up an aquarium, we (my new wife and I) had recently purchased a new house, which opposite to my earlier days in the hobby, this place has ample space to set up a "decent size" tank! So, I did a little research to identifying all the LFS's in Phoenix area and found one that was pretty close to my house and decided to go and visit. Of course, the one close to my house was the last one I visited since did go visited "All" the other LFS's in the city to see what they had, the one close to my house just happens to be the biggest one and gave me the impression that they had a much bigger and better selection then the others (i guess size does matter!), and about an hour later I walked out with a 240 gallon tank, 3 FX-6 canister filters, a CO2 system, and 6 Fluval Planted 3.0 LED lights!
Back then Discus were nowhere remotely within my scope, all I wanted was to set up a nice planted tank, something challenging like a Dutch-Style aquarium with a bunch of pretty plants and to have a few little fish in it.
So, the tank was set up, the scape was completed, and all was going well, I just let it sit for a good while and waited for it to cycle and let the pants do their thing... a few months later after the cycle was completed and the plants had filled in a bit, I went back to the LFS to see what they had available. I purchased a group of 15 silver tip tetras. So my tank finally had a few fish in it, it was stunning! Life was good....
It was late 2018 now and I had since joined the local aquarium club, the Southwest Aquatic Society, which was an invaluable source knowledge and support from other hobbyists, the tank had flourishing into a beautiful and spectacular planted display tank, and I had also introduced several other fish, but at some point they were taken out due to incompatibility with the tanks current live stock or my own lack of interest in the particular type of fish. An example would be a group of Angel fishes that I had introduced, at first all was going well, until two of them paired off and laid eggs and they turned into the killer fish from hell! They made life unbearable of all the other inhabitants of the tank and stressed me out at the same time, so they had to go, the angels were auctioned at one of the clubs events!
Moving forward to January/February 2019 time frame, the tank was doing well, I had only a few Coridoras, a Bristtlenose Pleco (somewhere in there! cause I never saw it), and still the original 15 Silver Tip Tetras inhabiting the tank, but it felt like it was missing something... So I went out to my LFS to see what was what! As usual they had a very nice variety of fish to pick from but nothing that really caught my eye... and then I saw them! there was this tank with some Discus in it, they were small, couldn't have been more the 2.5 to 3 inches if that! It was a struggle, Im not going to lie, I had to go against everything I had ever heard about this fish, all the scary stories I had ever heard about how difficult they were , the strenuous water demands this fish required, how delicate they were, and still I took home 4 Melon Reds, 2 Blue Diamond, 4 Red Leopard Turquoise, 2 Red Turquoise and 2 Red Pidgeons.
Fast forward to January 2021 and my Discus are all still with me (with the exception of one which I lost early on), all are healthy, strong, and most impressive of all, they went from little 2,5" to my biggest one measuring at 5 1/2 inches!
Thats my journey with Discus in a nutshell.
Thank you.
