Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
g'day!
I am Ken from Sydney. Love the forum and support. I am a new Discus hobbyist but an aqua landscapist for years. I had been very tempted to raise my own Discus before I got my first one due to the myth of the difficulty level in keeping them. Have to say that nowadays with abundant information and resources online, keeping Discus is less scary as it used to be. Thanks to all the discussion here, too!
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
My Name is Raymond O’Brien, I live in Coatbridge about 10 miles outside Glasgow Scotland, I have been keeping tropical fish for 25 years now mainly discus for the last number of years. I am married with 3 children who all love to spend my money ! I currently work With Scottish Water (Only water utility in Scotland)
I have two tanks in my hose one for Discus and one with African cichlids , I built my fish shed in November this year to house my Discus (its on youtube but I can't post the link yet if you search for Tropical Fish Room Part 1 you will find it) I am currently a member of BIDKA British & International Discus Keepers Association, and am currently part of the BIDKA 2012 Hobbyist Challenge.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Welcome to SD Ray. Looking forward to seeing your fish house soon.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hi! I'm Michelle (mblackett) I am a fish-a-holic LOL I am actually not so experienced as I only really got my first tank when I was 27 (im 29). I had a tank of mollys when I was younger. I live in Regina, Sk. Canada. I am a Mom of 2 Toddler Girls (Sydney 4 Sierra 3) and married to my lovely husband who tells everyone Im the crazy fish lady, but at home he's my crazy fish man :) (glad he doesnt use the internet ;) )
About 2 years ago I met my best friend Angie and she had 2 fish tanks....and her boyfriend had 2 too and I was in awe. Had to have my own. I now have a 60 gallon bowfront with my 4 newest Discus from cichlaholics.ca and a 55 gallon corner tank, 60 gallon tall tank, 20 gallon in the kids room and 10 gallon in my room.
My fish are : 2 common plecos, 5 Albino Bristle Nose plecos, 1 Bumblebee Jelly Cat Fish, 3 Julidochromis marlieri, 4 albino corys, 2 spotted corys, 3 copper corys, too many red wag platys, 2 yoyo botia, 2 clown loaches, too many snails, an african dwarf frog, 4 discus (rio manacapuru blue), 3 angelfish, 2 chinese algae eaters and hopefully im not forgetting anyone..... :) I am a member of the regina aquarium society. I work full time and spend way too much time online looking up discus and talking about my fish non stop haha!
So, thats me! Nice to meet everyone!!!
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Welcome to SD Michelle. That's quite the collection of fish you have. You'll get lots of good advice here from the experts.
Good luck
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Is there an easy way for us to unload a picture? It just wont take from my pc. This is the only fish site that does this to me.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hi All,
My name is Brenda or Brenn....I have been reading this forum for months and have a great idea on how to have discus...I have always wanted discus but believed the old school that you needed soft water so I decided they weren't right for me....Now I know better and am setting up to grow out some juvies...
I think the discus are the most beautiful fish in the world and can't wait to have some of my very own....I eat, play and dream of discus!
I am not new to fish keeping as I've always have aquariums...I've had tropical fish and north American native fish (my favorite)....I also have several goldfish ponds and grow many aquatic plants including water lilies and lotus...
My passions are family, animals (do a lot of animal rescue), gardening, computers (building and troubleshooting)....I also replace broken screens for iphones, ipads and laptops.
Thanks for this great forum....I know I still have lots to learn.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
welcome michelle, lots to learn on here thats forsure. does your friend keep discus too?
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Great picture, I have a family of six (twins, one girl/boy. boy has cerebral palsy.) and two other boys. I love spending time hunting and fishing with my kids, relax by looking at my fish tanks. In the past Ive tried discus with no success, but raised angelfish (many batches) over the years. Finally after realizing how important water testing is, I think it's time I try again at discus. Just ordered 4 green checkerboard discus and looking forward to the challenges of raising discus.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Welcome everybody! Great to have you and look forward to your presence on the forum! Its the greatest discus forum in the world! ;)
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hey all, my name is Bill, My wife and I have successfully bred, handfed, and raised exotic birds of all kinds, and we've had koi ponds for almost twenty years. We have retired from the parrots and now have an empty breeding and nursery room I specifically built for her to be easy to clean, well insulated, timed lighting, separate water system,..... see where I'm goin here? My wife says its my turn to use the room for anything I want. Last December I decided to get a tank and try to raise a couple discus, after many nights up reading this forum I finally got started. I have 2 red marlboros, 1 red scribbelt, 1 brilliant turquoise, 1 brilliant blue, 1 tefe, and 1 snakeskin blue. All are Hans stendkers that started at 2.5 inches in march, they now vary from 3 to 4.5 inches and are doing great. I've been told I'm obsessed by my kids....maybe so. Well, if things continue to go well, that bird room may come out of retirement.
Oh, my wife and I also successfully bred, handfed, and raised 4 beautiful humans too!...we just never sold them. And if anyone in Michigan is looking for small "designer" dogs, (I call them expensive mutts) my wife's customers say she has the best!
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Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
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Here is me and my daughter at my brother's wedding. Just to put a face with the name.
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hello all! Since im new here i will tell you a little about myself.
My name is Rashidi Jones. I am 36 years old and i have lived in the Rogers, Arkansas area for about 15 years now. I came from south east MO. and i moved here when i met my wife Michelle. I have been keeping and breeding animals and fish litterally all my life. I have kept and housed and bred, various types of dogs (mostly German Shepards, and Beagles), cats, racoons, and an owl, parrokeets, love birds, canaries, finches, hamsters, guinea pigs, batams, pheasants, large chickens, turkeys, peafowl and more. My fish i have kept are to many to list. The fish i have actively and readily bred are Rams (long and short fin of gold and blue as well as some wilds), Kribs, Africans, discus, angels, guppies, flowerhorns and many others. My 3 favorite fish still remains the mighty discus, ram and flowerhorn. I love color. I suppose thats why i ended up keeping the 3 most diverse colored/colorful fresh water fish in the hobby. Discus are calm and peace loving and colorful. Rams are like a little dog on a chain begging to get off to get at the bigger dog but really doesnt want to, and colorful. Flowerhorns are the big dog on the chain that wants to get off to kill the big or little dog, and colorful. I love them all. Rams are my favorite with discus right behind and flowerhorns a little behind that.
12 years ago i became the main breeder of Microgeophagus Ramirezi for James Tucker at Exotic Tropicals (now Noah's Ark). I had been hearing about a mighty little dwarf cichlid that was bursting with color and attitude. I finally got my chance to see one in real life at Exotic Tropicals. It wasn't much to look at as it was of medium quality but i saw its potential. I bought a few and took them home. My first ram spawn was by these first little guys and they spawned in my 37 gallon cubed planted tank. The male ended up raising the fry as i had transported the female to another tank do to the rumors i had heard of female rams eating spawns. I was a begginer of rams at that point so i did not know any better. The rams grew and turned into carbon copies of their parents. I was hooked. I decided to start a project to increase the quality of my rams so i took it upon myself to look for better stock. I found a person that had been to South and Central America as a collector who had aquired several wild species of dwarfs (was not Jeff Rapps). I ended up buying a few wild rams he had collected which i then crossed into my strain. The result was fascinating as the F1s had such amazing hybrid vigor. The vigor carried on for a few more generations but then began to slowly fade. The wild genes that were crossed in created a more robust fish with a thicker body and more red than i already had in my strain. I decided then that i wanted to try for more blue and a higher dorsal fin so i brought in some Florida German blues that i had located. They were very beautiful rams and had excellent color but they lacked the sheer zeal that my fish had. When i crossed them into my strain i finally hit the jack pot. I got several rams that were robust, thick, colorful with high dorsal spikes. But the main thing that happened was i got a good shape out of them. I finally had rams now shaped like a torpedo with a very round and uniform head structure. Up until this point most of my rams had an arrow head shape. After breeding german blues into my strain the head shape changed dramatically. To make a long story short i bred many more generations and sold many rams to James as well as people across the USA. Michelle and i ended up moving from Rogers to Bella Vista where i buit a small hatchery under the guidance of Gary Maybury. Who, by the way in part, has mentored me off and on for several years. I bred discus and rams out of it and was on my way until financial tragedy hit for a variety of reasons and we were forced to file bankruptcy. We ended up moving in a small apartment in Bentonville where i then continued to breed my ram line. We lived in Bentonville for another 3 years until we bought us a home in Garfield, Arkansas. I was excited as we finally had our own well and i had big plans to build another hatchery. Well before we moved in i had found out that the well waters of Garfield, Arkansas were loaded with Sulphur. I was not worried at the time since i had heard sulphur could be bubbled out of the water. I immediately started bubbling and cycling my tanks accordingly but ultimately to no avail. The day we moved in my tanks had already been up and running. I put my rams and flowerhorns in the tanks and watched them slowly die over the next few days. I was shattered and hurt and did'nt know waht to do. My ammonia and nitrite was at 0 and there was no smell of sulphur to the water. I tried again and again but eventually gave up to to the inevitable death of any fish i put in my tanks. Five years went by until about 5 months ago when i decided to give it another try. I set my tanks back up and cycled the water accordingly. I was confident this time as the water was testing good. I ordered in an expensive batch of flowerhorns and put them in the tank. They died within 3 days. I was devasted. I told myself then that i would not try and keep fish again until i got our home a filtration system. As a few more months went by i realized that it was going to be a long time before we could afford the $3500 system i had priced that took out hardness as well as sulphur and possible chemicals. Uppon this realization i decided to set up some holding tanks to condition the water before adding it to my aquariums. I built some peat filters to take out the hardness and i used peroxide 30% to kill any unwanted organisms. When the peroxide was bubbled out and my tanks cycled, my confidence grew. After about a month of cycling my friend Gary Maybury at Ozark Angels gave me some tester angels to see how my water would do. They died within 30 min of me putting them into my tanks. At this point my confusion was running rampant. My hardness had dropped considerably, my ph had dropped to about 7, my temp was fine, my ammonia and nitrite was non existant. Everything was supposed to be fine! And then a thought ran through my head. What if there was a chemical or poison in my well that the fish were sensitive to? So i ordered 15 pounds of activated carbon from bulkreefsupply.com. I then filtered one of my tanks with carbon and left the other two untouched. BAM! the carbon filtered tank was the winner! The fish thrived and ate imediately while the fish in the other two tanks died within a half hour. Something was in our well water.
I have since then called private testing facilities and they told me they could test our water for anything we wanted for a $20 charge for each thing we wanted tested in our water. This is where im at right now. In the mean time i have began cycling my tanks and the fish i tested with this last time are still alive and doing great. I have set up two 150 gallon holding tanks to condition my water and i am proceeding with my discus and ram breeding. It will take me a while to get back where i was before, but with God's help i will get there. I have already located me a good source for electric blue rams and i already have a proven pair of Blue Scorpion Discus as well as 6 healthing quater sized Ring Leopard Discus. Im very excited to be back in the hobby i love and i have spilled my guts to you fine people because i know that some of you share the same passion i do for the extrodinary hobby we are a part of. I look forward to meeting you guys and hope that we will develope some long term friendships!
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hello everyone,
I'm a few weeks into my Discus adventure, and thanks to this community a lot wiser than Day 1. My 6 lovelies are in a hospital tank right now thanks to many oversights of mine. Oversight #1 being not buying from a sponsor here - I wish I'd known about this place before I set out. Only one of them appears to be in full health and absolutely beautiful now, while another is definitely a stunted little thing that I'm constantly feeling sorry for. Something to start learning with, I guess!
My main tank is a (barebottom) 50g. It housed a community of corys, gourami, and various tetras for 3-some years previously, but now is empty and waiting for the discus to get better. I have learned so much in such a short span about water! It's amazing to me how resilient my previous fish were to tap water. I knew nothing about rising ph and microbubbles. I didn't have them until I needed to fill with a warmer temperature, so an aging barrel had to appear. Not to mention the medicine cabinet that sprung almost overnight. The meds haven't been haphazardly thrown at the discus, but it's better to have them now than rush-mailed when something happens. And with these guys, it's when and what next, not IF. (Bleh!)
The hardest part is definitely letting them adjust and get better on their own. I'm a crazy-impatient-can't-sit-still person, so when I have to cover the tank and pretend they're not here for several days, besides feeding and water changes, it drives me nuts. To deal with it I've been reading everything I can find on this board, all the stickies, nearly every page of the disease board (scaring myself more than I should be, probably), trying to figure out what more I can do that also involves leaving them alone. Slow and steady, right?
So aside from an introduction, I already need to thank everyone else for the hard work they've done, that's making this journey easier for me. Sometimes when I load the front page here, I feel like I'm stepping into an old library stuffed to the rafters with amazing books, each one more useful than the last.
(And I need to thank my husband for being so easygoing and allowing me to plop a Brute trashcan in the living room ♥)
Re: Tell us about yourselves....Please
Hello Everyone,
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