How is it that all my LFS carry Discus within these parameters?

[Chicago Discus]

Hello to the both of you and welcome to Simply Discus, Although it may seem that some of us are bit intimidating we mean well and are just sharing our own experiences in this hobby. To answer the original question IMO you need to look at it at a business point of view. Its like going to a pound to get a dog or cat they live in very small runs and cages and everyone knows that keeping them in those conditions are not optimal for the health and well being of the animal. But the same goes with the pet store that has many different kinds of animals to display and entice people to purchase the animals so they are not always kept in ideal conditions. Now maybe your goal is to have one discus in a small planted tank with other tank mates of different species and thats ok its your choice they are your fish. But if you ask for my opinion I will tell you that keeping one discus in a small planted tank with other tank-mates is not the ideal conditions for the fish. What ever you decide to do just enjoy the hobby and have fun thats what all this is about.....Josie

[dirtyplants]

Strawberry please re read my statement. I did say their was a very good reason for BB tanks. I myself grow out my little guys until about 4 to 4 1/2 inches in a BB tank. Even though I do the BB grow out, I still feel like I am placing them in a zoo. I personally like engaging eco scapes. My personal preference only. I do feel strongly that people who care about their discus will engage in educating them selves by talking to someone like you. Reading and participating in forums like this. If someone is bent on listening to one individual like the LFS, then so be it. As I said it is just as easy to kill one fish as it is to kill ten. Meaning the LFS will reap the benefits of that person coming back after the fish is dead and will sell him/her another discus. If someone is unwilling to listen to the advice given then the experience may turn out poorly. On the other hand I can't make someone beleive one person over another. So I figure this person needs to learn on his or her personality. The results may not be what is considered a award winning discus, but maybe this person doesn't care about it. You got to give them that. They have to learn for themselves, even though it would greatly benefit anyone to address people in this forum and balance out opinions.

[Keith Perkins]

I hear what you are saying. I just like for anyone that drops by and reads this 6 months from now to understand how this works. If someone only sees low quality fish then they will have no clue what a really nice discus looks like. The best example that I can quote is when Skip came to the NADA show in Atlanta. After looking at the tanks for 2 days he looked at me and said that he was going to go home and kill all of his fish because now he knew what a nice discus was really suppose to look like. I have had lots of people about the great fish that they have grown in their planted tanks...then they stop buy here to buy fish from me and it changes their world. Not trying to brag about my fish. I am bragging about the way that the fish were raised. The road map is there and it is clear. Any hobbyist here can raise fish that can win at NADA but they can't do it trying to raise them with marginal care. Now I am not judging anyone. They can raise their fish anyway they want, I really don't care about that. I only care for the new people that read this in the future. As long as everyone realizes how different methods lead to different results I am good.

-john

This may be my new favorite post of yours John, well said.

[Skip]

I hope he didn't really kill all his fish!

Youtube has a collection of videos from Asian and European shows. A lot of times people can decide for themselves whether that's their goal, or something else entirely. Thanks for your advice, I do enjoy reading them and others' too.

Lets just say. I tried to flush them.. but the kept fighting.. after 4th flush.. i put them back in tank... I was disappointed at the quality I had.. it changed me to see those nada show fish..

[myofibroblast]

But u want to be educated in what u buy sob you don't get ripped off..

But then again.. p t barnum had a saying. .....

That "the public is wiser than many imagine"? :-)

[myofibroblast]

Lets just say. I tried to flush them.. but the kept fighting.. after 4th flush.. i put them back in tank... I was disappointed at the quality I had.. it changed me to see those nada show fish..

That sounds unnecessarily cruel...for any aquarium fish. :-(

[dirtyplants]

Did you say one was called the unsinkable Molly Brown

[Tony C]

Lets just say. I tried to flush them.. but the kept fighting.. after 4th flush.. i put them back in tank... I was disappointed at the quality I had.. it changed me to see those nada show fish..

Is this how you discovered the garbage disposal method?

[strawberryblonde]

These discuses did not know they were un-pretty until they came to an online forum. haha. Eye of the beholder, as always. These LFS fish cannot compete with the Hollywood standards for sure.

I know that you're attempting some levity here, and also trying hard to "balance" the discussion by offering a different opinion than what most are voicing.

Here's what you need to know about those quality discus vs. the "4 on a scale of 1 to 10". Grab a cup of coffee and settle in...LOL

I'm a perfect example of what happens when you take average quality breeder stock and raise those discus in optimal conditions. I started keeping discus in early 2011 because my darned kid gave me a fish tank for Christmas. I knew right away that I wanted a discus in the tank. Yep, A discus...as in ONE discus. Then I thought, maybe 2 will fit in there if I cut back on some other community fish to make space.

So off to the LFS I went to find some discus. I struck out big time. Even to my inexperienced eyes I knew the only ones I could find looked really sick and "off". Next stop was the internet where I thought I could find a good online store to make a purchase. After browsing sites like AquariaCentral and Somethingsfishy I decided to broaden my search and try to find a forum where I could ask which place was best. I found Simply Discus. Before I posted I started reading, because I'm basically very shy and would rather read than ask questions outright.

Sure enough, I learned a LOT that first week by reading all the sections here. Finally I posted and asked my questions. I got great answers and by then I already knew that I knew nothing about raising discus! So I plotted and planned and asked for opinions on my plans. Once that was all set I made my first purchase from a sponsor here. Now don't get me wrong, he has AWESOME discus, but they are not "show" quality discus. He can't give guarantees like that when you're purchasing juveniles or even sub-adults. So I bought the cheapest ones he had in the 4" size (sorry guys, that was my motivator...the price point) and I tossed them into my "lightly planted" pentagonal tank. Just FYI, his cheapest 4" discus were all at least $10 cheaper than the sick looking 3" discus at my LFS.

Ummmm, yeah, so that worked well...NOT! I found myself spending over an hour, twice a day, just trying to get all the bits of leftover beefheart out of the plants. Ditched the ragged plants every day till finally there were only a few left. No point in messy gravel if you have no plants, so out that went and was replaced by sand. Needed something in the middle of the tank, so I added a driftwood stump. FINALLY it was quick and easy to clean and they could eat to their hearts content.

I changed water twice a day. It started as an accident... first a mini-cycle due to the increased bio load of the discus, and then a blown motor in my canister filter that destroyed all my BB. 2 weeks later my new canister blew the motor! Back to square one, but with sponge filters this time, and still doing twice a day water changes.

But, I noticed that my discus had grown far faster than most people here had said they'd grow. After one month they were approaching 5"! After two months they were nearly 6"! At that point they went into my nice new 115g tank with a 55g sump on it. Still fed them at least 6 times a day and changed water every day.... 90% every day.

Did I get show fish quality out of it? Nope! Did I get above average quality discus? YES!! Big, round, fat, juicy discus!

So we're not talking about average people buying or raising "hollywood" discus. We're talking about buying discus from a quality breeder and then raising them properly for the first year of their life so that they reach their full potential.

From a price standpoint, it just makes sense to do that. Why pay MORE for a LFS discus with a questionable lineage, questionable health and then give put all that time and effort into raising it when you can pay less and get great quality? Again, NOT show quality, just great quality.

It's not about the eye of the beholder...but if you feel like you want to raise sub standard discus from a LFS, go for it. It'll be twice the work to get half the results, but its your money. LOL

[aqualogic]

How do you explain these beauties?



The same LFS only kept two Discus (looked like breeders) in this massive 300+ gallon tank, don't know why, but they were the biggest Discus I've ever seen, bigger than my hand, that's for sure.

I wouldn't know the difference between a football shaped "stunted" Discus or whatever all that stuff is, to me all the Discus I've seen are beautiful. I'm constantly looking at Youtube videos and wouldn't know the difference between a pigeon blood or a blue diamond, etc. all that stuff doesn't really matter to me. Kind of reminds me of betta people, always trying to compete their half-moon/crowntail fish and will destroy their fish fry if they don't have good quality, that's just messed up IMO. The things humans do to these poor fish and people worry about the possibility of stunting one discus fish which is probably stunted as it is anyway.

forshameeee

[John_Nicholson]

There is no shame in culling low quality fish.

-john

How do you explain these beauties?



The same LFS only kept two Discus (looked like breeders) in this massive 300+ gallon tank, don't know why, but they were the biggest Discus I've ever seen, bigger than my hand, that's for sure.

I wouldn't know the difference between a football shaped "stunted" Discus or whatever all that stuff is, to me all the Discus I've seen are beautiful. I'm constantly looking at Youtube videos and wouldn't know the difference between a pigeon blood or a blue diamond, etc. all that stuff doesn't really matter to me. Kind of reminds me of betta people, always trying to compete their half-moon/crowntail fish and will destroy their fish fry if they don't have good quality, that's just messed up IMO. The things humans do to these poor fish and people worry about the possibility of stunting one discus fish which is probably stunted as it is anyway.

forshameeee

[Skip]

Oh boy..

[yim11]

Can you post a pic of them please?

How do you explain these beauties?



The same LFS only kept two Discus (looked like breeders) in this massive 300+ gallon tank, don't know why, but they were the biggest Discus I've ever seen, bigger than my hand, that's for sure.

I wouldn't know the difference between a football shaped "stunted" Discus or whatever all that stuff is, to me all the Discus I've seen are beautiful. I'm constantly looking at Youtube videos and wouldn't know the difference between a pigeon blood or a blue diamond, etc. all that stuff doesn't really matter to me. Kind of reminds me of betta people, always trying to compete their half-moon/crowntail fish and will destroy their fish fry if they don't have good quality, that's just messed up IMO. The things humans do to these poor fish and people worry about the possibility of stunting one discus fish which is probably stunted as it is anyway.

forshameeee

[troysdiiscus]

Not the dreeded "CULL" word......lol being a manager at Lowes Home Impovement, I had a saying for those who wanted to get out cheap, "The cheap comes out expensive".. saying that buying from most, not all, LFS with poor quality and poor health, you will spend a ton of money with meds trying to get it to some sort healthy state. Or taking short cuts also will be the same as the fish health disapates. So like every one says there your fish do as you will and wish you much success. The knowledge is here to use or not, its up to you and what you are trying to accomplish. For some of us that have tried and failed and learned the hard way are wanting to give the next person less headaches and more enjoyment for the hobby and sanity...lol

[John_Nicholson]

Thanks.

This may be my new favorite post of yours John, well said.