How long have you been keeping Discus?

[brewmaster15]

As the title says, how long have you been keeping discus? Do you remember your first discus? Seems like I have kept them my whole life but I know I kept salt water first.Then a friend gave me a pair of discus and they bred.I was hooked.That was a long time ago in a universe far far away....ok maybe not that far away but it was certainly a different world as far as learning about them went.


So how about you?

al

[discuspaul]

I started keeping freshwater tropical fish in my early teen years in the 1950's, and by the mid 60's I had ten or so tanks & had bred a good number of egg-layers including Angels, some Tetras, Bettas, Gouramis and others.

In 1976, when stationed in south-east Asia by my employer - Singapore - I was first introduced to Discus (there were a lot of discus breeders in Singapore even at that time) and got started with a 150 gal tank, which cost about $35. If I remember rightly, and 4" to 5" discus were about $5.- $7. or so.
Have been keeping them on & off ever since.

[RogueDiscus]

As my ID indicates, I've been a member here since 2009. I started keeping discus a couple years before that. I bred bettas as a kid, and got back into that and gouramis for a while in my 30's. I had a real nice line of pearl gouramis going for a while. I'd sell them to the LFS for credit. Years later I was keeping and raising Africans when I decided to try discus ("The King of the Aquarium" probably from Innes or Axelrod, still stuck with me from when I was a kid). The A's were easy to keep, and perfect for my well water, but I always liked breeding, and there was a point were I couldn't give them away anymore, plus, I think I got tired of their aggressiveness. I think I bought my first discus at the LFS, which has since gone out of business as the owner aged, leaving only the big box stores. Given their price even then, about $35 for a 2" wholesaler's fish at the LFS, I soon started buying online from a known cheap dealer back then. That was probably one of my first ventures into online shopping, besides LL Bean. That was before I knew better, but I learned a lot. Somehow I found this place, and Kenny, and I was hooked.

[LizStreithorst]

I have been keeping Discus since 2001.

[warblad79]

I started discus keeping since 1997 way back in Asia before migrating to US.

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Liz. Nice to see you Bryan. Sorry, TMI.

[matt2426]

I've been keeping discus on and off for about ten years now you can always take a break from them but you can never stay away I found out. My first discus experience was at my local fish store. They had some huge stendker discus and I was hooked ever since I saw that fish. Discus are just so beautiful and different than any other fish I've seen I was fashionated by them.

[Gordon C. Snelling]

I have kept fish and discus off and on for forty years. I was lucky enough to grow up just up the street from Carroll Friswold. The first time I saw his discus I was hooked. I am currently not running any tanks but hope to sometime in the near future.

[CliffsDiscus]

Gorden, wow that was back around the 60's at
Altadena Water Garden. You go way back.
I remember visiting Carroll back then.


Cliff

[Second Hand Pat]

To many folks here I would be considered a rather newbie discus keeper. I started keeping discus because my hubby expressed an interest in them after I upgraded my reef tank from a 46 bow front to a 75. Did some research and ended up here in 2010. Did more research and asked all the newbie questions (we all do this BTW if you are new to discus). Discovered the 46 was too small and the tank expansion started LOL. Since I have always been attracted to keeping the wild version of any fish I knew it had to be wilds with discus and the addiction began. The rest of my story is here on the forum.
Pat

[brewmaster15]

I have kept fish and discus off and on for forty years. I was lucky enough to grow up just up the street from Carroll Friswold. The first time I saw his discus I was hooked. I am currently not running any tanks but hope to sometime in the near future.

Gordon,
Glad to see you are still on the forum browsing, I remember when you Discus and hope to see you back with them again!
al

[smsimcik]

Got my first discus from a pet store in Dallas around 1984. They were some sort of wild browns.That's about all that was available back then. They were the most exotic looking freshwater fish I had ever seen. Lol. I was hooked.
I ordered some more from Discus Haven around 1985. I picked up some Degan discus in 1987 from an importer in Ft. Worth. I ordered some Wattley discus directly from Jack in 1989. They grew out to give me my first pair. I've been keeping discus pretty much ever since.

[Willie]

I started keeping fish back in elementary school in the early 60's. Sometime in junior high (still in the 60's), I saw a classified ad in the back of the New York Daily News from a fish store in Brooklyn that had brown discus. My only exposure to discus were the plates in the Innes Encyclopedia of Fishes, but I just had to have it. I sold off all my large angels, took the subway to Brooklyn, walked and walked and came home with 2" brown discus. Of course, these lasted maybe 3 months.

I later found out from (old) hobbyists that this may have been the first batch of domestically spawned discus from Singapore. School and life intervened and I didn't get back into fish until the 90's. I found Discus-L on the internet and visited Bing Seto at his hatchery in Alameda. The rest is history.

Willie

[Neptune]

Two years, but keeping fish since the 70's.

I still remember being wide eyed looking at the fish in the Ben Franklin.

[Pices]

I’ve been keeping discus for 3 yrs. I did a lot of head scratching and worrying the first half of that time. Then I found this site we (the new bunch) are all much happier for it.