I am probably an 8 on my way to 10
I doubt I will ever try to breed I just enjoy the heck out of them
in my opinion it is still King and I cannot believe it wont be 10 years from now
I'm curious of something and wanted to get a sense of the level of passion our current membership has for Discus. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is the the lowest and 10 the highest with regards to how much you enjoy the Discus Hobby, where do you see yourself.
Do you just keep Discus because they are fish and you keep fish , thats a 1.
Do you spend considerable amount of time caring for your Discus, spend lots on buying your Discus, and watching and reading about Discus Related stuff. Does your circle of friends include discus keepers, Thats a 10.
Do you think the Hobby is growing? Shrinking? what about Discus as the King of the Aquarium.. Is it still a KIng among fish?
Do you try and breed DIscus? Do you plan to?
Obviously after all the time I have been here at SD I tend to live and breath them, a good chunk of time is spent on discus related things and I have a large circle of friends in the hobby themselves.. More than I have out of the hobby for sure.
I am trying to gauge the pulse of the forum and hobby and if you could take a few minutes to share your thoughts and feelings here it would help me.
Thanks,
al
AquaticSuppliers.com Freeze Dried BlackWorms and other foods your Discus will Love!!!
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Al Sabetta
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I am probably an 8 on my way to 10
I doubt I will ever try to breed I just enjoy the heck out of them
in my opinion it is still King and I cannot believe it wont be 10 years from now
Maybe a 7+ or 8-? Although I have about 30 dogs, 20 cats, horses, pet pigs, chicken, ducks and another 9 fishtanks, the discus tank is the one that individually gets the most attention. Not planning to breed because in the area very little chance of selling them off. I think Discus are still royalty as like no other fish the efforts put into breeding, growing out and keeping the fish yeld such visible results. Of all the forums/groups/YouTube I follow freshwater aquariums account for 90%, some general like fishlore, some specialized like cichlid-forum or planted tank but the majority is about Discus, 2 Italian forums (Mondo discus and Hobby discus) but the lion share of my time online is on Simply Discus.
Long term plan with discus maybe to do something a little more challenging , maybe grow out some tank bred but wild type discus to then add in a very large medium tech planted tank (as well as Altums, Mesonauta, hatchet fish and larger carachins?).
I have been at 10 and I have been at 0 (which means broke my heart) Right now I'd say I'm at about 5 but could shoot right back up to a 10 tomorrow if I have a bit of luck.
I don't know if I'd even mess with them if I couldn't breed.
Not sure if they're still the king or not.
I have friends in Discus but I met them all on line and then at NADA. There is nobody seriously interested in Discus in my neck of the woods.
Mama Bear
As a mod I'm almost reluctant to write this, but I'm probably about a 6 right now. I got pretty into it the last couple years, and raised my grow outs to bring to NADA. Now that that's over, other things have taken over for a while. I'm just sort of maintaining them. I've got a couple pairs I'm considering focusing on if I want to breed again Once summer's over and the fall routine sets in I might feel like doing more again.
At the moment a full blown 10. I spend a lot of time on the fish themselves, but also reading, researching, experimenting and such. Don’t remind me of the money. It’s a bottomless pit, just like my car. So in that regard my wife is less than impressed. She can appreciate the fish though, and has her own 100gal in her office at work housing my old Stendkers and Heckel Crosses.
I have one friend who is also into Discus, he is the one who made it possible to get our own shipment of wilds in a few months back.
But I’m socially awkward, so I don’t have many friends to begin with. Which is also why I’m working with animals and not people, better for everyone.
I like seeing breeding behavior, but I do not want to breed. Simply because there are not enough people here who are serious enough about keeping animals, let alone discus, in the way they should be kept. Dogs (any and all breeds, from Chihuahuas to Alaskan Malamutes) in an outdoor kennel year round (in the Middle East), Arowana in a glass bowl, you name it, I’ve seen it. The ignorance and carelessness is unbelievable, and does mess with me mentally at times.
There are serious aquarists here, but it’s mostly marine or aquascaping.
King of the aquarium? I would say yes, because I don’t see any other species getting this kind of dedication and attention, though I do think in recent years aquascaping and shrimp have come close and will eventually surpass discus.
I had discus about 10 years ago and then we moved and I had to downsize. We have a smaller place now, but I just had to have a couple of tanks of discus. Absolutely love them 10+. I love the different personalities that they have!! I can sit and watch them for hours...
after reading some of the above and really thinking about it...let me revise
6 on the way to 8
I read so much, I know so little
I still enjoy keeping discus and rate myself at a 7 right at this point of time. I'm not fully absorbed in them at the moment, as i have other interests that take me away.. Maybe when i grow up, and settle a little more, i will make more time for them and set up more tanks, but im not ready to do that yet.
I still think they are the most beautiful tropical fish to keep. Not only because of the different strains , but the potential to have them grow so large.
I think there is lots of new found interest in discus as they become cheaper to buy because of their popularity. The forum is probably not a good way to gauge this, as more and more people use social media now a days.
One of my friends is a local discus breeder, and i do enjoy dropping in on him to see where he is at, but i do like the idea of being able to walk away and do other things.
Last edited by two utes; 09-16-2018 at 06:19 PM.
We're here for a good time...not a long time
Let’s see. I’ll start at 10 and deduct. I’m the only person in Port Charlotte with discus that I know of so no friends with discus, now I’m at 9. I spend a lot of time caring for them, but I don’t make their food (I want to try wild salmon ala Paul) but till then I’m at 8. No plans to breed, 7. The most rewarding fish and most challenging. I think the hobby is growing from all the newbies I see here and all the people who come back to them. In spite of the work they entail I can’t imagine not having them. They are definitely not just a fish. They are still and will always be the king of the freshwater aquarium. That’s been true for so long it’s just a fact.
Patty
If the discus are happy, I’m happy
I would consider myself a rookie 8’ish. I kept discus and came back after a 15 year absence. Definitely find it a pleasure.
I don’t really have a pulse on whether the hobby is growing but I do still consider Discus the King of the Aquarium.
I would like to make an attempt at breeding. We will see what happens.
This forum has been a HUGE help and benefit. Sometimes I wonder if we could collect and make a book. It’s the best resource for discus ever (Yes, I have read many of the standard works).
Locally, the discus are not very healthy and imported by big-name distributors. I don’t know of any local breeders yet.
Last edited by fljones3; 09-16-2018 at 09:06 PM.
id say im at 7 or 8 i have no desire to breed them at the moment just don't have the time but maybe someday I do think there still the king of the aquarium they have always been the most fascination fish i have keep there acually the fish that got me started in fish keeping. since then i have found a interest in keeping plecos as well but Discus will always be my favorite fish im not sure if the hobby is growing or shrinking but i still have a love for it at the end of the day i see myself keeping discus for a long time i haven't lost interest in keeping them and i love this forum and has helped me so much in keeping them
1. 6
2. in US shrinking, because Discus are harder to find in LFS, and when you do they are $$$$ not a lot of people will scour the web find this board or good stock, they impluse buy at Deathco and PetDumb
3. overall, i'd have to guess shrinking, that is based on LFS going OOB what looks like very few numbers at fish events.
4. seems like plecs get more press
5.no, not likely....no time