Shan's First Discus Journey

[seanyuki]

Have you talked to Hans about your displeasure with the discus.....

[Discus-Hans]

Yes he did contact me, and said get back to me later, I know you are busy.

Copy and past: " Anyways I'm in no rush to get anything resolved or expect anything (ex refund). I just wanted to share my concerns with you. I wish you a very happy Christmas and new year bro. We can talk more after the holidays if you're busy no rush"


And yes I'm busy trying to get Discus that should have been delivered yesterday to get to my customers. Hate it when before I can even reply to him, they are complaining on the forum already. Just pisses me off.

[Shan_Evolved]

Sharing my experience, positive or negative is part of this thread and in no way did I mean offense or complaint towards anything. Displeasure maybe, but I have stated in my own post I love these discus the same and am only concerned they are eating. Mixture of lack of experience on my own end as well as the rough year I've already had with my discus the first time maybe to blame. For that I am sorry for any offense I may have caused. Only trying to be truthful and honest about everything and mean well.

After all, isn't this what a forum journey thread is for? For a returning customer who has spent hundreds of dollars on Hans, I don't appreciate being treated subpar especially with a deal that was made multiple weeks prior to delivery. If I posted something negative about the fish and have the proof of it, it may be unfortunate but why should I withhold that part of the process?

I don't appreciate the tone Hans has given me despite me being as polite and forward as I can. I specifically asked multiple times for pictures and to please pick the best looking discus he could, and I have been ignored for days or forgotten about for awhile. This wasn't a last minute deal. I have been talking to him for weeks prior. But it's okay, I understood he was busy and hoped he would pay attention when he could.

What happened in the end? Just pick discus at random the day of and send them to me because I'm just one customer in a sea of thousands. I did not mean my post as a complaint, and to be treated with this kind of respect really makes me hurt. Not only does my money feel worthless, but my attempted relationship with hans gets kicked in the gut too.

Trying my best here to have a good relationship - - but if sharing my experience good or bad makes me directly piss of hans - -I really don't know what to do.

[Iminit]

Wow a little shocked here! Yeah it’s been a tough year but no reason to be pissed! Yes Shan this is a place to talk about your fish. You weren’t complaining and saying what you thought. You were very quickly told by other members that your fish look good and should be fine, you seemed very happy to here that. I think the forum did its job. Sorry Hans your answer was abrupt and not thought out. I too have bought your fish and do recommend them to any who ask. But as stated your fish take time to grow into there shape. It’s easy to get upset.
As to your new discus yes I think they’ll be fine. With your water change routine they should grow nicely. Good luck with them .

[LizStreithorst]

Shawn, when I read what you thought of them I was expecting bad fish. Darlin' these are very nice fish! Willie nailed it when he said that they looked like they hadn't totally adjusted to their new home yet. It's looks to me that you got these shortly after Hans separated the wheat from the chaff in his tanks or he went out of his way to choose nice ones for you.

[seanyuki]

When you buy from an online seller you are probably buying normal discus unless the seller specify it as show quality or show potential.It’s also how you take the photos of the discus.I don’t see big flaws in them.

[LizStreithorst]

Wow a little shocked here! Yeah it’s been a tough year but no reason to be pissed! Yes Shan this is a place to talk about your fish. You weren’t complaining and saying what you thought. You were very quickly told by other members that your fish look good and should be fine, you seemed very happy to here that. I think the forum did its job. Sorry Hans your answer was abrupt and not thought out. I too have bought your fish and do recommend them to any who ask. But as stated your fish take time to grow into there shape. It’s easy to get upset.
As to your new discus yes I think they’ll be fine. With your water change routine they should grow nicely. Good luck with them .

This is an open forum. Hansie is a member and has the total right to respond to being accused of sending out poor quality fish.

[Shan_Evolved]

Thank you all for the encouragement.

I do love my new fish, dont get me wrong. I'm gonna do my best to grow them up. I'm putting everyday into cleaning and changing water and feeding, and will continue to love and nurture them to their best potential.

I meant no harm in my posts, just frustrated with comparing these new discus to my own 4" batch. I had to pull tooth and nail to convince the Mrs. that spending double the money for a 4" would be worth it, and our first impression of the fish was a bit underwhelming. They are 3.5-3.75" so they seem a bit smaller than my own batch which are 4-4.25". I think my fire red is actually 4.5" now despite the less feedings. So when I recieved 4" fish, I really thought they would be more close in size to my own, which they seemed significantly smaller

But regardless, I meant no harm and just wanted your experienced opinions - of which I got. I did not by any means mean to offend anyone, especailly hans.

If you're reading this hans - sorry mate , I truly do apologize and love the fish

[Iminit]

Yes Liz I do understand that. And as an open forum I openly put out my opinion. Is that wrong?

[seanyuki]

You mentioned u are keeping 11 discus in a 55 gallons tank and add the three new discus in quarantine tank to the main tank assuming after the 6-8 weeks quarantine period and grow them to 5 ins and put them to a bigger tank....you also said the second batch is not growing properly to their full potential......IMO how can 11 Discus grow to their full potential in such a small tank......my two cents.

[Johnny95132]

Hey Shan, I've been following your discus keeping journey from the first batch and I think you're truly trying to keep discus in the right way. Meaning that you don't cut corners and always strive to give your fish the best care possible. From every post I've read, I saw that you've never missed a single water change and have been attentive to your discus, giving them medicine and home made food to nurture them. I was shocked when your first batch succumbed to disease given the utmost care you provided. With the care you've provided, you didn't deserve that outcome. I sincerely wish the best for you in your discus keeping journey. Stay on course with your top notch care, and you'll have some stunners.

[LizStreithorst]

Yes Liz I do understand that. And as an open forum I openly put out my opinion. Is that wrong?

No, not wrong. Saying that he was pissed off when he was defending his reputation was wrong.

[Acerrato]

Shan, I think it was okay to feel disappointed that the fish didn't look exactly how you thought they would. You're used to getting smaller fish, so you expected a 4" fish to look a certain way - and I totally get that... However, in my experience, the 5" fish is where it's at.. They're the ones where you'll have a pretty good idea of what shape they'll have when they do reach full potential (6"+). If you would have received 5" fish and were disappointed with their size/shape, I'd say that this would be more concerning. The 4" fish still have SO much growing & developing to do... and if you hadn't directly purchased 4" fish in the past, I can understand why you may have been a bit surprised when you received yours - you may have thought they'd be larger or more developed because you're not used to receiving 4" fish as opposed to one that's larger and more developed. As I mentioned earlier, my last couple of purchases from Hans were 5" fish and I can say, they were well worth the $$... absolutely stunning fish in shape/size/color. Going forward, i'll only be purchasing 5"+ fish from him. The way that you were hoping you'd feel when you received these new fish, is how I felt when I got my 5" fish.. I just sat there staring at them for hours and days because they were just so gorgeous. So I can totally understand why you may have been disappointed... but I assure you, those fish you have are beautiful and will only become more beautiful as they grow.

Between COVID, the holidays, other things happening in the world, I think that everyone is more stressed out than usual. I can understand Hans' frustration too.. he's been busting his butt making sure he gets his orders out, trying to keep everyone happy and FedEx has just been a mess lately losing packages/delivering late... the late/missing packages cause unhappy customers, fish that may arrive DOA or in bad shape, etc... and I could imagine that it's extremely stressful for everyone involved.

Wishing you and the rest of the forum a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holiday)!

[Shan_Evolved]

@sean

I don't have the luxury nor room in my small townhouse to fit a 125 and do daily 50% aged water changes. So I make due with a 55 and almost daily water changes. A lot of the batch is growing great and any mishaps that may have hurt their growth had to do with my own inexperience (squeezing sponge filters). I have a handful of discus at 6 months old that I can see showing show discus type shapes and qualities - even with my mishaps so I am hoping that my hard work is paying off. That being said, I see the group fast approaching 5" and I am currently searching for a brand new 125 to purchase. But due to COVID, it's so difficult to have one ordered no matter what LFS I go to.


@Johnny

Thanks so much for your kinds words and heart. I truly appreciate the love and having my hard work recognized at least somewhere. Life is too hard with all this stress and we need more of you bro


@Amanda

You are probably 100% correct. Your post comforts me because my inexperience lets my fear of the unknown grow. You are right in I totally expected a different fish at 4", especially comparing to my own, but the fish I received are actually great none the less. Maybe one day I can purchase some 5" fish from hans and he wont kill me lol

[Acerrato]

I've learned a wholeeeeee lot over the last 10 months.. I've been a complete pain in the butt at times to multiple people, including Hans.... lol. So, I had originally purchased 15 4" fish from him. A couple of months later I purchased an additional 4" fish from him... When the new fish arrived, he was smaller than the rest of my 4" fish. I thought he was smaller than 4" until I realized that my original 4" fish were now 4.5"-5" fish and I just hadn't realized that they had actually grown. So I wouldn't say that it's "inexperience" on your part.. It's kind of like when you see the same person every single day.. you may not notice that they have gained or lost weight because that change happened gradually, not suddenly - so you just can't tell right away until you compare it to a photo that had been taken months ago and then you're able to see the difference... I hope that makes sense, I know it's a weird example. I think you've come a long way and have learned a lot from when you had your very first batch of fish!

And then when I purchased my 5" fish from him, they were bigger than my other fish in the tank - so they immediately looked stunning to me because they were just so much larger and more "full" looking.