Getting fish again! Not discus but wanted to say hello

[GalaxyKoiBoi]

Hi everyone, lots of changes in my life since I last posted here. Previously I had to give up my discus to a local breeder due to several reasons, but a couple months later I'm happy to say I am able to get back into fishkeeping.

I've accepted a new position with the city government that not only pays better than my old corporate finance job, but also will require no travel and have much more reasonable hours. I've picked up a new Aqueon 150 long for a very, very reasonable price from the LFS a couple of towns over. With the baby on the way my wife and I agreed discus will just require too much time and effort for now, even with no travelling for my job. I have however, secured a colony of extremely rare scianochromis paradise and sunsets from an old friend that I will be keeping once the new tank is set up. I will also be working with the local discus breeder to breed said colony of scianochromis, so between us we can hopefully make this rare fish more available in the states (the original fish was bred by a German breeder who doesn't like to import unless you're spending $$$$ at a time).

While not discus, I absolutely enjoyed my time with them and more importantly the people I had the pleasure of knowing here on this site. So, wanted to say hello and maybe I will be updating here soon when the fish arrive and I'm all set up. For now, here are my tanks waiting for me to build a stand and start cycling them.

Hope everyone is doing well!

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[jwcarlson]

Glad to hear that your career situation is improved and that you're getting back on the horse! I know everyone is different, but when we had infants I felt like I had a good amount of time to be doing "dinking around the house stuff". Looking back (ours are 10 (how?), going on 8, and going on 5) those couple of years that they basically need to be carried around were great because I had all sorts of built in excuse to just kind of be lazy. I have never and will never again watch as much TV and movies as I did when we had infants. We adopted the youngest one when she was ~18 months, so kind of missed the infant stage with her, but you can do lots of things with your kids if you have a few baby carrier devices. I've walked the dogs with the youngest on my back, could easily change water doing the same (or on the front)... some of them will even sleep on you like that. Ours would never sleep alone in a crib, but would be more than happy to nap "on" us or in a carrier. I have never been much of a sleeper, so more nocturnal activities have always been my cup of tea.

Not saying you should run out and get discus, but you might find after the baby arrives that you could sneak in some additional hobby stuff. Hope all goes well with your wife, the baby, and the fish, Josh!

Please do keep us updated!

[LizStreithorst]

Good to hear, Josh. Any word on how the Discus are doing with the local guy?

[GalaxyKoiBoi]

Absolutely I will update here! Appreciate the advice, Jacob. We are going to need all the help and info we can get!

I figure a few weekends and half a dozen trips to Home Depot should get a stand/bookcase built on the wall of my home office. The plan is to have the 75 gallon below the 150. I'll keep a breeding group of 20 females and 1 male in the 75, and keep the 150 open for my male show tank.

The discus are doing great, Liz. I will have to take some pictures next time I'm over there. The altum floras are filling out and getting their adult color - which is stunning. Your snake skins are still growing, mostly upwards as the high body traits develop. Nice that I can still see my old fish from time to time.

Here is a picture of a scianochromis paradise breeder male. This is one of the strains I'll be working with. As far as I'm concerned, these are some of the most beautiful african cichlids one can acquire and I'm beyond excited to work with these fish.

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[LizStreithorst]

What a beautiful fish!

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Josh, that is a gorgeous fish and so glad you are getting back into the hobby. I am looking forward to more posts and pics of these gorgeous fish. Also congrats on the little one, that is exciting also.
Pat