Where are you now???..in the hobby

[brewmaster15]

I have seen alot of people come and go in the fish keeping hobby, and come and go again...I've seen some not return at all. What I have generally found is that most people get into Discus keeping and enter 1 of 2 camps.


One is the camp that keeps a tank or two of Discus and may have other species tanks, or many other species tanks. They like Discus but they also really are into alot of other fish. They often will test the discus waters a bit and usually move on eventually or get bit by the bug and stay long term. When the bug bites, they often add discus tanks.

The other group is the Hardcore Discus Nuts. They may have kept other challenging fish but they finally tried Discus and fell in love with them. Discus are their passion. They may have a few other species tanks and may dabble in new species from time to time..but the Beautiful FlatFish we call discus draws them back. These people often have multiple discus tanks, or had multiple discus tanks in the past.They may be just starting their obsession or they may have peaked and comeback down to more reasonable number of fish and tanks.

So where do you see yourself in the aquarium Hobby today.. Where have you been in the Hobby and where do you want to be in the Hobby.

Tough question for 8:30 in the morning I know. Hope to have a good solid discussions here, so if you are reading this, you obviously are somewhere in one of these groups.Make the forum a more interesting place today with a post.

al

[fljones3]

Hardcore. I do have 3 wild angels in my tank but discus are my primary (only) enjoyment.
I have 3 different size tank but presently have 5 discus, 3 angels in my 40g breeder. Will have to move to a bigger tank soon but evaluating how I want to proceed.

[dagray]

I raised swordtails in high school in a 10 gallon tank, but sold everything when I went in the service.

In 2012 I started a 75 gallon tank and picked up some dime sized discus and raised them up to seven inches, and sold the survivors which included a proven breeding pair due to financial issues when I took a second pay cut to remain a federal employee.

I kept that tank running with the few plecos, and have since after a tank crash started with dither fish (hatchets, cardinals, rummynose), and then recently I picked up five Altum Angels. I will get a couple debts paid off and get some of the F2 wilds from Hans to add to the 75 gallon tank.

My youngest wants a tank in his room so we are going to clean up a 20 gallon and start him with some dither fish and some south american dwarf cichlids.

[jeep]

After being away for 10 or so years, and back for almost 5, and finally finishing some major remodeling projects, I plan on revolving my home around discus. I have a pretty small home with no basement, so I'm redoing the plumbing and electrical in the most compact and efficient way I can think of so as to maximize living space while increasing tank space. I've been a discus snob since the beginning and I'd like to sell some high quality domestically bred discus to at least help off-set the cost of the hobby - something I was just starting to do years ago before a lightening storm wiped me out. Now if I could figure out how to put large quantities of water storage in my crawl space I'd be set, lol...

[AquaticNerd]

I'm probably in one of the stranger categories since I don't really fit in with any of these currently.

I moved house almost 2 years ago, so had to take down the only aquarium I had running at the time. Hired movers to take care of all the heavy lifting because a rimless 100g aquarium is HEAVY. Everything went fine with the move, but between moving in, Covid, and renovations I knew I didn't have the appropriate time to dedicate to these wonderful fish. A few weeks ago I was making plans to get set back up (Liz's babies have been too enticing). I went to the basement where the movers delivered the tank and found a large chip in the bottom corner of the aquarium, basically making it a huge paperweight now. So for the time being I won't be keeping discus. Have lots of stuff going on in the near future as well so probably best to stay out of the hobby until I can give the fishes the best.

Where would I like to be? I'd love to have a fishroom like Liz, Tammy, and many others. I'd also like to be at the point where I can breed some strains that are really appealing to me, such as Liz's Blue SS, etc. As a techie, I'd like to get to the point of having a fully automated water change system if I ever got to the point of having enough tanks.

[brady]

Definitely hardcore although I have down sizes considerably to the point of 5 fish from Liz.
They are in a 50 Gal.and I a hoping they breed in the future. If the do I will give you some Al.
Jay

[brewmaster15]

Definitely hardcore although I have down sizes considerably to the point of 5 fish from Liz.
They are in a 50 Gal.and I a hoping they breed in the future. If the do I will give you some Al.
Jay

Thank you Jay!

al

[Iminit]

Not sure if I’m either of those. With discus I consider myself a keeper. I keep discus not into breeding. I enjoy keeping fish in general. Like a challenge and discus are a challenge . Kept discus for around 15 yrs from the late 80s till 04. Got back into thinking they got to be easier now. Think I was wrong. I got into cherry shrimp about 5+yrs ago after reading that they were hard to keep and needed certain water conditions. On another site I was told there were things I would need to do. But before I started the shrimp started breeding like crazy. With that not being a challenge I got back into discus and have been keeping them since. I also keep clown loaches a feather fin and just started with hillstream loaches. They are a very interesting fish. I also unintentionally breed bosemani rainbow fish. So I consider myself a fish hobbiest.

[GalaxyKoiBoi]

I'm not a discus keeper anymore, but I greatly value my time with them. The discipline and knowledge I gained from raising a group of 3" fish to 5+" is extremely valuable, and has set me up to be a better fishkeeper. I also value the people I've met here and learned so much from.

I pop in from time to time to see how things are going here, but I've switched back to what first got me into serious fish keeping, african cichlids. Fish that are a little less demanding of time and effort are what fits my life right now, but maybe some day I will keep discus again.

[bluelagoon]

I started the hobby at about 12 years old. It was a 25gal. with the steal frames that I asked for a Christmas gift. I believe it was before silicone. The interest first caught my eyes when my father used to take me and my brother to a gun and tackle sports shop. They had a nice planted tank in their shop full of endlers and other livebearers. My eyes got glued to that tank every time I went there. I was fascinated by the balance of life in such a small space. The lady said that if I ever get an aquarium that she would give me some endlers. The first Christmas I didn't get the tank that I wanted; the second Christmas I did. Since then I've had fish tanks of all kinds of species from all over the world. There isn't much that I didn't keep over the years. I have bred and sold some fish to help pay for the hobby. As I got a bit older there was a time that I kept multiple tanks and liked species only tanks the best. I also liked planted tanks and have always had at least one planted tank in my living room. I kept discus for about 15 years but non now and don't think I will because of my age 68/health and I'm down to 4 tanks now. I still check out Simple Discus and other forums out every day and read the posts.

[pitdogg2]

I've been at the pause stage the last 7-8 yrs. Lost my fish room to a divorce and gave all my Discus to @twocat when it happened. All my gear went to storage when I moved in with my mother during the divorce. While living with her it was readily apparent that I would be taking of her until her end of life which happened last July 2022. July 2020 we had a major flood event that flooded the basement where I was living. We had a major sewer backup during a 5 day rainstorm that LAUNCHED 18" of sewage into the living area. This happened to most of the city and 95% of the people in my subdivision. Mind you this was basically an apartment in the basement. Remediation was $12,000 dollars all drywall had to be removed 6' high, so all cabinetry also had to go of course, lost 60% of everything I owned. Insurance covered $5000 of the total loss. As of now I own the house but it will be awhile before I get a fishroom back as we all know everything got real hard to get and real expensive during the COVID factor. The basement is still open 2x4 walls, I installed a new breaker panel (which it never had before) and all new 12ga wiring switching out all the 14ga wire that was run off a 20amp circuit which as many of you know is a fire hazard to the extreme. I've no idea why my father thought this was a good idea when he built the house in 1992. When I seen it I was amazed I didn't wake up dead one morning! As time and funds permit I will hang new rock and have another fish room with all the thing I know I'll need to make it much easier than toting 2 5 gallon buckets to remove water and fill tanks, I'm not getting any younger ya know Anyways I miss my room something fierce as I've had a tank or 12 since I was 15 yrs old.
I'll get there !!

To give more context mom and dad never once had water in the basement since the house was built in 1992 poured walls instead of block foundation. The amount of city residents that had sewage was astronomical, enough to cause a class action lawsuit for answers. Since a vast amount of the city lost power many and rightfully so blamed the city for sewage pumps failures due to lact of electricity and failure of the back up generators that failed to kick on with the power outage. Somehow the city got everything throw out of the court system BUT offered to do bulk pickup free of charge (so kind of them )

[captainandy]

Hardcore.
1) view simply at least 3 times a day
2) always scouring the internet for a deal on a bigger tank
3) check aquabid twice a day
4) check eBay for discus and plecos
5) sign onto planet catfish daily
6……………

[brewmaster15]

I've been at the pause stage the last 7-8 yrs. Lost my fish room to a divorce and gave all my Discus to @twocat when it happened. All my gear went to storage when I moved in with my mother during the divorce. While living with her it was readily apparent that I would be taking of her until her end of life which happened last July 2022. July 2020 we had a major flood event that flooded the basement where I was living. We had a major sewer backup during a 5 day rainstorm that LAUNCHED 18" of sewage into the living area. This happened to most of the city and 95% of the people in my subdivision. Mind you this was basically an apartment in the basement. Remediation was $12,000 dollars all drywall had to be removed 6' high, so all cabinetry also had to go of course, lost 60% of everything I owned. Insurance covered $5000 of the total loss. As of now I own the house but it will be awhile before I get a fishroom back as we all know everything got real hard to get and real expensive during the COVID factor. The basement is still open 2x4 walls, I installed a new breaker panel (which it never had before) and all new 12ga wiring switching out all the 14ga wire that was run off a 20amp circuit which as many of you know is a fire hazard to the extreme. I've no idea why my father thought this was a good idea when he built the house in 1992. When I seen it I was amazed I didn't wake up dead one morning! As time and funds permit I will hang new rock and have another fish room with all the thing I know I'll need to make it much easier than toting 2 5 gallon buckets to remove water and fill tanks, I'm not getting any younger ya know Anyways I miss my room something fierce as I've had a tank or 12 since I was 15 yrs old.
I'll get there !!

To give more context mom and dad never once had water in the basement since the house was built in 1992 poured walls instead of block foundation. The amount of city residents that had sewage was astronomical, enough to cause a class action lawsuit for answers. Since a vast amount of the city lost power many and rightfully so blamed the city for sewage pumps failures due to lact of electricity and failure of the back up generators that failed to kick on with the power outage. Somehow the city got everything throw out of the court system BUT offered to do bulk pickup free of charge (so kind of them )

That is a huge bummer. Sounds like its been a really rough few years. Im really sorry for the loss of your mom. The older we get, the more common it becomes among friends losing their aging family members. Never easy at all.

Your flood. I can relate. We had similar here. During the pandemic we had so much time at home my son and I re-did our basement.This had been my fishroom which I gave up when the kids were in highschool and turned it into a place for them and their friends. We decided to gut it and went whole hog.. engineered laminate.. new sheetrock.. new doors ..new paint..new throw rugs.. new couches.. you get the idea.That room had not flooded in over 10 years ..not since I dug up the curtain drain and put a new one in... just had finished the room and a storm hit.... we saw an insane amount of rain. I was at the hospital with mom for chemo when I got the panic call from my wife and kids.. there was 6 inches of water in the basement.. it was like a river pouring in from the foundation. They pumped it as best they could but it was just too much.. By the time I got home alls we could do was open the back door and sweep it out as it poured in. The room was trashed after that and my home office was as well... it was devastating. Im still paying for the original renovation. The storm washed out my gravel driveway . $10,000 in repairs there. I wont even go into the inside cost.We ended up digging up the old driveway and curtain drain and re engineering the whole thing..I now have a curtain drain that should withstand monsoon flooding. Of course all of this happened during the pandemic when funds were non-existent. So yeah.. I feel your pain my friend.

[Willie]

Going, going ... but not yet gone.

My wife and I just downsized from a 4-bedroom house to a 2-bedroom apartment, because it's about time. The original plan was to get a 3-bedroom apartment so that I could keep my fishroom. Then we saw this new construction with a 6' X 9' walk-in closet which clinched the deal - for me at least.

I set up a 6'-foot rack on one side for a 125 and a 4'-foot rack on the opposite side for a 110. The lower racks have tanks for water conditioning, medication, breeding, etc. It's been up for a week now and I just finished my first water change, so the system works.

The 125 has most Angel Blue Diamonds and leopards, as well as wild caught manacapuru angelfish. I don't like keeping domesticated angelfish with discus, but wild angels have always done fine.



There's a spawning colony of L-398 Panagolus tankei in there with them and that piece of driftwood is riddled with fry.

The 110 has just altum angelfish and some dithers. A 110-gallon tank is 30" tall so the largest angels are ~12" high. I'm hoping for 14" when they're full grown.



The system is perfect ... until someone starts breeding.

[jwcarlson]

I wouldn't consider myself hardcore, especially not with discus... I've got the following tanks set up: 10, 10, 29, 37, 46 bowfront, 55, and 75. A 90 I need to pick up this spring and an empty 125 to do something with... need to reseal it. Also have a 29 to reseal.
I just have the one tank of growouts as far as discus go... that's been going for a year. I've said elsewhere on here that I'm not sure what the future holds with me and discus. I do not know how... interesting... I find the more adult discus. They just kind of exist. I appreciate them, but don't feel drawn to them necessarily. If that makes sense. But I have to force myself away from my apisto tanks most nights or I'll sit down there for 30+ minutes while discus tank is draining/refilling instead of doing dishes or laundry. They're just... more interesting, I guess. I appreciate the beauty and grace of my discus, but I wish they would freaking do something sometimes. They don't even chase each other or the tetras around! One of them started staring at the driftwood and I thought she might be thinking of laying eggs, but nothing really happened there. To be clear, I don't want them to lay eggs, necessarily... though it would immediately become more interesting. Just wish they'd do something. haha

Part of me wants to grow out different discus and sell the ones I've got... I'm already doing nightly water changes... part of me wants to get the 125 resealed and move the discus into that... give them lots of space and up the dither school, but keep the bioload low and just let them do their thing in a bigger space. But that means they'd move downstairs into the fish room.
I've been a fishkeeper for quite some time, I'm 38 and have had at least one aquarium for the majority of my life. I've got a number of different "things" going on in tanks right now. What I could see my fishkeeping moving into is breeding something successfully and then getting bored with it and spawning something else. The trouble is finding an outlet for the fish created. If these apistos successfully spawn, I'll get a chance to see what I can to do move some of them. That could open some doors for outlets for other projects. I do find myself drawn to things that I don't often see. I've never seen an apisto in person until I opened the box that the seller sent mine in. One concern I have is that might very well mean that no one else wants them and that's why no one here carries them.

Until then I'll just keep plowing along.