Tell us about yourselves....Please

[jeep]

Welcome Bart! Feel free to ask anything you wish and we'll do our best!! Nice tank!!!

[EmNick]

Hello everyone,

I am a former Discus owner and am now getting back into it after almost 15 years...so my children can enjoy the hobby I had. Discus are by far my favorite fish. My previous tank was a 46g bowfront and I had 4 Discus and 2 veil Angelfish, along with a bottlebrush nose Pleco.

This time around I am starting a 75g and plan on 6 Discus, 2 Angels, and 2 yellow bottlebrush nose Plecos. Waiting on the tank to normalize, then time for the fish.

Kids can't wait!!!

[Tschoolz]

Hi Everyone. My name is Tom I moved to Minnesota in 2019. Late 2020 I got back into Discus after about 20 years away from them. I noticed how big the aquarium hobby is here in the Twin Cities area and yet how poor the quality of discus are. I ended up with 5 breeding pairs and going strong. Never realized how difficult it can be to get quality pairs, driving and flying around the country as well as reaching out to the big name importers. I am hoping to help out my local area with knowledge on caring for discus successfully and provide an option at least for something healthy juveniles.

[Vanman]

So I joined here a couple weeks ago and thought it was about time to introduce myself. We, my wife and I, kept and bred discus about thirty years ago, pre-internet. I got the idea it was time to get some more.

We are starting small, at least compared to our last fish room. I bought four 55s on black Friday. I am building a stand for six 55s and six 29s. I think I have six 29s that are about 25-30 years old that have never been used. That is if they have not been stolen or vandalized in my storage building. I am planning on re-sealing them.

I have to get a suitable container to age water. Probably a 200-300 gallon tote. We have soft, acidic well water. It is about 40 ppm TDS. It is so soft and acidic that we can not use copper plumbing. Bad for plumbing, great for discus.

I have the wood and most of the supplies to build the stands when I get home in a few days. I work on the road as a tele-communications contractor.

After the tanks are set up and I get a water container to age water and a central air pump I can start looking for discus.
I want to get some from a breeder as this time I want excellent quality fish that have not been hormoned. Shape will trump color. We had very nice fish before, just want better this time.

Wish me luck drilling all of these tanks as I have never drilled one before. The goal is to make water changes as easy as possible. We used a pvc drain/fill system years ago but the tanks were not drilled.

[LizStreithorst]

Good luck with the drilling. You seem to know what you're doing. Are you interested in a particular strain? It will be hard to find a domestic breeder, but I'm sure they're out there. There is me, but I have nothing for sale right now (pairs are on strike) and I know a guy, John Nicholson in Texas. He used to be into Turks, but that was a long time ago. He may be breeding fish from Asian stock now. There must be more serious breeders around but he and I are the only ones I know of.

[medic60by]

Hello
I have been a Paramedic for 38 years and retiring this year. Looking forward to spending more time in my hobbies. I live in the country along with my son, no wife, on 11 acres where I've done some farming raising a variety of animals at one time, now just bees and chickens. I have BS, MS in biology and have taught school for awhile as a science teacher. I did my Master thesis on The distribution of Darters in the Allegheny River in New York state. After returning to PA I worked for the Pennsylvania Fish commission on some projects. I also was a field bioligist and worked on the Environmental impact study for the Southern Tier Expressway. I joined the Fire Dept in my community and ended up in EMS as a career medic. I guess I liked helping people who needed help and liked the challenge and diversity of all kinds of emergencies from the mundane to critical life saving situations and to think on your feet which you been trained to do.
I'm excited about raising Discus as I've been wanting to for a long time, but never seemed to have the time or the money. Now I have the time, and ready to invest in Discus and setup several tanks I had. This is a passion of mine and hopefully get into breeding. I have been raising Tropical fish since I was 11 and raising bees for 50 years. I have 4 juvenile Discus which I acquired 4 weeks ago which are growing and doing fine. I have more on the way ready for the isolation tank, including some Angels. I started a RO and water changing system which works great after drillling holes thru the floor and wall for my heated 55 gal. holding tank and drains. Looking forward to being active in this forum and learning from all of you with your knowledge and experience.

[brewmaster15]

Bill, Welcome to the hobby! I'm glad you found the forum and hope to see you around it often. Great group of people here with alot of years keeping discus. If you have questions , odds are the answers are here.

Al

Ps would love for you to share your experiences on Darters in a thread sometime.. I have always been interested in these natives.