Tell us about yourselves....Please

[Filip]

Hello everyone!
My name is Lew. I live north of Pittsburgh and yes I do play the tuba. I've had my ups and downs with keeping Discus but each time I can say was a great learning experience. Looking back it's clear to me that all my biggest issues could easily be connected to lack of water monitoring (the digital monitor was a great investment, see pic below), water changes, plus some poor diet issues (both me and the fish LOL!) My current set up is a bare bottom 90 gallon. I'm running 2 canisters (Rena xp2 and Hydor 350) each with attached sponge prefilters and inline 300 watt heaters. This is a bit much but if one filter goes down I have a seasoned back up still running. My past water change habits had been 30% weekly but are now 50% twice a week and bigger if water issues are detected. I just received 20 amazing 3 inch Discus from Hans. Housing will eventually expand to add another 90 or bigger. Before you judge me about the castle. I'm a Harry Potter fan and my daughter got that for me. As many like to keep natural looking tanks I understand your feelings but I love that it came from my girls and it also got them a little more interested in the hobby. As for diet I am feeding Colbalt Discus flakes, frozen beefheart and bloodworms, and just got some of Al's freeze dried blackworms today. Wow! They loved it. Thanks Al! Should have ordered a bigger package. Attachment 108527Attachment 108528

Hi tubaman and welcome to the forum.
I actually like your new and interesting look of the tank with your castle and rocks even though its not natural .It looks colourful and playfull with all the discus in it .
I would advise you to up your WCs since you have pretty small juvie discus and plus they are more than 20 in your 90g tank , which is a big bioload that needs more maintenance .
Good luck with your new 20 discus , and please send us some more pics from them , once they arrive in your new tank.

[Filip]

Hi all,
I am Marcus from Tong, England. I've been keeping fish in one way or another for 30+, tropical and cold water (Koi ponds) but never marine fish or Discus. I've never had any ambition regarding marine but Discus were always a fish that I really wanted to look after. Thirty years ago you had to be some kind of guru that hovered 12" obove the ground anywhere you went!! Anyway knowledge and experience move on regardless, I think it's less daunting now that we have excellent resources like this forum on the internet...imagine before internet, mobile phones and you had a landline only if you could afford it. (I couldnt).
Anyways, I now have a suitable tank, filtration system and a plan for a WC system so in a few weeks I'll be getting 9 Stendker. At the moment I have two other tanks running a 130L that has a pair of angels and 10 black neons and a 180L with a pair of Apistogramma in. I'm pretyy sure I'll offload one of those tanks once I've set the new one up.
Anyway thanks. I'll post pics when I'm done.

Hi Marcus and welcome to Simply discus .
I'm glad that you are about to finally fulfill your childhood dream and keep discus fish in your tank . They sure are completely different experience from all the rest of the freshwaters IMO and I hope you'll get addicted to them too , as we are .
Looking forward in seeing your progress and your photos from the Stendkers .

[Jandiscus]

Hi,
My name is Jan Carsten but I go by JC. I am originally from Germany, which is where my love for discus started. I now live in Michigan. I had fish tanks since I was 10 years old. I first came across discus in the early 1990ies. The fish I would see and read about in books and magazines looked much different from what I was able to find in local fish stores. No local breeders nor experts to be found anywhere. Needless to say, I went onto a long and painful learning curve. My biggest challenge has been that I had to move every 3-5 years for work and couldn’t take my fish with me. So every time I jumped back into this hobby, I had to start from scratch.

I am back to the hobby and have recently set up two 65gal tanks. I have read hundreds of posts on here and feel so much more confident about this hobby thanks to the great amount of expertise displayed on this forum. Even with on and off experience over the past 25 years, I learned a lot of new things and saw some off the things I knew already confirmed in greater depth. Thank you!

I am looking forward to interacting with everyone.

Best,
JC

[Filip]

Hi,
My name is Jan Carsten but I go by JC. I am originally from Germany, which is where my love for discus started. I now live in Michigan. I had fish tanks since I was 10 years old. I first came across discus in the early 1990ies. The fish I would see and read about in books and magazines looked much different from what I was able to find in local fish stores. No local breeders nor experts to be found anywhere. Needless to say, I went onto a long and painful learning curve. My biggest challenge has been that I had to move every 3-5 years for work and couldn’t take my fish with me. So every time I jumped back into this hobby, I had to start from scratch.

I am back to the hobby and have recently set up two 65gal tanks. I have read hundreds of posts on here and feel so much more confident about this hobby thanks to the great amount of expertise displayed on this forum. Even with on and off experience over the past 25 years, I learned a lot of new things and saw some off the things I knew already confirmed in greater depth. Thank you!

I am looking forward to interacting with everyone.

Best,
JC

Welcome to our discus crew JC .
Im glad that this forum helped you gain the confidence in starting over with discus again and im looking forward to enjoy your updates from your future discus . Do not hesitate to start new threads and ask questions here.

[Jandiscus]

Thanks for the warm welcome Filip!

[Bethzb]

Good morning. My name is Beth and I've been keeping fish for around 30 yrs. I've worked in fish only shops and regular pet shops and mail order shops etc.. I have always had a fascination with life under water and since I was a child and converted my first wading pool to a pond, I've always brought some of that fascination home with me.

Up until a couple of years ago, that fascination was with a living reef system that I had in my 125 for 8 or 9 years. Due to some medical issues, I had to break the tank down and decide what I would do with it. After a year of thought and planning, I decided to go with discus, in particular the German Stendker discus as I did not want to do more then keep them fed, clean, and warm.

I now have 9 discus fish in the 125 with a dirt bottom and a layer of course gravel, assorted plants that are tolerant of the high temps discus require, and a few "dither" fish. The discus seem happy and are growing well and aside from one I refer to as the "genetic anomaly", every one is as beautiful as I expected.

I chose to begin with fish already past the childhood woes and started off with 4" fish. This allowed me to keep the feeding, and associated waste down to the minimum required for adult fish though they still get fed 3 times a day and still get a once a week water change.

Although I had no intentions of breeding, the fish did not get that message and have decided to do their own thing with multiple spawns happening what seems like all the time. Unfortunately, the males (assuming they are males) don't seem to understand their part beyond displaying, nest cleaning, and guarding their turf. So, I have joined here to ask questions in the breeding forum. If ever a male actually fertilizes the eggs, I may give it a shot.

[RogueDiscus]

Hi Beth and welcome to SD.
Sorry no one has replied sooner. Sounds like you have done your homework related to your tank setup. Hope all continues to go well. We always like to see tank pics If your discus are comfortable, they will pair up and spawn. Sometimes two females will spawn, with obviously no fry. If you do develop a pair, they may spawn every couple weeks, and may get territorial in your tank. Not much you can do about it. As long as they don't hurt anyone else, everyone will do their thing and get by. The fry rarely survive in a community tank. If you want to raise a batch of fry, check out are breeding section. A separate tank for breeding is not usually a problem, but you need to be prepared to have enough tank space and daily water changes for the fry.

[ventura]

Hello,
My names Lou and it was suggested I introduce myself here, so here I am. Im a single dad raising my kids alone. They are teenagers though so the raisings mostly done. I kept Discus about 10 years ago and had to leave the hobby for a while. I have bred them and several other South America cichlids. I currently keep some misc.trops but am planning on getting discus again very soon.While looking on the Web I found this place and lurked a long time. Decided to join and glad I did. Seems like a lively group of hobbyists here.Hope to fit in and learn what I have missed the past 10 or so years. I know enough to keep them alive,raise them and breed them. Thats got to count for something ,right?

Thanks for the great forum.
Lou

[Ryan925]

Hello,
My names Lou and it was suggested I introduce myself here, so here I am. Im a single dad raising my kids alone. They are teenagers though so the raisings mostly done. I kept Discus about 10 years ago and had to leave the hobby for a while. I have bred them and several other South America cichlids. I currently keep some misc.trops but am planning on getting discus again very soon.While looking on the Web I found this place and lurked a long time. Decided to join and glad I did. Seems like a lively group of hobbyists here.Hope to fit in and learn what I have missed the past 10 or so years. I know enough to keep them alive,raise them and breed them. Thats got to count for something ,right?

Thanks for the great forum.
Lou

Welcome Lou. I'm sure the basics are the same but I can imagine many of the process have been updated in the past decade. Good luck in your new venture and look forward to seeing your plans and progress. Be sure to start a tank journal when you are ready and never be afraid to ask too many questions here, especially "stupid" ones. It can only help

[hayhar27]

Hi, my name is Mike and I have been keeping fish for the last 20 years. It all started when I took at job at a pet store in college and instantly feel in love with fish.....then discus and iguanas. I currently have a discus tank, 8 iguanas (my wife is very understanding) a red eye tree frog and hermit crabs. I have 2 beautiful children, a 12 year old daughter and a 5 year old son (who will have way more knowledge about discus than me in about 5 years.) Other than taking care of my family and my animal family, I enjoy running, cycling and coaching my kids sports teams. I'm an avid sports fan love a good hamburger.

Thanks to all who provided great advice on this forum already.

[Gofishjim]

Hey to all. My name is Jim Hanley and live just outside of Buffalo ny on the shores of lake erie. I have among other occupations been a charter captain on the great lakes for going on 40 years (www.northeastoutdoors.com) i also hosted and produced a fishing tv series for 18 years called Jim Hanley's Northeast Outdoors, which appeared on the outdoor channel.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved creatures that swim and crawl. I used to take my pet turtles in the tub with me and even had an old clawfoot tub in my backyard that was always filled with bluegill, bass and turtles. My bedroom when i was 10, had a tank with bluegills and pumpkin seeds that I would watch as I fell asleep. There was always a tank going somewhere in my apartments and even I had a pair of mated eastern painted turtles that fed from my fingers for 15 years until I had to move and gave the to my zoo. In the late 90's to early 2000's between editing tv shows I was involved in raising and breeding orandas and lionheads. My office hummed from the sound of canisters and airstones as those big beautiful goldfish would do everything possible to get my attention. I had 4 55s going at that time and I snickered when I read al z's comments about doing 10% water changes on goldfish. I did, at the very least 50% water changes every other day and most days, every day...with a bucket and siphon. If you want goldfish to grow, as with discus, constant waters changes are a must!! I haven't had an aquarium set up since 2005 but with my job as a guide I'm contanstnty dealing with bait such as golden and emerald shiners as well as crayfish so I have a bait tank running in my garage from April to November. It's no different then caring for an aquarium in your den or basement except that you are constantly taking bait out and then replenishing with fresh stock from the bait seller. it's quite a sophisticated unit called a minnow master. (http://www.minnowmaster.com) It's complete with a 3 stage filter, giant air pump and a chiller. Minnows keep best at 52 degrees until used. On a dual basis I'm acclamating them to the temp in my boats livewell tank so as not to shock them. Live bait has its own set of problems you learn to deal with...

I've always loved discus but never felt I had the time to devote to them until now that Im becoming an old guy. I hope to be able to breed and eventually sell them to supplement my income as I grow too old to be on a rocking and rolling boat on Lake Erie everyday. I still guide about 150 days a year and work on the TV crew for the Buffalo sabres and other professional sports teams but those extremely physical jobs will come to an end in a few years so I'm in the process of setting up a fish room in the basement. Over this past winter, a Facebook buddy had been posting aquarium pix, most being of discus and they simple got into my head and I cant get the images of them out ha. Ive been working on the room for a few months between fishing everyday and sleeping as often as possible. Im planning a fully automated water changing system ( 100 gal Rubbermaid horse trough as my reservoir) and sumps for all of the tanks. The tanks, 1-55 4-20 highs 4-20 longs and 2 29s have all been drilled and painted, stands have been built and now the basement walls are being insulated and electrical outlets installed. I plan on getting at least a 75 and 125 when I can rope my son and his strong buddies into carrying them down those long steps to the basement. I'll keep you posted on my progress as I'm in no hurry and want to be super ready when that first shipment of discus arrives. Always remember... there is never enough time to do it right the first time but always enough time to do it over.

Best Fishes
Jim

[avraamp]

Hi all,

My name is Makis and I am from Athens, Greece. I have a 450 liters tank with 11 Stendker Discus and a DIY tank 70 liters with Apistogramma Borellii and ember tetra.
I keep tanks with fishes for 2 years now, so I have to learn many things.
I decided to join the forum as i saw many interesting things about our hobby and discus and I want to read and learn about this wonderful hobby.

I am looking forward to contacting everyone,
Best
Makis

[Filip]

Hi, my name is Mike and I have been keeping fish for the last 20 years. It all started when I took at job at a pet store in college and instantly feel in love with fish.....then discus and iguanas. I currently have a discus tank, 8 iguanas (my wife is very understanding) a red eye tree frog and hermit crabs. I have 2 beautiful children, a 12 year old daughter and a 5 year old son (who will have way more knowledge about discus than me in about 5 years.) Other than taking care of my family and my animal family, I enjoy running, cycling and coaching my kids sports teams. I'm an avid sports fan love a good hamburger.

Thanks to all who provided great advice on this forum already.

Hi Mike . Thanks for your introduction and welcome to the forum .
Hope you and your kids too , will enjoy spending a great time here learning about discus and this hobby .
Have fun and don't be hesitant to learn through asking questions and posting new topics .

[Filip]

Hey to all. My name is Jim Hanley and live just outside of Buffalo ny on the shores of lake erie. I have among other occupations been a charter captain on the great lakes for going on 40 years (www.northeastoutdoors.com) i also hosted and produced a fishing tv series for 18 years called Jim Hanley's Northeast Outdoors, which appeared on the outdoor channel.

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved creatures that swim and crawl. I used to take my pet turtles in the tub with me and even had an old clawfoot tub in my backyard that was always filled with bluegill, bass and turtles. My bedroom when i was 10, had a tank with bluegills and pumpkin seeds that I would watch as I fell asleep. There was always a tank going somewhere in my apartments and even I had a pair of mated eastern painted turtles that fed from my fingers for 15 years until I had to move and gave the to my zoo. In the late 90's to early 2000's between editing tv shows I was involved in raising and breeding orandas and lionheads. My office hummed from the sound of canisters and airstones as those big beautiful goldfish would do everything possible to get my attention. I had 4 55s going at that time and I snickered when I read al z's comments about doing 10% water changes on goldfish. I did, at the very least 50% water changes every other day and most days, every day...with a bucket and siphon. If you want goldfish to grow, as with discus, constant waters changes are a must!! I haven't had an aquarium set up since 2005 but with my job as a guide I'm contanstnty dealing with bait such as golden and emerald shiners as well as crayfish so I have a bait tank running in my garage from April to November. It's no different then caring for an aquarium in your den or basement except that you are constantly taking bait out and then replenishing with fresh stock from the bait seller. it's quite a sophisticated unit called a minnow master. (http://www.minnowmaster.com) It's complete with a 3 stage filter, giant air pump and a chiller. Minnows keep best at 52 degrees until used. On a dual basis I'm acclamating them to the temp in my boats livewell tank so as not to shock them. Live bait has its own set of problems you learn to deal with...

I've always loved discus but never felt I had the time to devote to them until now that Im becoming an old guy. I hope to be able to breed and eventually sell them to supplement my income as I grow too old to be on a rocking and rolling boat on Lake Erie everyday. I still guide about 150 days a year and work on the TV crew for the Buffalo sabres and other professional sports teams but those extremely physical jobs will come to an end in a few years so I'm in the process of setting up a fish room in the basement. Over this past winter, a Facebook buddy had been posting aquarium pix, most being of discus and they simple got into my head and I cant get the images of them out ha. Ive been working on the room for a few months between fishing everyday and sleeping as often as possible. Im planning a fully automated water changing system ( 100 gal Rubbermaid horse trough as my reservoir) and sumps for all of the tanks. The tanks, 1-55 4-20 highs 4-20 longs and 2 29s have all been drilled and painted, stands have been built and now the basement walls are being insulated and electrical outlets installed. I plan on getting at least a 75 and 125 when I can rope my son and his strong buddies into carrying them down those long steps to the basement. I'll keep you posted on my progress as I'm in no hurry and want to be super ready when that first shipment of discus arrives. Always remember... there is never enough time to do it right the first time but always enough time to do it over.

Best Fishes
Jim

Welcome to the forum Jim . Your experience and your devotion for animal world and especially fish world is quite impressive .

Your start on discus with automated WC system and multiple tank basement is a very serious start that I'm sure will lead to success .
We are looking forward to follow your fishroom project progress and your discus fish as well .

[Filip]

Hi all,

My name is Makis and I am from Athens, Greece. I have a 450 liters tank with 11 Stendker Discus and a DIY tank 70 liters with Apistogramma Borellii and ember tetra.
I keep tanks with fishes for 2 years now, so I have to learn many things.
I decided to join the forum as i saw many interesting things about our hobby and discus and I want to read and learn about this wonderful hobby.

I am looking forward to contacting everyone,
Best
Makis

Hi Makis and welcome to the forum .
I hope you'll have a fun time here on the forum exchanging discus experiences with us .
I have 11 stedendkers my self that I bought from Aquavivere.gr - Thessaloniki Stendker supplier .
I would love to see photos and introduction of your tank and discus , so please do share them with us here .