What not to buy

[CliffsDiscus]

Great article may be used as a basic guideline for anyone interest in purchasing any Discus from LFS or elsewere.

Cliff

[stiver james]

I have been stung with a few bad fish in my day but nothing like that. It's really a sad thing to let something like this happen. I bought a couple of discus from a pet store and they told me that they were small blue dimonds and don't have their color yet. They had really rounded bodies and were not thin so I purchased them. (Had my doubts) anyway got them home did everything right and a few days later one of them died. The other one is in my 55gal community tank. It is about 3.75 inches long and its kind of a light grey color with a black stripe going through the eye. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT KIND OF DISCUS THIS IS? If I ever learn how to post pic's I will send one. I have raised discus for the better part of 20 yrs off and on and have never seen one like this. Does not have the red eyes either (another major mistake by me) Guess I was just to anioxus (sp) to get back into these great fish. So remember to not just jump head first into this cause it can really discourage you. But my passion for this great hobby will get me by and it just goes to show that no matter how long you have been in the hobby you can make some really dumb discissions. Thanks, Jim

[Carol_Roberts]

Sounds like a ghost or a white cross

[Willie]

I've stopped selling to LFS for exactly this reason. The tanks are on centralized systems so that they are too cold and there's no way to maintain quarantine. Then, of course, they don't feed the tanks because they are all packed with fish. Do some feeding and the bioload would go through the roof.

I used to bring discus to a LFS. But every week, the fish I sold in their tank just got less and less happy. It was terrible to watch round, fast growing, colorful discus that you invested 5 months making water changes go thin, emaciated with bug eyes.

This is a great thread, Walter. I was on a midwestern cichlid forum when someone posted a LFS discus like the one you showed. It took awhile for people to accept that the fish was a cull. I don't blame them because that's probably the only real discus anyone in that area ever saw.

Willie

[MrD]

Hey. Please forgive my ignorance but can you tell me what 'lfs' means?

Thanks.

[wolfbane]

LFS-local fish store
LPS-local pet store

[Jarrod]

Hey. Please forgive my ignorance but can you tell me what 'lfs' means?

Thanks.

MrD...LFS stands for local fish store...and you're not ignorant either...a lfs is rarely a place to buy a discus of any quality,health. For the most part the people that work in lfs's are not bad people at all...some are very knowledgable(sp?)...it's just that most lfs don't have the time or people to properly care for discus...there are lfs out there that do have and keep these glorious fish properly...in most cases though unfortunately they can't or dont do a discus tank and its inhabitants the right way imo...to most lfs, not all mind you, their focus is to make a profit and keep their doors open...I'm not slamming any fish store in particular...it's just a nature of the fish store business is all. There are some very very good stores out there to be sure...they're just hard to find in alot of cases...when I do find one I trade with them quite a bit...but for discus I'll only deal with a breeder that knows an cares for them as they should be taken care of...all of this is strictly JMHO

[vacardfan]

I'm new to the forum and generally try to observe for awhile before commenting, but I just have to add my two cents.

In regards to the lfs, several posts hit the nail right on the head. I have been a tropical fish enthusist for nearly thirty years. I have bred many variety of Central and African cichlids. Not necessarily "show" quality but still very good quality fish. Many if not all of the lfs have no interest in buying these fish in my area. Instead they want to give you "store credit" and not much at that. And then they turn around and throw a $30-$40 price tag. There is one lfs that has several tanks dedicated to discus, but they are on the same filtration system as many of the others. I seen many of these tanks die out in a matter of days. All they do is turn around and order more. I happen to be fortune enough to have some L183 breeding and just had way too many to care for, I offered to sell or trade for specific discus. The fish manager called me on day and wanted to know if I would bring her some and that she had a local breeder bring her some stock. These were the worse discus that I have ever seen. The large breeders had hole in the head and the offspring had some sort of fungus. And she was selling the breeders for $89. This was from a breeder!
I have also had my try at ordering fish from breeders. Not good luck here either. Paid $400 + shipping for a tri of frontosa and they were all blind. Ordered some discus last year from what I thought was a "reputable" dealer and I never could get them to eat and sat helplessly as they withered away.

So, I guess I'm confused. All I really want to have is a nice show tank for my enjoyment. It's nice to know that you have quality fish or something rare, but in the end, it's about the enjoyment. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have money to throw away.

[pcsb23]

I'm new to the forum and generally try to observe for awhile before commenting, but I just have to add my two cents.

In regards to the lfs, several posts hit the nail right on the head. I have been a tropical fish enthusist for nearly thirty years. I have bred many variety of Central and African cichlids. Not necessarily "show" quality but still very good quality fish. Many if not all of the lfs have no interest in buying these fish in my area. Instead they want to give you "store credit" and not much at that. And then they turn around and throw a $30-$40 price tag. There is one lfs that has several tanks dedicated to discus, but they are on the same filtration system as many of the others. I seen many of these tanks die out in a matter of days. All they do is turn around and order more. I happen to be fortune enough to have some L183 breeding and just had way too many to care for, I offered to sell or trade for specific discus. The fish manager called me on day and wanted to know if I would bring her some and that she had a local breeder bring her some stock. These were the worse discus that I have ever seen. The large breeders had hole in the head and the offspring had some sort of fungus. And she was selling the breeders for $89. This was from a breeder!
I have also had my try at ordering fish from breeders. Not good luck here either. Paid $400 + shipping for a tri of frontosa and they were all blind. Ordered some discus last year from what I thought was a "reputable" dealer and I never could get them to eat and sat helplessly as they withered away.

So, I guess I'm confused. All I really want to have is a nice show tank for my enjoyment. It's nice to know that you have quality fish or something rare, but in the end, it's about the enjoyment. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't have money to throw away.

Unfortunately your expereience here is not uncommon, wish it were. The prupose of threads like this one, and the Discus Uni section is to try and give us all the tools we need to buy quality discus, for whatever purpose.

I always but what I see, ie go to the breeder and buy directly from their tanks. Its not always possible for everyone, I'm lucky in that there are several high quality breeders within 2 hours of me.

All of the sponsors here will happily take phone calls and arrange appointmnets for you to visit if you can. If you can't call them, tell them what you'd like and like to do and they will give you sounds advice, and I'm pretty sure damn good fish at a fair price.

BTW welcome to Simply!

Paul.

[steve.ryall]

Just my few penny's worth on this subject.

Last week I went to one of my LFS's which has several large outlets in the UK(wont mention name) and I saw a dreadfully sick fish in a tank with other Discus. It was almost black, had a white velvety slimey skin and was hanging in the water nose down. I think another more healthy fish was feeling sorry for it and was coupled up close as if to be supporting it.
I asked the manager of the shop if he was aware of it, and of course he wasnt, so I said that I would take the fish off his hands so I could try to keep it alive. He was quite abrupt, and said it would be alright, and it was just the ph level that might be out!!!, in that tank..He said I could buy it if i wanted it. £39 for a sick fish....all I wanted to do was try to nurse a dieing fish, and at the best allow it some dignity in its last days.

I guess some outlets just want to sell anything with no regard for the fish or the buyer, certainly this particular outlet are only interested in profit, and selling to the unknowledgable fish hobbyist.

I wont be going back:thumbsdow

Steve

[Carol_Roberts]

. . . . best not to bring sick fish home . . . you don't want to infect your healthy discus . . .

[BobB]

A big thankyou to all of you, I checked out some Discus at a friends LFS and the first think I noticed was the shape of them, they were more oval shape then round like Ryan pointed out along with allot of the other posters. A big thanks!

[dhags]

good pics on what not to buy,but very sad too!

[Imperialdiscus]

More often than not, it has been my experience that LFS's generally don't have particularly good quality Angels or Discus , nor are they in much of a position to properly care for the fish. It has been very rare that I have ever seen discus I would buy in an LFS.

You are more likely to find that the Discus will be in cold, poorly filtered water, far too many jammed into a small space and fed flake food.

culls should be dropped in the shark tank, if you have a shark tank of course..

[yeomans]

It's kind of funny that this thread got posted around the time I visited my lfs.
Two days ago I went and visited a chain retailer in my area to purchase some tetra bits and happened to walk around the section with all of their tanks, something that I normally don't even bother with anymore.
To my surprise they actually had pigeons there $75 each, wow what a disapointment they might have been an inch and a half, huge eyes, pinched foreheads, a cull if I had ever seen one. On top of that the employee had walked over to me and tried to tell me that he had a breeding pair in that tank which was going to cost more. I almost burst out laughing but hesitated becuse I realized that some poor newbie was probably going to take these fish home, I didn't however hesitate to tell the employee that he didn't have a breeding pair at all. It's a sad world we live in when this happens, but if people keep buying these fish, they will keep selling them.

josh