My Simply Discus..Totally Al "The Master" Sabetta

[brewmaster15]

Ashay,

Ps: I should stop reading JRR Tolkien !!

LOl..Gandalf would think otherwise.. You've just begun your greatest adventure!

-al

[AADiscus]

Its not for us to decide what comes to us, its what we do with it"

You are totally right on this comment.

[GrillMaster]

My precious!!! But the hobbitses they wants it...

Glad ya made it down to Al's Ashay!! He is quite the humble host! I see ya have a few pics of his favorite pair on their fry for the 12th time!!

You look like you definately did your homework and I bet those fish will make ya proud before to long. The good thing about livin close to Al is it makes it real easy to set up more tanks!!! And the best part of adding fish to new tanks is the pickin em up at Al's place!

tc
Mark

[ashaysathe]

Attached is the update after 2 weeks(April 18th 2008).. been good so far, seems like growing. I am learning too as we go along. Take a look
Water Changes alomot 50% once a day. Feeding 4 times for sure. Sometimes 5. They still don't quite eat FBS and Shrimp+Cod mix made at home. I have to leave both these things in the tank for atlast an hr, eventhough I have reduced their servings. I give flakes which they eat and noticed eating pellets too lately.
Skittishness (if there is such a word) is reduced a lot, only at entry and exit in the room, otherwise they think "its one of them"

[ashaysathe]

1. Today marks the 3rd week completion in my house. Skittishness is about 60% gone. Growth on fish is good. I am trying to worry less and enjoy the fish more.
2. After losing a blue angel, was able to pull out 3R2 in time.
3. Today is the 4th day of his Kenamycin in QT tank.
4. Main tank seems fine everybody eats well. I noticed doing 50% water change was not quite enough. I did 75 to 80 % 3 times and all these time I could see noticeable difference in the behavior
5. Feeding is still 4 times a day but trying to reach that fine line between right feeding and over feeding.
6. May be I need more filteration.. those sponge filters. Dunno.. will try something.

I will post the photos soon.

[BobB]

Al, How often do you have those beauties up for sales.

[ashaysathe]

After 3 months of curiosity, anxiety, learning and many more things.. I posting a vew pictures of some fish that I am really proud of as a novice discus keeper.
I have called Al on enumerable occasions, needless to say his reply and help was always great. Also Mike Deegan - Black Water Aqauria (now a sponsor on forum) was ready with any and all kind of help I asked for.
There were many lessons learnt and I am sure this is not over yet. I made mistakes but I hope those are over by now.
I recently aquired 6 new fish from Kenny's recent shipment for which I will post photo's soon. Photos below are
1. Super Blue Angel (Wayne Ng was 2.5 inch when I got it)
2. 3R2 - again Wanye Ng was around 2 inch
3. Red Turq - Forrest was about 3 inch has shot up in growth all of a sudden.
There is one Super Angel that I would like to post but cannot get a clean snap but shall do soon.

[subcooler]

Asahay,
Best of luck with your discus.
It's also a learning process here-but with all the help here,I'm sure we'll be fine!
Your very lucky to live close to Al & Mike-Got to meet both @ NE Discus Mtg.
Looking forward to next meeting already!
In the third pic- is that an Eruption Leopard behind the Red Turq.?
Have a great holiday weekend,
Rob

[ashaysathe]

Posting a few pictures. Its been almost 4 months. I learnt heck a lot in the past and made mistakes and learnt more.. Its like an engineering thing.. if everything works life is great; but if something fails your future is fantastic as you learn so much from it. But in this case the infirtunate part is it cost life of a fish.. and that hurts. There are a few fish I am really proud of and some I could have done better. I am currently working on a "mistake free" tank and will see how that goes - keeping fingures crossed so far
Thanks for a lot of knowledgeable people on the forum to help out. Its been a great thing so far.

[brewmaster15]

Ashay,
They are looking fine!... This is your first venture in Discus keeping... You may have had a few bumps along the way but you are still doing very well and are raising a really nice group of discus....Keep the faith and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

-al


ps... I can tell you , you definetly are doing better than I did with my first discus..... and my second batch, and probably my 3rd and 4th batch

[ashaysathe]

Thanks Al for the complements. Coming from you means a lot to me.. it really does and boosts my moral. There is no disagreement in thats its hard putting away a fish that is dead... but as you said.. if it worked 100% of the time then everybody would have Discus.
I am definitely enjoying the hobby more .. next goal is to qualify for your discus challenge....

[SriAngel]

I see what you mean about the super blue angel, they are probably the hardiest of Waynes lines. I put these picture of my babies to honor your thread. I hope you dont mind me hijacking it. These three have been shivering and fighting over a corner of the tank since i put my new filtration system in.

[SriAngel]

Ashay,

I want you to take note of something. Look at fist pic and the fish in the middle, he came from the same batch that you got from Al. The other two were from a shipment 8 months earlier. Those two were the only survivers of the original shipment of Wayne. You can tell from the eye size that the fish in the middle is younger by the eye size. He is the same size or a little bit bigger than the other guys. If i hadn't made all those mistakes when i started, i dont think i would be as good of a discus keeper as i am today.

Angel

[ashaysathe]

Ashay,

I want you to take note of something. Look at fist pic and the fish in the middle, he came from the same batch that you got from Al. The other two were from a shipment 8 months earlier. Those two were the only survivers of the original shipment of Wayne. You can tell from the eye size that the fish in the middle is younger by the eye size. He is the same size or a little bit bigger than the other guys. If i hadn't made all those mistakes when i started, i dont think i would be as good of a discus keeper as i am today.

Angel

Hey Angel (Although if I had a choice would have liked to call you Sri)

Yes I do notice that the eye is the distinguishing characteristic. You are absolutely right mistakes have made me a better discus keeper without a doubt.
Also, I have grown into liking blue fish more and blue with striations. Altum Flora or the reflections you have are not one of my - but the favorite fish line. I would love to see your Reflections with straitions on them. The other strains I love is snakeskins and especially blue snakeskins. I have PEs and Albino LSS. One my of my goal is to able to breed my PE with my Albino LSS both coming from Kenny and the other goal is - I got some excellent excellent Cobalts from Al. I would love to have these cobalts pair up with my exceptional Altum Flora from Kenny/Forrest.
The forehead and the bar over the eye are so pronounced that added that to the Altum would make it excellent. I personally feel Altum Flora I have and have a great tall body fish and this Cobalts from Al are exceptional round fish - together they will make a gr8 pair. I know .. I know .. I need photos.. Will post photo's soon.
There is one more thing I need from Al.. soon..

You are not too far, you can come down anytime you want -always fun to talk fish !!!!

[CARY_GLdiscus]

Brew,

The Man Good job! I know how hard it is to help others,work,run a family and to keep doing it over over and over again is a hats off all in its own!

Best wishes!
Cary + Family