Coloration of juvenile Discus

[Discus-Hans]

Let's call it a "Miracle" for the source you got it from lol lol

Hans

[Jason K.]

Let's call it a "Miracle" for the source you got it from lol lol

Hans

yes i'd have to agree with you 100%, guess i got a new strain on my hands..lol

[colinlp]

Let's call it a "Miracle" for the source you got it from lol lol

Hans

I read this thread with some amusement, I can only say that that statement speaks volumes and the sooner newbies like me learn to buy from respected dealers the better. 5 miles away and wouldn't let you pick up? I fell into a similar trap recently buying my first discus. A dealer set himself up with a very very similar name to a respected breeder, I saw an advert on ebay of all places and saw the name so contacted him thinking it was the respected dealer. I ordered 6 4" fish then heard nothing for 2 weeks when on a Friday got an email asking if Saturday would be OK, I replied asking if he meant the next day or the following week. I got no reply and had to call him Friday evening when he confirmed that they would be with me the next afternoon as weren't in on the Sunday. By late evening nothing had arrived, I tried to call but no answer. Thinking they weren't coming I emailed him to cancel the order as I was getting a little cross with his bad service/communication. Instantly the phone rang and the dealer explained that the fish had left him at 8 that morning on a 2000 mile road trip with 30 drops between him and me and they wouldn't be there until very late evening or the next day. I told him that we had to go out the next day to a funeral (already explained this the day before) and wouldn't get back until evening and if he couldn't deliver by early morning I wouldn't be home until 6pm so best to get them back to him. 6:30 the phone went, it was the courier (his mate) asking directions, hen he got here it was in a ancient van with no hood or windscreen on a freezing cold weekend. The water had chilled to 15C and the fish were in a terrible state, the largest one we thought was dead. That fish has spent 7 weeks in hospital recovering and only this last Saturday made it into the main tank (measured him on the way to the tank, 4.5cm not the 4" ordered). Oh yeah I called him but no answer to my calls. Profit before customer service and fish welfare!

Morale of that rant? Hans I don't know you but many do and your good reputation didn't come from nowhere. Quality breeders or dealers are worth their weight in gold, supporting the chancers will only make the good dealers life harder, there's no such thing as good cheap discus, you might get lucky but next time I'm going to play careful.

[mjs020294]

5 miles away and wouldn't let you pick up?.

I can understand why he will not let people pick up. Apart from he is a douche bag he also lives in a deed restricted community. He is not allowed to operate a business from home, so a stream of visitors is not going to go down well.

It might help if the reputable breeders improved their websites and bumped themselves up the search engine pecking orders. if newbies don't know they exist it is hard to order from them. Also, when you research some of the other online sellers there are a few with less than perfect reputations.

So what is a novice to do.....buy from an online dealer 2,000 miles away or one a few miles away? Both have a few bad reports on the Internet yet one involves keeping the fish on the ground and in warm Florida, whilst the other involved massive climate changes and an aircraft trip or two.

[ZX10R]

I fell into the same trap you did. I am new to the world of discus and my first 8 came from a very good breeder up in Indiana called Rocky Mountain Discus. Well after a few months I wanted to add 2 more discus so I bought them from Somethingsphishy now today I am down to 4 discus left because of the crap that place sold me. Bad thing is I am still dealing with it I have treated my tank for everything and still lost 4 fish. I lost two just this past week and have another falling ill now. I found out about somethingsphishy to little to late. I didnt QT long enough and thought the new fish were OK so in they went big mistake. Now I went out got a 30 gallon tank for a QT tank and have enough meds to treat the shed aquarium in Chicago. Good luck with the new fish

[tcmemphisbbq]

"It might help if the reputable breeders improved their websites and bumped themselves up the search engine pecking orders. if newbies don't know they exist it is hard to order from them. "

I have to agree - and I hope none of the very reputable dealers here on this site take this the wrong way, but from what I have noticed places like the ones on this site mentioned as poor dealers always seem to come up first on the search engines.

Being from web marketing and IT background, I know why... the sites of those doing mass online sales are kept up, interactive, lots of selection with storefront to order - alot of the really good dealers sites seem to be more static - this affects things two ways unfortunately.....the new end user wants that instant gratification of ordering online, and the sites are kept current and have lots of bells, whistles and ordering will always out perform more static sites on the search engines - it's unfortunate but I have noticed that alot of the more reputable dealers/breeders seem to have the more static.......

HAHAHA I can hear the good dealers on here now - "Too busy selling fish" hehe ;-)

Maybe I need to start a lowcost discus web design business hehe I could get those guys up there ;-) Did it for years before opening the BBQ Joint.

Tom

[tcmemphisbbq]

But I will add, 5 miles away and no pickup woulda been a deal killer from the get go :-)

[mjs020294]

But I will add, 5 miles away and no pickup woulda been a deal killer from the get go :-)

If you are ordering online what which would you chose:

a - A dealer a few miles away in relatively warm Florida. The fish are in transit a few hours, only on the road a few minutes and safely indoors most of the time.

b - A dealer 2,000 miles away in maybe Colorado. The fish will need to change trucks/planes, and maybe left on a cold loading bay at the airport for a hour or two.

Warning sign or not, which is a better option?



BTW - just googled mapped the door-to-door, its 16 miles actually.

[Jason K.]

fish come from overseas in much better condition than the fish i received, their are right way's and wrong way's to transport fish. his is definetly the wrong way. he could have brought you the fish himself in less than an hour.

[Discus-Hans]

If you are ordering online what which would you chose:

a - A dealer a few miles away in relatively warm Florida. The fish are in transit a few hours, only on the road a few minutes and safely indoors most of the time.

b - A dealer 2,000 miles away in maybe Colorado. The fish will need to change trucks/planes, and maybe left on a cold loading bay at the airport for a hour or two.

Warning sign or not, which is a better option?



BTW - just googled mapped the door-to-door, its 16 miles actually.

If you know what you're doing and DO CARE ABOUT YOUR DISCUS and business, you know how to ship.
We shipped last week a box from Baltimore to Alaska, of course we shipped more but I take this one as an example, the Discus went FedEx priority overnight. This means I drop them off at the FedEx around 7pm and next morning they arrive in Alaska, delivery before 10:30am.

Discus came in healthy and WARM, so distance is not the problem these days, it's just knowing what you're doing.

Hans

[tcmemphisbbq]

I've ordered discus from reputable dealers more than once online, both arrived unharmed and I was confident doing so based on thier reputation alone - and have no doubt with my addiction will again SOON LOL.... yet I only live a short 20 minutes drive from RFI Discus in Bloomington, who has a pretty good put together website, lots of selection and lots of "cool names" and even comes up first in most search engines for "Discus fish" - and yes I learned the hard way by going with the closer shop before researching... but if I was refused to go on site to spend even a hundred bucks, yes even then it woulda been a deal killer.....

If delivery is via fed ex, it ALL goes through Memphis and the same delivery hub no matter where in the world it is, I can ship a fed ex package two doors down and it will leave my state, go through Memphis, TN central hub and back to my neighbor the next morning... lol :-)

[Discus-Hans]

Tom close but no cigar lol.

not all go over MEMPHIS, TN

A few other hub's are:
INDIANAPOLIS, IN
PHILADELPHIA, PA
NEWARK, NJ

Hans

[tcmemphisbbq]

interesting, didnt know they changed that :-) funny fred smith(fedex founder) wrote a paper in school about central hubbing a delivery business and I THINK he got a c or a d on the paper, and it ending up turning him into a billionaire LOL

[colinlp]

I can understand why he will not let people pick up. Apart from he is a douche bag he also lives in a deed restricted community. He is not allowed to operate a business from home, so a stream of visitors is not going to go down well.

It might help if the reputable breeders improved their websites and bumped themselves up the search engine pecking orders. if newbies don't know they exist it is hard to order from them. Also, when you research some of the other online sellers there are a few with less than perfect reputations.

So what is a novice to do.....buy from an online dealer 2,000 miles away or one a few miles away? Both have a few bad reports on the Internet yet one involves keeping the fish on the ground and in warm Florida, whilst the other involved massive climate changes and an aircraft trip or two.

Please don't think I was criticising you, your fish are looking happy and healthy, that's the most important thing now. If my post came over as critical then I hope I came over as more critical of myself, God forbid I screwed up despite warning bells ringing all over the place. Thankfully my fish are now happy and healthy too even the one that was sick is on the mend.

I think may new to discus will always fall into this trap unless they research first and find one of the discus forums and from there reputable dealers.

[SHAD0W]

How long does it take a baby discus to start getting its colours? How old will they be when they're about tennis ball size? How old are they when they're officially adult and full size?