Discus Goals?

[brewmaster15]

What are your Discus Goals? Are you looking to breed them? Just have a display tank? Are you striving to grow out Monster size Discus? Do.you hope to show your fish and win an award?

My goals have changed alot over my time in the hobby. I remember when I first started.. I went from petshop to petshop seeking buying any that I could find. Man I did some boneheaded things.. made alot of mistakes but learned from them. My goals shifted from keeping to breeding.. then to trying to raise the biggest and best fish. Honestly I never had an interest in entering my fish in a show. That was just never on my radar. But I would love to raise show quality discus.. just for my own satisfaction.

Today its a bit strange .. I dont really care half as much as I used to about trying to raise massive fish. I just kind of give them what they need and they do the rest. My goals today are healthy fish and longevity. I want them around as long as they can be. So I give them what they need.. good food ..good water.. the basics. Ive found when you do that the fish just tend to do the rest.

Today my goals are to breed what I like. Not with the intention to sell fish.. but to learn and share what I learn.I focus on watching them.. interacting with them. Noting the subtle behaviors. I have some lofty ideas of what I would one day like to create and have swimming in my tanks. Whether anyone else would like them.. meh.. doesnt matter to me.

Some advice.. What ever your goals are be sure to take the time to watch the fish..enjoy their beauty.Don't get hung up on the routine and maintenance and hype. . Sometimes I think hobbyists are so focused on these that they tend to lose sight of why they were attracted to discus in the first place. Pull up a chair in front of your tank and enjoy them.

so whats your goals with Discus?

[Cdr 63 corv]

I would like to raise a few nice batches of fry. Honestly I just enjoy watching them, the different temperaments, the lovers quarrels. How a couple of them are just little goofballs lol. For me it's like watching a soap opera and hope they are happy and I'm doing right by them.

[Second Hand Pat]

I so agree with you Al. I can spend an easy 30 minutes simply watching the RSGs, looking to see who interacts with who and looking for cool behaviors like in this video.



Goal wise I hope the RSGs will breed for me early next year. We shall see. Next goal is to raise some nice fry to share with others here.

Pat

[jpm995]

My goal is to have a big healthy discus as a centerpiece for my tanks. Does't have to be perfect but have good colors. Not interested in breeding. Prefer natural looking tanks.

[For100]

Great topic Al….

My goal is to keep my display tank with healthy discus. I don’t have much time to take care of juvenile fish at the moment, so I am very selective on size of what I buy or planning to buy. Nothing less than 5” to help me minimize the feeding and water changing schedule.

Maybe in a distance future, I will try to breed again. Something around solid red fish, how knows….

[AquaticNerd]

I don't think I have any goals in the near term, since personal life stuff comes before anything else and I wouldn't be able to give fish the proper attention they deserve.

Long term, I'd like to set up a small fishroom someday and try my hand at breeding and raising fry (not just discus by the way, but other species like livebearers, rams, plecos, etc). Currently, I forsee fishkeeping as my hobby in retirement so maybe the dreams will come true once I hit the age in which I can say sayonara to the corporate world.

[danotaylor]

My discus goal is to own healthy happy discus again sometime in the future. I will likely buy sub-adult again for display purposes only. My preference would be wild types, specifically heckel cross, and my wife loves red fish, so maybe a nice display of Ica red heckel crosses like this one from Forrest that Kenny imported in days gone by;
IMG_3293.jpeg

[carlosf]

For the moment I’m just interested in having healthy and good looking discus, I’ve no interest in breeding for the moment due to a number of reasons.

Regards

[Johanna]

For me, the basis of fishkeeping has always been my love of nature and interest in the natural sciences. I love the living, breathing, evolving ecosystem on display in my living room. These days I need to have a relaxing, stress-free hobby that doesn't require setting and meeting goals, is not competitive, and doesn't involve much peer pressure or public scrutiny. There's enough of those things in the dog game and I need something to balance that out. I chose discus because I wanted something more interesting and "advanced" than most of the basic commynity fish, and also because I've always liked angels but could never keep them in larger groups. Now, I think the name of this site is very misleading because there really isn't anything Simple about Discus... and so it's happened that I've been sucked way deeper into the discus madness than I initially planned.

So I could say that my discus goals right now include... trying to limit the number of tanks in this house to ONE big display and the necessary semi-permanent small qt and hospital set ups, trying to not get sucked into breeding discus (or any other fish) because apparently dog breeders have this compulsion to breed any animal they get their hands on... trying not to overpopulate current tanks by giving into fish buying weakness... and naturally trying to learn, avoid stupid mistakes and give my fish a good life.

[brewmaster15]

Now, I think the name of this site is very misleading because there really isn't anything Simple about Discus... and so it's happened that I've been sucked way deeper into the discus madness than I initially planned.

LOL! I can't tell.you how many times I have been "blamed" for hobbyiists getting more Discus or more tanks.. Everyone likes a scapegoat! But if the forum has sucked you deeper into the hobby then that vindicates the forum's existence.. That makes me very Happy! lol