January's 2017 Member Spotlight - Jacklyn (jmf3460)

[Filip]

It is my pleasure to present Jacklyn (jmf3460) as our first Member Spotlight for 2017. Thank you Jacklyn for accepting the Member Spotlight.

wilds149


Q - Please tell us all a little about yourself, what makes you tick? Single, married, attached? What do you do for a living? Other hobbies? Any significant non-discus achievements you want to brag about?

A – I am Jacklyn, 32 years old. I am married with no kids currently. My husband and I have a small farm in NC, with 8 beef cows, 2 miniature horses, a dog and a cat. We will soon have more cows as 5 are pregnant. Our dream would be to someday own a large scale cattle farm, making enough money to both quit our jobs and become full time cattle farmers. We love the simple life, the country lifestyle and the old fashioned way of living. I am a salesman, selling hygienic pumps, valves and an array of other items into the food and beverage industry. My husband is also in sales, he sells underground utility equipment to the construction industry. All our family is nearby so we do spend a great deal of time on the weekends with our family and friends.


Q - How did you get into discus? Where was the first discus you saw? How long had you been into fish first?

A – I think my discus obsession occurred as a natural progression of fish keeping. I started young with a 10 gallon and guppies, my mom kept this tank up while I was a small child and this is where my love for aquariums began. I gradually grew my hobby, Santa brought me a 29 gallon hexagonal tank when I was around 11/12 years old and as I have grown, so too has my obsession. The first discus I saw was on the internet, I can't remember if it was a picture or a youtube video but once I saw them, I started researching them and ultimately diving in and purchasing 6 domestics from a local breeder (Eric in charlotte NC.) I had been keeping fish for about 30 years before getting my first discus. I had gone through my planted tank obsession and had done the high maintenance co2 injected planted tanks but then got into discus and realized simpler is better. I think my love for dwarf SA Cichlids is ultimately the culprit for leading me to discus, but it would have happened on its own I think.

This is my 29 gallon hexagonal tank I got from Santa when I was 12. I kept everything from tetras, to rainbows to dwarf cichlids in here, a favorite being nannacara anomala. I kept it up until 2014 and it was still doing good. Once the seams started looking strained, i turned it into a quarantine tank then drained it and it still sits in my basement empty. One day I may resurrect it.

hexagon 9-19-14

hexagon2 8-15-14


Q - What strains are you the most happy with? Which do you think need some work? Are you working on anything new and exciting now? What strain/s do you like best, personally?

A – I am a fan of the wild discus. Green tefes to be exact. But I also really like the cupiera and royal wild discus also although I have only kept green tefes. I have my group of 6 wild greens from John in Florida (snookn) and I don’t think I will be adding to or taking away from this group any time soon, things are stable and good so why mess with it. Although once I get my bigger tank in I will have a spare 75 gallon so who knows what will happen with it  My hopes are to start breeding my wilds, although my personal life may come in the way of getting as far into breeding as I would like to. I do not like the bright colors of the domestics, I think they look fake and unnatural. I much more prefer the look of a biotope tank with a single species group of wild greens swimming amongst a group of dithers and dwarf SA Cichlids like Rams, Dicrossus, or Dwarf acaras.

My very first discus, a mixed group of domestics I bought from Eric at CarolinaDiscus in Charlotte NC. I sold these fish after about 6 months, one I wasn't ready for discus, and two I didn't like the look of a mixed tank. At this time i had not really discovered wild discus yet but i knew already domestics were not of my taste. I sold the entire group to a guy 45 minutes away from me and we still keep in touch regarding this group, he has had several spawns and sells his fish on craigslist and local lfs stores.

fish3

Shortly after selling my domestic discus, I decided I would use that tank for a festivum biotope. I figured this would help prepare me more for my next round of discus so I ordered a group of 5 or 6 from John at freshwater tropicals and began my biotope tank. I have a thread on this tank on the forum, it was quite a great little biotope, I added some bolivian rams and some laetacara dorsigera and had several spawns of each but soon the festivum grew aggressive and really began to outgrow my 75 gallon tank. I sold the festivum to a local lfs for store credit, and the pair even spawned for the petstore. The festivum were a really great fish, just got too aggressive for my sized tank. I really liked the look of this tank with the potted sword plants and anubias on wood. May go back to this type of scape once the wilds move into their upgrade soon.

biotope4 5-2-14

festivum male 12-2-14

festivum eggs


Q - What do you feed your discus?

A – I pretty much strictly feed Al’s FDBW. I feed cubes when I am home but loose bio pigment worms in my automatic feeder while I am at work. I also feed live blackworms that I buy from a local vendor here, as well as live mosquito larvae in the summer (a recent discovery) and frozen bloodworms occasionally. I started a colony of red wrigglers but my fish do not seem to be able to eat them. They just die on the bottom and I have to siphon them out so I stopped feeding them.


Q - What is your most exhilarating moment with discus?

A – The most exciting moment was probably the day my wild discus arrived. I had them shipped to my work and took a half day to come home and acclimate them and introduce them into my tank.

In January of 2015 I received my 6 Wild green tefe discus. I drip acclimated them into their 75 gallon tank, they were around 3"-4" when i got them, the rest is history. Some pictures attached and I also have a couple threads dedicated to these beauties on the forum. I still have these same 6, there are no laetacara anymore, I have since replaced their tank mates to dicrossus filamentosus, but the corydoras are the same, some dating back to the festivum days and others to the domestic days. Corydoras live a long time

contest1

wild enhanced1

wilds14 enhanced


Q - What is your most frustrating moment with discus?

A – An experience I had early on with a bout of whirling disease (I think) in one of my discus. I would hear him thrashing around in the tank during the night when the lights were out. Every morning I would wake up and go in fully expecting him to be dead but he would be fine and begging for food. Then Pat helped me realize that I should try using a prefilter to possibly pull out some of the minerals from my well water. One night I just didn’t hear the splashing around, and I never did again. Such a weird disease.


Q - Do you have any future discus plans that you would like to share with us?

A – I am currently waiting on a custom acrylic tank for an upgrade for my discus. They are currently in a standard 75 gallon. The acrylic will be 110 gallons and will have curved seamless edges so I am very excited about that. I also think when I move my 6 discus into the bigger tank I may add a small school of wild or F1 angels to the tank but haven’t completely decided on what fish to add or if any at all.


Q - How do those in your life feel about discus?

A – Most are indifferent. I get the occasional “wow you really spend a lot of money on fish don’t you” or
“wow are those salt water fish” but most of my family are used to me spending time and money on my fish hobby. My husband is finally used to it. Once we combined our expenses into one account, he got a little questionable but then his cow hobby grew and became just as expensive, so we leave each other alone about it now ha-ha. We are blessed, and both have stable careers, we both work really hard for our money and we budget well so I usually budget for most of the items I buy.


Q - Do you have any funny, amusing or interesting discus stories to share with us?

A – One time at my local Petco, I go there on my lunch break often to pass an hour looking at fish and birds, I saw a couple talking to the store clerk about discus. As the story often goes the store clerk was giving all sorts of false information about what could be kept with discus, what they eat and what type of tank to put them in. I waited patiently and once the store clerk finished I walked up and introduced myself to the couple. We spent the next 30-45 minutes talking about my wilds and my experience with discus, I even showed them pictures of my fish and I told them to join SD. They were so grateful that I had stepped in and given them good information and resources to find more information. I really hoped to see them join the forum shortly after that but I haven't run across them yet.


Q - What do you see as the future of discus keeping? More/less people? Any cool ideas for strains?

A – I hope to see more wild strains becoming more readily available as F1 and F2 fish. While I’ve seen some awesome wild/domestic crosses, I don’t know how I feel about all the different unnatural crosses this produces.


Q - Do you have any thanks or credit to give for your success with discus? Any mentors or colleagues who you think deserve some applause? Any one member of the forum that has helped you the most?

A – I think I got into Wilds originally as a result of seeing Pat’s pictures and videos. Then I became fascinated with watching youtube videos of discus in their natural habitat and figuring out what other fish naturally occur in the same streams and rivers of the amazon. This lead me to my love of other SA cichlids and my attempt to recreate a biotope tank that houses fish that would be found with my wild green discus naturally. Ryan helped me a lot with answering species specific questions about different dwarf SA cichlids because he has kept so many.


Q - If you were to give an aspiring discus keeper one piece of advice, what would it be?

A – Start slow and do lots of research. Listen to the members of SD and their advice, many have made all the mistakes you will likely make and could keep you from making the same ones.

This is my 10 gallon planted shrimp and cherry rasbora tank in my bedroom. It is by far my easiest tank to keep, no maintenance basically and perhaps monthly water changes of 2-3 gallons. Its beautiful.

11-20-16 b

cherry shrimp eating discus_pellets

fts2 1-4-2017

macro10 1-4-2017


Q - How has Simply Discus helped influence you in the hobby?

A – My love of wilds wouldn’t exist if not for the hobby, I would likely not have even known people keep wilds and would have bought LFS domestics. The forum does such a good job at keeping people informed on the other options besides LFS discus.


Q - How have you been a mentor to other discus hobbyists?

A – I help out with the sick/disease threads as much as possible, trying to keep others from dumping medications into the tanks as a knee jerk reaction. Many times this causes more issues than it helps. I always try to encourage people to try and start with large daily water changes instead of dumping chemicals into their tanks. I am also recently a moderator. I am trying to resurrect the monthly/bimonthly photo contests and get people enthused to share their pictures on the forum.

This is my planted 46 gallon bowfront that sits adjacent to my discus tank. It has gone from high tech, co2 injected planted jungle to a low tech single plant species planted bowl scape that it is now. I did really love the jungle look but it eventually became too much to maintain with the co2 and EI ferts. In this tank today are 5 keyhole cichlids, 4 chocolate gouramis and some tetras/corydoras and hatchetfish. Also there is one male albino ancistrus that runs the bottom of the tank.

03182014bow1

bow 7-14-14

bowfront 5-15-14

bowfront3 6-11-14

bowfront2 4-4-16


Q - Can you think of anything I left out you would like to bring up - either personally or discus related?

A – Not that I can think of

This is my 20 gallon long planted low tech tank. It is in my basement with 12 lemon tetra, 3 f1 apistogramma females that i got from Pat's spawn, and tons of amino shrimp. It is also a very easy tank to maintain.

3-18-16 picture collage

tankshot 1-5-2015


Q - Do you have any other hobbies or strong interests you'd like to mention?

A – Baking, I love to bake. I enjoy making cupcakes and cakes, pies and cookies and recently have really gotten into cheesecakes. I think the process is relaxing and soothing to me, and I find the chemistry behind different recipes fascinating. It's amazing how many ways a cake can be made using the same 6 ingredients but using them differently. For example leaving out the egg whites and folding them in separately makes a whole different texture in your end product than throwing the whole egg in at once when mixing. This year I made pumpkin butter from scratch (even grew the pumpkins) and handed out a pumpkin butter muffin recipe as Christmas presents with each recipient getting a half pint of canned pumpkin butter. Yes I know how to can my veggies and do so regularly. I also keep my family stocked on various jams and jellies during the summer, this year perfecting my wild blackberry recipe and getting lots of compliments. I bake pound cakes a lot for my husband, he has a classic taste for pound cakes and he claims I make a better pound cake than his grandma shh. I've done cupcakes for baby showers and birthday parties, and I make a carrot cake for my families Easter party and a coconut cake or red velvet cake most every Christmas as well. I generally love to cook, I cook most every day, but baking is my passion.

Peppermint swirl cupcakes

peppermint swirl cupcakes

Fall themed cupcake stand for a pumpkin themed baby shower

fall themed cupcake stand

Pumpkin caramel cheesecake for thanksgiving lunch

cheesecake1

Carrot and Oreo cake I made for my cousins wedding

carrot cake

oreo cake

Caramel pecan glazed pecan cake I made for my husband last valentines day

pecan glazed pecan cake

[discuspaul]

Many thanks, Jacklyn, for agreeing to accept being in the Simply spotlight following a significant hiatus without it. I believe many members really enjoy the spotlight and your story was a most enjoyable and entertaining one. Superb !

And Filip, wonderful of you to revive the spotlight on behalf of the Simply moderating team, and do such a masterful job of putting it all together so professionally - great work!

Having done this before, I'm delighted to see it taken up once again. Keep it up !

[brewmaster15]

Great Read Filip! Thanks for working on the spotlight project with Ralph here. You guys make a great team! The forum is lucky to have mods like you contributing your time to make the site better.


Jacklyn,( Also a Moderator that the forum is lucky to have ), you keep some beautiful tanks and awesome Hobbies! I enjoyed reading your spot alot! Thanks for sharing a bit of your life for the members here.

Nice Job all!

al

[Second Hand Pat]

What a treat your spotlight was to read Jacklyn, beside the beautiful tanks and awesome baked goods it is really cool you have a growing farm. I love your passion with the fish and sure it includes everything in your life. You have me thinking about trying some plants, I have such a brown thumb.
Pat

[Phillydubs]

Great read! Congrats on the honor, cant wait to see the new tank!

[Filip]

It was a pleasure to read your spotlight Jacklyn .
Thank you for taking the time to put it together for us .
I have enjoyed the wonderful tank pics from your wilds as well as your planted tanks pics and I'm grateful that I took my small part in putting the whole thing together along with Ralphs and Pat's help .

[two utes]

Thanks for allowing us to get to know you better Jacklyn, and thanks for all the help and guidance you give around here as well

......Love your handy work with your cakes, they look delicious

[Jack L]

Thanks for sharing. I didn't realize you had that many tanks going. And the baked goods photo made me hungry! :-)

[jmf3460]

Many thanks, Jacklyn, for agreeing to accept being in the Simply spotlight following a significant hiatus without it. I believe many members really enjoy the spotlight and your story was a most enjoyable and entertaining one. Superb !

thanks Paul, glad you enjoyed the read.

[jmf3460]

Jacklyn,( Also a Moderator that the forum is lucky to have ), you keep some beautiful tanks and awesome Hobbies! I enjoyed reading your spot alot! Thanks for sharing a bit of your life for the members here.
al

thanks al, I hope you got the crypt pondertiifolia to work as well for you as it does for me.

[jmf3460]

What a treat your spotlight was to read Jacklyn, beside the beautiful tanks and awesome baked goods it is really cool you have a growing farm. I love your passion with the fish and sure it includes everything in your life. You have me thinking about trying some plants, I have such a brown thumb.
Pat

go for it pat, I suggest starting with the easy plants like swords and crypts, they require little lighting and ferts.

[jmf3460]

It was a pleasure to read your spotlight Jacklyn .
Thank you for taking the time to put it together for us .
I have enjoyed the wonderful tank pics from your wilds as well as your planted tanks pics and I'm grateful that I took my small part in putting the whole thing together along with Ralphs and Pat's help .

thanks again Filip, nothing compares to your planted show tank but I really enjoy the biotope look for my wilds. Thanks again for helping get this put together.

[jmf3460]

Thanks for allowing us to get to know you better Jacklyn, and thanks for all the help and guidance you give around here as well

......Love your handy work with your cakes, they look delicious

thanks Joe, I really enjoy baking, unfortunately I love sampling too lol

Thanks for sharing. I didn't realize you had that many tanks going. And the baked goods photo made me hungry! :-)

yea its an addiction jack, and soon I will be getting my next tank too a 110 gal acrylic coming soon.

[brewmaster15]

Jacklyn,
Whats going into the new tank?

Al

[khooyang]

Really enjoy reading this. Such a meaningful life you have there, living close to nature, with wonderful hobby, tanks, and cake making. Enjoy the day!