ChicagoDiscus and local flora and fauna :: PHOTO BOMB beware

[8ftbed]

Pictures are worth a thousand words and there's not enough words to describe a visit to and with ChicagoDiscus. A newfound perk for living in this neck of the woods. Period!

June was starting out great, although a continued spring with the constant lake winds keeping us in the 60's. Just did a little editing on the street bed.

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Flowers and their colors... gotta love it. (wild columbine)

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2 weeks later and Roses are getting their swerve on. Vibrant colors and I start thinking about that wild 300gal display tank at ChicagoDiscus.

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Pinks and reds... hmmmm!

Zephrine Drouhin

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First year bloom on a volunteer seedling

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Autumn Damask showing off and my memory of the first visit to ChicagoDiscus intensifies...

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That volunteer seedling. Took 3 years and finally bloomed. Kind of like growing out a discus. What will it be?

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OK!! Had to do it and went to ChicagoDiscus to visitate and pick up 2 Marlboro Reds and 1 Chicago Tefe. Although I was swayed into two Tefe's since they were butt buddies. :)

THIS is what has hammered my conscious since the first visit. Pics do not begin to do justice on this 300gal piece of eye candy.

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I had 112 photos, culled down to 44 and here's a reader's digest tour.

Ginormous showpiece which will be seen in other shots.

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I just like this breeder peeking over the privacy fence. Gorgeous fish besides.

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Fresh meat from Germany. :)

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Love, love, love this one.

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Sex, sex, sex... everywhere. :)

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The intense reds and orange were all but impossible to capture. As are flowers.

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The breeding colors on this guy are absolutely amazing.

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Oh yeah, the kids that followed me home. :)

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Fresh release before the sponge that's been cooking in the original ChicagoDiscus tank got moved over.

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Original group from a couple of weeks ago. They've grown but still have a disdain for lights although I discovered today that the others of the same piwo strain at ChicagoDiscus are the same way. I don't feel so bad and even in the dark, these kiddies are growing.

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Ubiquitous community tank in afternoon light with a herd of voracious porkers. The two brands of beefheart flake and the tetra bits that none of the Discus like... these folks gobble it up like the proverbial piranhas!

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Finally, Josie - this is the recent green afghan I mentioned. Got a spare pleco? :) I'll be back in a week or so.

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Thanks for the beautiful fish and allowing me to mill about smartly... in the way.

[ROOK45]

Nice, a very well documented trip to Chicago Discus.
Thanks for sharing


Jon

[RichT]

I must have looked through this PHOTO BOMB a dozen times. I totally enjoyed every picture. Thanks for taking the time to put it all together. Great garden and great pictures of outstanding discus!!

Thanks

[8ftbed]

Oh there's more but thanks. If you're ever up in this neck of the woods, go visit them. Midwest at it's finest. I'm gonna have to sell some stuff to finance bigger tanks when these all grow out. :) Glad you enjoyed it though. I sure do.

[nwehrman]

Gorgeous pictures! Thanks for sharing! Looks like your doing good with the troops!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Chicago Discus]

OMG you do beautiful work thats amazing I wish I had the talent to do that kinda of Yarn work unfortunately my hands are not coordinated LOL.. We had so much fun hanging out with you today and talking Discus and flowers you completely impressed me that you knew not only the kind of roses I have but were able to say where they came from it was truly impressive. Thank you for the kind words and great photos of the Hatchery you are a very kind soul my friend........Josie

[Allwin]

+1

Enjoyed and already watched all the photos few times. Good thought to share your experience!!! Specially that Josie's 300Gallon tank with the world's best discus IMO!!!

[ktltn04]

Very nice. love the blue n red color. what strain is this and where can i get 1 . The 1 with deep red
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/3007/hw82.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/hw82.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

[8ftbed]

Yeah, it was a good time had by all I think. I think I know what my male Bulldog feels like now. Wants to follow me around working in the house and I'm side stepping, stepping over or telling him to get his fat head out of the way. I was the bulldog yesterday while you guys were trying to clean tanks. :)

@ktitn04 - Josie could certainly tell you and may even have some in stock. I forget and only showed a fraction of the tanks. I don't have strains committed to what's left of the memory. :)

What's weird is that if I hadn't seen and taken the pictures personally, I would assume they'd been tweaked to hell to get those colors. They are loud vibrant neon signs. Quite jaw dropping. Especially since this has been my first face time with quality adults.

[DiscusPamela]

Outstanding landscaping and beautiful discus. How on earth do you find the time? :)

[8ftbed]

Heh, heh... Divide and conquer as far as the yard. There's big spring and fall projects and in between, just keep pecking away at it. 15 -30 min a day pulling weeds keeps it to a dull roar. :) I'm sure Josie's hatchery is a constant state of movement for her and Miranda.

[8ftbed]

So here's a simple concatenation of 3 vid clips. The first are the Malrboro Reds and Chicago Tefes. I'd just put the 3 bottles together and slapped 'em in. I'm making one more after the DejaBlue water bottle is done mixing with vodka. I plan on having one in each corner, all color coordinated and crap, to keep the worms from stalling there and also be able to get the big sponge out.

The 2nd clip is of the original crew from a few weeks ago. I followed your lead and put folded paper under the light Saturday when I got home. I've had the light on all day today and they just line up like soldiers on the bottom. That's progress. Otherwise, like yours, they dog piled in the corner if the light was on or walked through the door. Not now.

The 3rd clip is the manic community tank. If I get desperate, those silver dollars will make a nice snack. Biggest I've ever grown. They've all bulked up quick. I guess they like the frequent feeding Discus schedule. :)

I shot this just before water changes awhile ago. Cheap shots off the iPhone.


http://youtu.be/sDIHm__0asg


Something else I discovered today. The ChicagoDiscus fish bags were perfect for tenting these pots to start some rose cuttings. Should they root (it's always been hit or miss with me doing it like this) I've started cuttings of the yellow Golden Showers and the pink Zephrine Drouhin. Both can be tied up as climber. The white one is the Griffith Buck I was telling you about. I get 5 flushes per season and it's bone hardy. I don't cover it or anything. Just tie it up and trim the top foot so the snow and wind doesn't shred it. Then trim a couple more feet in the spring.

THANKS!

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Lizzie is saying something I really didn't need to hear.


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[Chicago Discus]

OMG that dog is cute as can be....Josie

[pauline]

What a great bunch of pictures! Fish and flowers are gorgeous. Lizzie is a cutie.

[nwehrman]

Love Lizzie!!

[Dlprice45]

What amazing pictures. My two favorite things to do Garden and raise Discus! Beautiful garden and fish. Glad you had a great time.

[8ftbed]

Thanks all.
Lizzie has her thorns but overall is pure love juice. She'll hang out in the yard with me and just follow me around. perfect. Mr. Chubbs... He'll walk off needing to sniff and pee on anything taller than a dandelion.

Flowers, trees and discus have a lot in common for me. The colors, shapes and if you give them the basics in consistent quantities and patience, you're rewarded 10 fold. Not without a few ahshits and losses but nothing is perfect. :)

[CrazyAngels]

Thank you, awesome job showing us all some serious beauty.

[Dlprice45]

Yah Im going to paint my fish building and have flower beds around it. Looking forward to finishing it.

[8ftbed]

Thanks Jorge.

A separate fish house surrounded by a garden of the botanical flavor (which I get accused of but I was in a heavy collecting stage when I started :) would be tight. AND if I had the resources to build a legit fish house, then of course I'd be able to afford tanks outside to pump the tank water to and in turn, water the garden. All plants thrive on tank water, at least in my experience. Now that I'm doing big water changes on multiple tanks, I'm periodically filling 3 of those big blue water 5 gal water bottles I rescued from the curb and taking them out to the potted cannas and the 6 new roses.

In fact, if you like gardens, visit ChicagoDiscus. :) She's got that yard pimped out under big trees. I need to go back anyway and will get some landscape shots.

Well, I got 6 new buddies in for the MB's and Tefes. Super Red BN's. Actually bought 5 but he threw one in, in case of a DOA and also included some pellets and a piece of cholla wood which was cool. What I like even more is that the guy also warned me that he has soft acidic water and should drip acclimate. That was excellent on his part.
I had a drip line valve from 18 years ago and filled half of one of Josie's fish bags with the bn's and their small amount of original water by dripping in for 3 hours. Now they're floating in the tank for another 30 minutes and then they go free.

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Hi Mom!

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[DiscusPamela]

Can you please point me to the link that shows how to make these bottle filters? I'd love to try some.

Thanks :)

[8ftbed]

Can you please point me to the link that shows how to make these bottle filters? I'd love to try some.

Thanks :)


Hi Pamela, sorry I missed this. Here's the link to Josie's thread.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?98431-Crystal-Clear&highlight=

Here's another thread she started with q/a/pics from others.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?98980-Media-bottles&highlight=

I nor the clerk found suction cups in Home Depot. I went next door to Michael's and found in 3 sizes. I found some more in Walmart yesterday.

/blaine

[8ftbed]

Yesterday I made steps for Lizzie to get up on the couch (a little gimp in a hip and we ain't getting any younger), 4 more media bottles a la Josie and put together the diy pvc canister filter I'm trying (like so many before me :) ). Filled the canister with mostly K1 from Chicago Discus. A piece of polishing pad on the separator above the outtake and coarse filter pads and a polishing pad at the top between the intake and K1. The Quiet One 1200 should be in today or Tuesday I think and then I can plumb and test outside. If/when it works, it's intended purpose is biological filter on overstocked tank.

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First bloom on one of my new Griffith Buck roses I added this spring.

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Hen & Chicks are starting to send up some flower spikes. Such cool and alien looking flowers.

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It's taken several years but the 3 varieties have finally filled in this little pie slice I left open when I put in the granite pavers I got from an old Chicago street. My first purchase from Craig's list and it was actually a sister in Dallas that told me of the CL and the listing up here in Oak Park.

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[8ftbed]

The four Piworski Cobalts and two Blue Diamonds have been statuary or hiding since going into the 40g on 5/18. I'd been threatening changes and finally did it today. I moved the Blue Diamonds to the tank with Tefes and Marlboro Reds who've been constantly moving and hungry with full lighting. I also moved one of the pigeons to the that tank and the larger pigeon to the tank with the Piwos. The pigeons had been pretty good until the two little gold ones went away. The pigeons then decided sitting behind sponge filters was the new mood.

Blue Diamonds and Pigeon came right to life in the new tank. The Tefe/MReds had started jousting, so I figured going from 4 to 7 fish should help prevent one getting singled out for a beat down. I was kind of surprised at the weight of the Blues when I netted and bagged. It's really the first time I've seen them in light for over a month. Anytime I turned the light on in the original tank, all six piled up in a corner.

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Mr. Chubbs was suddenly in my grill wanting to know what I was doing on the floor.


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[blueluv]

Love your garden and discus, also can't forget mr chubbs. I think gazania flowers would make a good addition to your garden.

[8ftbed]

Gazania s are cool. I've killed a few. I got a couple to survive but never thrive in the places I tried. It'd be an annual up here anyway and I don't do annuals anymore. A few variegated pelargoniums. I do have annuals that self seed though, so it's like they're just more of my perennials. Larkspur, poppies, Bell of Ireland and some antique petunias which reliably reseed for me. That and the sunflowers which the gold finch scatter in the fall and I have 5-8 volunteers each year. Pretty cool.

[Falcon 900]

My wife is jealous of your flower beds and I'm jealous of you fish! ;) Looks like I need to make another vist to see Josie and Miranda!

[8ftbed]

Shoot yeah! Take the missus with you, she can wander around yard. The snowball bushes were putting on a show last Sat and I see she's got some of the dark leafed cannas near the gate. Probably Wyoming.