Discus keeping friends

[brewmaster15]

I'm pretty much the only person in my local vicinity among my friends and family that keeps discus...or even any aquarium fish. I think at this time my closest discus keeping friend (SD member: brady) is about 50 mins away. Wasnt always that way .. we used to have a pretty decent CT discus group but most moved on.


I would assume that if you are in an urban area you probably have more friends thats also keep discus but I would bet a bunch of you are geographically isolated in their hobby.

Do you have discus keepers near you that you are friends with that you physically visit with?

[Second Hand Pat]

I actually do not know anyone nearby who keeps discus. All my fishy friends are either here or on FB. I don't even visit my local aquarium shops (In my younger days when I kept marine aquariums I would visit my local shops once a week to see what they had). Gotten lazy as I have gotten older I guess.

I use to get with Ryan once or twice a year but he stepped away from fish keeping and is doing other things!
Pat

[LizStreithorst]

Nobody here. I don't even know other fish keepers save for one guy who keeps marine fish.

[Charlyc11]

I got the idea to contact one of my local customers for black rams and I know he keeps discus. He showed me some new ones he got so I told him to post on the forum. He is registered here so I said to him we trying to get a little more traffic at the form. I hope he post them, nice looking discus.

[brewmaster15]

I got the idea to contact one of my local customers for black rams and I know he keeps discus. He showed me some new ones he got so I told him to post on the forum. He is registered here so said to him we trying to get a little more traffic at the form. I hope he post them, nice looking discus.

Hey Chucks Friend! Welcome to the forum! :)
introduce yourself ! :)

[For100]

I know there are few people in Austin/Dallas/San Antonio that keep discus, but I don’t know them personally.
I was about to meet one in Dallas this weekend, but my kiddos tournament change locations to Houston.

It is rare to find someone that keeps discus I would say, unfortunately discus have a BAD reputation among fellow fish keepers.
Even when I go to the best local fish store (knowledgeable owners) they prefer to stay away from discus.

Do you experience the same thing?

[Vanman]

I know Liz. I have visited her when I was working in Mississippi. Only 400 miles from where I live.

[jwcarlson]

I think fish keeping is a more popular hobby than we tend to think. However, I think a lot of it is very small scale... someone keeping a 10 gallon tank in their kids bedroom and they fill it back up when 50% of the water has evaporated out of the tank. When I first learned that we have one of, if not the, biggest fish swap in the country just 30 minutes south of me... I was shocked. It's always absolutely packed. I know it's pretty central so a lot of people travel to it, but it's still a little shocking to see the number of people who show up. I think discus people have gotten a bit more quiet, to be honest. So many people talk *redacted* about discus keepers being "divas" and other varieties of nonsense. I think a lot of that energy comes from people who happen to live where they have basically Amazon River water flowing out of their tap and they can get away with murder. ;)

[AquaticNerd]

Jacob makes a lot of sense - I think the hobby of fish keeping in general is pretty popular, but it's on a smaller scale. I know many folks who have 10-30 gallon tanks, but don't take it seriously (or should I say, don't nerd out like I do). Most don't even know what the fish cycle is. They don't do water changes - they just top up the water when it evaporates out. They don't buy fancy or expensive fish. When the fish inevitably die, they just go back to the store and buy new ones. They don't want to be educated about how to properly care for them. Because of this, most don't like the challenge of keeping anything fancier or requiring more effort like discus.

I'd have to say I don't think there are many clubs locally that meet or have any form of swap meet. It would be awesome to be a part of an active group.

[gimaal]

According to a survey done this year and published in Forbes, there are 11.1 million American households that keep freshwater fish. and another 2.2 million keep saltwater, making fish the third most popular pets after dogs and cats, more popular than birds, small animals (hamsters, rabbits etc), reptiles and horses.

In my large family, the generation that preceded me all caught the fish bug in the 1950s. Virtually every relative we visited when I was young had aquariums and a copy of Innes's EXOTIC AQUARIUM FISHES, which they/we used to call 'the fish bible.' Their children, my cousins and I, all inherited that enthusiasm (and the book) for fishkeeping so, yes, I have an inner circle of nearby fish buddies. Several of them have kept Discus over the years. Two still do.

[danotaylor]

I have 5 fish geek friends I visit face to face periodically within a 45 min radius. I met them thru fish buying and selling locally. Not discus keepers, but mostly cichlids, and some live bearers, shrimp etc. A bit of a mixed bag really. I’m not a member but I do go to the GCAS swap meets every now and then as well

[danotaylor]

Jake whereabouts are you in KY? The GCAS has a separate meet annually and an auction annually. The swap meet is packed with vendors and fish and fish products.

I agree with you regarding no water changes, not knowing the nitrogen cycle and just replacing fish as they die. I would add the information given by most big box store associates, most of whom don’t keep fish, is to replace the filter sponge media in their HOB every month with a new clean one, thus never letting the tank fully cycle and perpetuating the dead fish rebuy cycle, not to mention the needless over purchasing of replacement filter screens etc. It drives me nuts

[AquaticNerd]

I live in the Louisville Metro area, so it's about 2 hours to Cincinnati. Might have to try and take a look at their info a little closer. I don't use social media apart from forums, so a lot of the information that's posted on Facebook, etc I don't ever see.

[danotaylor]

You and me both mate. Never had a FB acct or anything of the sort. I scan Craigslist during my sometimes long nights at work at the hospital, and the GCAS post their events to CL so that’s how I see them. I am a forum member but about 99.5% of their traffic now is on FB so there’s months and months that go by without a single new post

[Cdr 63 corv]

Hey Jake I live in London, wife has family in New Albany. I honestly don't know many people where I live, moved there not to long ago. Travel all the time for work, lucky my wife takes pretty good care of things when I'm gone.

[Willie]

Guess I'm the lucky one. We have ~10 people in the Twin Cities who keep discus. There used to be more 20 years ago - so much so that I formed the Frostbite Falls Discus Club. We had 3 - 4 meetings a year at various fish rooms and even brought in some importers. The large Hmong population here means many of them keep fish. And at least three organizations put up swap meets open to the public. These don't compare with the ones in Chicago or Quad City, but it's better than nothing. :p

Most of the independent pet stores in the area keep discus, but one of them specializes in ornamentals and brings in discus that rival SD' sponsors - both in quality and price. Check out Imported Fish if you're ever in the area. Here's some of their stuff.

140190

[brewmaster15]

You and me both mate. Never had a FB acct or anything of the sort. I scan Craigslist during my sometimes long nights at work at the hospital, and the GCAS post their events to CL so that’s how I see them. I am a forum member but about 99.5% of their traffic now is on FB so there’s months and months that go by without a single new post

Dang so by comparison we are a vibrant online forum community:D

[brewmaster15]

[/B] Dang so by comparison we are a vibrant online forum community:D

We used to have a group out here , North East Discus Association.. NEDA. we met 3-4 x a year at each others homes.... very often here.
https://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?189-The-Northeast-Discus-Association-(NEDA)

those were good times fun get togethers. We drew members from Nj north...Even had a Canadian member. Sometimes we had 15-20 keepers and their families. Alot of them moved on and then I had to tale a break for a few years. Not many of us around anymore in the hobby .

There used to be alot of regional local discus groups ..most are dead and buried in the forum archives.

[danotaylor]

[/B] Dang so by comparison we are a vibrant online forum community:D

Oh without a doubt Al! :thumbsup:

[AquaticNerd]

Hey Jake I live in London, wife has family in New Albany. I honestly don't know many people where I live, moved there not to long ago. Travel all the time for work, lucky my wife takes pretty good care of things when I'm gone.

Neat! London is decent 2 1/2-ish hour drive. Driven through there multiple times when going on a long weekend vacation to Gatlinburg.


Guess I'm the lucky one. We have ~10 people in the Twin Cities who keep discus. There used to be more 20 years ago - so much so that I formed the Frostbite Falls Discus Club. We had 3 - 4 meetings a year at various fish rooms and even brought in some importers. The large Hmong population here means many of them keep fish. And at least three organizations put up swap meets open to the public. These don't compare with the ones in Chicago or Quad City, but it's better than nothing. :p

Most of the independent pet stores in the area keep discus, but one of them specializes in ornamentals and brings in discus that rival SD' sponsors - both in quality and price. Check out Imported Fish if you're ever in the area. Here's some of their stuff.

Willie, my employer has an office in Maple Grove and I've frequented MSP several times over the last few years. Never knew that fish store existed. Next time I'm flying in for work, I'll have to make a note to visit that store after work hours if I have a rental vehicle available. :D

[Willie]

...Willie, my employer has an office in Maple Grove and I've frequented MSP several times over the last few years. Never knew that fish store existed. Next time I'm flying in for work, I'll have to make a note to visit that store after work hours if I have a rental vehicle available. :D

Send me a Private Message beforehand and I'll make something happen for you.

[Iminit]

Cdr 63 corv Lol you’ve got a great set up! Should start a thread here I’m sure others would like to read about it.


I’m in NYC. I’ve met a few discus keeper locally but nobody I knew outside of the forums. Worked with hundreds of people in the construction trades but only met a few aquarium keeper. Most kept or were trying to keep planted tanks. Gave away lots of plants :).

Many aquarium keeper on Facebook. But it’s a strange format. Post your picture, show your problem than move on. Nothing gets solved! So much different info your mind will spin. Most discus sites end up just being seller advertising pages. Well this is most sites regular fish and discus. The local sites have all the people with the 20-30g tanks trying to sell them.

[AquaticNerd]

Send me a Private Message beforehand and I'll make something happen for you.

I'll keep that in mind Willie, thanks! :)

[bonghapster]

There are a few discus hobbyists here in RI. We have a tropical fish society that meets every third Wednesday of each month. Having school age children, it’s hard for me to attend evening meetings. There is a robust reefing community in and around MA, RI and CT. There are monthly meetings and annual shows. I have more reefing friends than discus friends.