All dead.

[marcw]

Sad to say my short-lived adventures in Discus-keeping have come to a grisly end.

After months of research, discussion, fascination, and an amazing education in water chemistry, my 5 discus were doing quite well.

Alas, my well-intentioned wife decided to give the inside of the glass a bit of a clean. She purchased a nice, new kitchen pot-scourer cleaner type thing and proceded to scrub away (despite me buying good-quality paper towels (suggested by Carol) for this very purpose).

This morning - all dead. 5 Discus and 5 Corys.

I'm guessing there was some pretty powerful chemicals within that pot cleaner. All the fish had gone dark, and were covered in a white slime (or was that their slime-coat peeling off?)

So, that's it. I tried, I failed. No chance of replacing the fish, so time to move on. Might set up an ant farm, or something.

Thanks to everyone who helped me over the last few months (esp. Carol). You made what was a quite a daunting prospect a lot easier to get into. And it was all a fascinating education, as well. While it all ended in disaster, it was a pretty exciting few months.



hmm - I wonder if there's an ant-farm forum on the Net.....

[bigpacman]

Well that just sucks and I feel your pain.
I just hope your wife doesn't feel to bad since she was trying to help you out.
My wife won't even touch my tanks in fear of having something like that happen.

Bigpacman

[caca]

i haven't gone through this pain, but i know it's ultimately painful.
hope u can recover soon from this lost.
best wishes to you and your wife!!!

[babyjess210]

You did NOT fail! It's just something that happens. It's just time to come back even stronger. I hope to see you on this forum posting about your new discus.

kenny

[fish_maniac]

I am so sorry to hear what happened :'( :'(

I lost a lot of different fishes before. The one that I felt the worst is my Arowana and Frontosa. It is very hard indeed!I didn't restart the tank after a while!

Where are you located? May be there is a local breeder or someone near by can get you started again with some discus!

Even though it is always sad when they die but it doesn't replace the joys when they are alive! Our live is short, enjoy while you can!

Wish you the best!

[Chinaman]

every one make mistakes.... i have lose count of how many discus i have killed by mistakes. Just get some cheaper strain like the RT, if do make a mistake then it won't dent your pocket as much as the fancy strains.

[April]

well..very sorry to hear. someone else had the same thing happen. its a valuable lesson for others. alot of people dont realize some of those sponges have things in them.
hope you do decide to refill that tank. good luck..in the ant farm..but i think you wil find theres heartache involved in discus..but on the other hand..its sad to not have them also.

[marcw]

Nah - it's all good. I haven't disowned my wife. As bigpacman said, she was just trying to help (very helpful person, she is. I'm a lucky (but fishless) guy). I honestly think she feels worse than I do - poor thing - she's been ringing me all day apologising and offering to buy new ones.

And who knows - once the trauma has lapsed, I MAY just decide to try again....

Though, if I don't - has anyone here owned an ant-farm before? Do you get attached to ants as much as you do to Discus? :)

[Discus_Newbie19]

Sorry to hear that :'(

[Discus_KC]

Clean that tank up and get some more !!!!!!

Take her up on that offer. She buys the fish and then you clean the tank for her ;D ;D ;D ;D

KC

[KD]

So sorry!
I'd take her up on the offer and start again.
Nothing like getting a few new Discus to heal the wounds.
Hope you start up again!

[Barb Newell]

Hi, sorry about your losses :'(


Do you get attached to ants as much as you do to Discus?


I doubt it. The joy of discus is getting "attached" to them, but then losing them is SOOOO painful. Don't give up.


Barb

[Howie_W]

Marc,

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss! :'(

Please don't dispair...these things happen! Sometimes the simplest of things cause the worst disasters.

If it makes you feel any better, people who have been in the hobby for many years still experience a variety of catastrophes on occasion.

Obviously you spent time reading up and learning how to care for Discus.

You should take your wife up on her offer! :)

GO GET SOME MORE FISH!!!!!

Best of luck to you and don't feel too bad. :)



Howie

[kaceyo]

I realy feel for ya. I would be devistated in your place. You sound like the kind of person that can feel the pain of others so jst think how your wife will feel if you don't get some more. She'll forever know it was her doing. That old excitment will return the moment you decide to get some more and just think, you are so much more knowledgable now than when you first started. Just as an aside, I've heard brand new kitchen sponges can kill even without any "aditives". Where are your new fish comming from? And what strains? ;D Kaceyo

[oodi]

Hi Marc,

I'm so sorry to hear of your losses. But do take your wife up on that offer... I have a feeling it would make you both feel better! ;)

Judi
:)

[jaydoc]

We all feel so badly for you and your sweet wife that we all might have to get more discus ourselves to ease the pain! Get back on that horse and ride.

CAry the lesser

Don’t throw in the towel yet. S%$# Happens.

And as a very smart man said:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"
Thomas Alva Edison

That’s what I tell myself after every blunder I make lol
So look at the sunny side. That won’t happen again. ;D

Best wishes
Ronald

[discusnutz]

So sorry to hear about your loss :'(,

But.....don't give up, clean up that tank.....and let your wife get you some more fishes, it will make you both feel better! :)

A hard lesson....but another learning experience.

Don't Give Up!!!

Wishing you both the best.

Now go clean up that tank!!!! ;D

Regards...............Brenda

p.s. antfarms are boring!!!! LOL

[peter]

sorry to hear that.

[Carol_Roberts]

Oh Marc, I'm sorry to hear that :'(

Get more fish. You'll be glad you did!

[peter_griffin]

Do not get discouraged. My first batch was also a wipeout >:(, but I couldn't stay away. My second batch went much better learned a lot :-\. All of them lived though due to my incompetence several were stunted. Now I got my routine down and I'm going to pick up my third batch. I feel like I should be able to raise them to full size breeding stock ;D.

[paniza]

Marcw,

I'm sorry to hear that about your fishes... don't give up!!!!

It happened to me before too... unfortunately this type of accident might happen even if you try the ant farm so, at least stick with something that you like.

Last year I killed 6 discus... 3 and 3 so, it happened twice with me. After I got it figured out, it paid off... these guys are so cool. There isn't a person that come to visit my house and want to get some too.

I have 3 tanks home, my discus is the lab type aquarium... there is nothing fancy about it but the fishes are happy for almost 1 year now.

Patience and you will get there.

[kelseygirl]

:'( I am so sorry for you, and for your wife. It happens. I wiped out a whole tank of neons, lemon tetras, and head and tail light tetras because I got in a hurry to get rid of some algae before I went on a trip. I bleached the plastic plants as well as the little "bubble" ship. Well, I rinsed everything very well, except that I didn't think about the bleach water getting UP INSIDE the ship. No more tetras. I felt terrible. But learned a very valuable lesson. I replaced the fish and added some very cute corys to the mix and am enjoying it. Wait a few days before you completely throw in the towel. Janice

[welshy]

sorry to hear about your sad loss but i am anti ant farming apparantly those ants get lots of ant flukes youll be back with the discus before long

[marcw]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Yesterday I was certain I wouldn't be getting back into Discus - now I'm not too sure. Maybe after a bit of a break. We'll see........

Since I didn't have any Discus in my tank, I had a bit of a go at ant-farming over the week-end. Not much luck there, either, unfortunately. Didn't take long before my nice new ants were all floating dead on the surface! Maybe I'm just not cut out for dealing with animals. ;)

[aloha_discus]

Aloha Marc, I know how you feel. This happened to me a few months ago. With the support from this forum and its members I remained in the hobby. You will get nothing in the form of discouragement on this forum. A great friend and part of my Ohana told me this when I loss 14 adult breeders. ( Mahalo Jack ) I got support and help from people that only knew from this site. I wish you lived closer to me. I would like to return the generousity shown to me. Please dont give up on discus. If you need, take a break then get more. I no longer use sponges that are used anywhere near the sink. I only use aquaclear replacement sponges.Thanks Bill and Susan for the idea.

So dont give up.

Ike ;D

[fishyfred]

Stop and Listen!

You have a calling...don't deny it because of a failure/accident. The best successes come after dismal faiures! The fish are calling your name...

[Cosmo]

Came home from work one day about 20 years ago to be greated by my young daughters with "daddy, all your fish are dead". Thought they were joking but went inside to see all my beautiful discus laying on the bottom of the tank. I was devistated, took the tank down and didn't setup another one for a couple years... but... once you get hooked, you're hooked so I suspect you'll be back as well. Never did put Discus in a Hex tank again though :)

We have one iron clad rule in our household... NOBODY... repeat ... NOBODY... messes with the Discus tanks except for an occassional feeding (with written permission of course ;D). Not only don't I want them inadvertantly doing something harmful, but .... they really don't want to do anything anyway so it's an easy rule to enforce ... LOL

Feel for both you and the wife... think you REALLY need to get some for fish or else she'll never forgive herself... yeah, that's it, you GOTTA do it for HER... ok, made a little joke of it, but, would probably be good for both of you to chalk it up to experience, clean the tank up the right way (so it's safe), and get yourself some more fish...

... you will someday anyway :)

Jim

[Cosmo]

besides... ANYONE can keep ants... jeeezz :D

[kaceyo]

They (ants) were all floating at the top! ;D I LOVE it!!!

[1977]

You can't give up that easily, especially since you know what caused the deaths. I've lost several hundred dollars worth of some beautiful discus in my first year here as a discus nut and I've never even discoverd why they died. No idea, just one at time in different tanks and even different symptoms. It's been very discouraging but I've bought enough discus so that some losses don't wipe my out and when that first successful fry hatches I know it will have been worth it. Order another batch of discus and try again. Hey, it's only money!!! ;D

[Cosmo]

So, Marcw... you did change your mind didn't ya ?????

Hey KC, told you feeding ants wouldn't work.. lol

[bryalk1]

hang in there. i think all of us have had problems. i know i have lost more than my share of fish. i know that the learning curve is different for us all but rely on those who have gone before. a discus is a beauitiful fish. try again
bryant

[kaceyo]

Yes Cos, looks like you were right again. Anyone who is considering leaving the discus hobby to take up ant farming should talk to Cosmo (alias Jim) and markw first. Now we just gotta find out what discus markw is gonna get. :-* Iknow where you can get a great deal on some yellow crystals. PM me if interested, Kacey

[Willie]

Marcw;

The difference between beginner and advanced hobbyist is the number of discus they've killed. Come back when you're ready.

Willie