Last of my discus has passed away after 4-5yr

[Tony]

Last of my discus has passed away, sometime last week. More related to renovation, putting all fishes into 1 tank and no time to water change.

I probably wouldn't go for discus when I restart the tank after holiday. Thanks for all the help over the years.

[daninthesand]

I too lost my last discus a few weeks back. I also don't think I'll ever go back. Too many species out there to try my hand at.

Daniel

[cobaltblue]

No more discus. Isnt that sacreligious or something like that. Just kidding. Good luck with whatever you do next, and we will still be here when you realize how much you miss these beautiful fish....lol.

[April]

What!!!????????? Daninthesand quitting discus? no way..come on dan..you cant do that.. wondered where you were..get another whole group.
and tony..come on..we all go through regrouping stalls..or need a break. cant quit....just get those renos done..and then..turn on the water..and add fish. : )
well..if you do leave..it was nice knowin you. take care..and stop in and look at discus pics..see how it goes.
April with two discus. : ) but more to come .

[Ardan]

Sorry to hear you lost your discus Tony and Dan.
Maybe someday you will get back into it again.
I've been in and out of discus many times. Learn more each time.

Take Care
Ardan

[ronrca]

Im also very sorry to hear this! Thank you for your contributions to simplydiscus. Both of you will be missed however I do hope you see you back again! ;)

Take care and all the best.

[JimmyL]

Take a break and I'm sure Dan will come back and get his next discus after he finds no challenge from other speices of aquarium fish. I keep Angels, Chiclids. Arrowana, 50 odd and hard to find plecos and fancy Pearl scale goldfish that looks like a tennis ball with no head and tail, can't swim fast to compete food with discus and specialize in cleaning debris and poo from the bottom of my discus tanks.
Jimmy

[daninthesand]

Thanks for the well-wishes gals and guys. For me the decision to stop keeping discus once the last one passed was largely because of my trip to Peru to collect discus. I had a huge case of the guilts seeing these wonderful fish plucked from their home into a bucket, never to see their wild home again.
One of the first things I did when I got home was dismantle my large fish room and downsize considerably.

For me it was almost an epiphany in the sense that I wondered what it was all for. In fact I did not bring a single fish home from that trip. Just could not bring myself to do it. I prefer to remember the majestic beauty of those discus I did catch, take a quick look, and let them slip back into their native water. Now THAT felt great.

I would possibly consider keeping domestic discus in the future but they never really did much for me. The wilds were where it was at for me. But now that I have seen them in their natural habitat, I can't justify keeping them in a glass box. Nope. Just can't.

Daniel

[goheel]

well, I guess I'm clear then. I prefer the domestic discus over the wilds.

[Moon]

I too am concerned about taking fish from wild areas. I have 25 tanks in my fish room and hundreds of fish. None were taken from the wild. Dan, I don't quite understand the reason for tearing down your fish room. You can keep and breed lots of domestic fish and enjoy the hobby.

[daninthesand]

Moon. I understand your point. Tearing down my fishroom was a first step toward downsizing. That fishroom was largely designed for discus keeping. The PERU trip re-affirmed something I had felt before and made me take the next step.

Lets face it discus keeping is work! And it was becoming more work than my spare time was allowing for. And the enjoyment almost disappeared after PERU.

I still have a fishroom, but a much smaller one. Now I enjoy it thoroughly! No discus, but its kinda of a blessing in disguise.

Daniel

[JimmyL]

I really enjoy the challenge from the wild stock. What the domestic lacking is the fighting spirit to avoid capture of the wild discus. They are not only hard to catch from the tank and also the way they stuggle in the net is somewhat quite different compared to the domestic fish. They are so strong that I often left my thumb prints on their body to stop them from stuggling in the net. If you can look it at a different angle, I mean to the bright side. We cannot stop the native from harvesting their commercial goods or very often they only way to survive. Many will strave if they cannot export their fish. The culprit is always the aquarist like us who keep captive fish for our selfish enjoyment. There may be someday when the wild stock is facing extinction and that's is unavoidable eventhough people are trying very hard to stop it. The discus hobbyist from Simplydiscus who specialize in the wild fish in the Amazon waterways may come to rescue. My F3 Tefe RSG hatched last evening and the Heckel/RSG cross also hatching successfully last week but unfortunately got suck into the central filter. They will spawn again soon.
Jimmy

[daninthesand]

I hope people are not misunderstanding me here. I am not against capturing fish in the wild and keeping them as pets. FOR ME its something I choose not to do with discus. There are many responsible fish collectors out there and I know for a fact that Alberto of Aquatechnics is one of these people.

I love fishing for sport and have caught my share of fish. So I'm not some die hard animal lover who has sworn off eating meat etc etc.

It was my choice to stop keeping discus because of my appreciation of them in their wild setting. And for the work involved in keeping them. If I had the time and resources to keep them I may still do it one day. But for now I'm happy keeping other species. For example I have altum angels and they too are wild caught. However the degree of care they need is less so than the discus were.

Anyway, it was never my intention to hijack this thread. I just wanted to give some support to Tony in sharing that I too had recently got out of discus keeping.

Daniel

[Moon]

Daniel
Good luck.

[Cosmo]

I lost all my Discus in one day about 20 years ago. Came home from work and my children ran out of the house saying "daddy, all your fish are dead".. I was hoping they were joking but got inside to find all my babies on the bottom... dead :( Took everything apart and put it in the garage where it sat for several years... never could get these fish out of my blood though, and when the time was right I put up a bigger tank and stocked it with... Discus :)

It's a devastating experience no doubt... best of luck with whichever direction you go. I suspect, some day you'll gravitate back to Discus though... once you've got em it just seems like other fish don't fill the void..

Jim

[mikechen]

Hi, Tony, Daniel : I did the same after my last discus passed away six years ago. I thought I would quit keeping discus forever and ever. I once even wanted to give all my tanks away (2.5 feet small tank). I started with two discus 10+ years ago and fortunately they paired up once but lost all the babies once.(Never measure water condition and lack of knowledge) Since then I want to breed discus but never suceed. As the discus aging, last one passed away. (I even give them names) One day I walked through a LFS that sold lots of WWFF discus and I was fascinated by those cobalts. Bought 3 babies at once and soon they grew up to beauties. Soon I found they are easy to keep but hard to breed. Till the day they died never showed a sign of courtship. I guess I was a third rate discus keeper. Nowadays, excellent cobalt is seldom found. One day in 199x, I suddenly felt tired of all the hard works and responsibilities. I quitted my hobby and wanted to give my tank to someone else but no one accepted. So the tank stays empty for six whole years. One day I browsed the web and saw a picture of beautiful discus. All my feeling for discus are back again. I start with three juveniles in the 2.5 feet tank. However, once started can't be stopped;I bought another 10 more discus and changed my tank to bigger one. Now I am crazy for discus again. Just bought a batch of 32 babies BD last week(I shared some with my friends). I can never imagine this six years ago. Now I have a crush on discus more than before. They just poison my mind.

[Jarrod]

Tony and Dan....real sorry to hear about you losin your fish!...always sucks to have that happen when you've worked so hard and done all you can for them...Hope you both stay with us and get more fish!!

Jarrod

[korbi_doc]

Tony & Dan, more & more we see on this & other forums, many hobbyists changing lifestyles & going on sabbaticals (ie. leaving temporarily to do other things) I believe much of this change is due to the high maintenance style of these fish we love....but as JimmyL stated, there are lotsa other fun species one can attain.. the constancy of discus-care is definitely a deterrent, but for myself, the horses I have are much more difficult.
After I lost my last SW fish, a gorgeous lionfish that I had for 9 yrs, & with a busy veterinary practice I left fish totally for over 10years. Then when I had more time & felt the "call" again, while surfing the net for african cichlids, I found the newer more colorful discus, & fell in head over heels..now that I'm retiring to the south & a new home, I hope to have SW, cichlids & discus, but hope to automate as much as possible.. I even have installed automatic waterers for the horses, no "bucketing" for me.. anyway, good luck to both you guys in new adventures..hope you stay around, Dottie :D