discus prices

[shd17]

This is a newbie question but generally how much do quality juvie discus (~2"-3") would cost? I know it varies by strains but let's say pigeon blood, snakeskin, and leopards. Thanks.

Side question: where do you guys buy hydro sponge filters? How much?

[susantroy1]

shd17,

Here are a couple of links to check out HTH....

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp19170/si1379360/cl0/lustarhydrospongefilter5

I strongly recommend getting your Discus from this site as there are wonderful sponsors...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=65787

All The Best

Troy

[seanyuki]

You may also try Kenfish or Jehmco for sponge filters

http://www.kensfish.com/


http://www.jehmco.com/


Cheers
Francis:)

[dan3949]

Resist the temptation to try and save a few dollars by buying the cheapest fish on the market. You will probably get what you paid for. Research any potential seller on this forum or a Goggle search. I was very close to purcahsing the cheapest fish I could find on the internet, until I did some research on constumer comments. Discus are expensive fish. You will pay $25-$35 per fish minimum (plus overnight shipping). I recently purchased fish from Kenny's Sept shipment. I could not be more pleased with my purchase and dealings with him. He spent more than an hour answering questions and giving me guidance on the proper care of new discus (I also am a newbie).

I paid about $100 more than the cheapest source of discus I could find for 8 discus delivered. For this extra $100 (25% more), I got, beautiful/quality fish (3.5" versus 2"), great Customer service, and all fish are very healthy and were swimming the entire tank and eating within 24 hours.

Please do lots of research, discus are expensive fish, don't waste your time and money dealing with low quality fish.

[MostlyDiscus]

Ewww.... nice web site Francis, Thank You

You really cant go wrong with either Kenny or Mike Beals(CODISCUS). Both have excellent fish. They may cost a bit more but both having cutting edge fish strains on the market today. Dan is a good guy to work with also. Ed

[Don Trinko]

I prefer to see the discus I buy. There are 3 quality discus dealers within a 2 hour drive. It is also a lot easier on the fish to take a 2 hour drive rather than a 24 hour trip. If you look thru the section that judges peoples discus you will get an idea what discus should look like but... many discus are beautiful but not perfect. ( my tanks are full of these and it is apropriate since I am not perfect either) Don T.

[Discus-n00b]

You may also try Kenfish or Jehmco for sponge filters

http://www.kensfish.com/


http://www.jehmco.com/


Cheers
Francis:)

I've bought a lot of my sponge filters from Kensfish. Good experience. And bought my discus from Kenny, amazing experience. :)

[shd17]

thanks for the advices. Much appreciated. Another question: what's the difference between pigeon blood and red dragon? They looked similar to me.

[Discus-n00b]

Red Dragons are a type of PB i do believe. PB covers the entire group of strains in it. PB is like a category of discus strains i guess you could say.

[casw]

Another thing to consider is the amount of labor for water changes and the cost of the food you are feeding to the discus to grow them out. Ugly/cheap/low quality fish will eat about the same as a pretty/more expensive/high quality fish and this will surpass the initial cost of the discus pretty soon.

[happygirl65]

Another thing to consider is the amount of labor for water changes and the cost of the food you are feeding to the discus to grow them out. Ugly/cheap/low quality fish will eat about the same as a pretty/more expensive/high quality fish and this will surpass the initial cost of the discus pretty soon.

That is true....I tried to save a few bucks and bought from a "cheap" internet dealer....out of 6
2 DOA (eventually refunded)
1 Died the next day (live ARRIVAL only guaranteed...no refund)
3 had to be medicated for 10 days....add an extra $30 in meds)

So instead of paying $17 ea....I ended up paying about $32 ea after you absorb the cost of the unreimbursed loss and the meds.

None of that happened once I ordered from Dan (Elita Aquaria) on this site. His fish were awesome (still are) they arrived in excellent condition and stayed that way. No meds, all of them lived (and are thriving) so in the long run I paid LESS for excellent quality discus by ordering through him.

[Wahter]

This is a newbie question but generally how much do quality juvie discus (~2"-3") would cost? I know it varies by strains but let's say pigeon blood, snakeskin, and leopards. Thanks.

Side question: where do you guys buy hydro sponge filters? How much?

Where are you located? You might have a breeder/ importer within a close distance from you and you could go there to pick out the fish yourself. :)



Walter

[shd17]

I live in seattle, wa.

[Crstfr]

anyone know any breeders in Austin Tx?..

[Wahter]

I live in seattle, wa.

Maybe you can contact some of the people on this post/ thread:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=64494



Walter

[Wahter]

anyone know any breeders in Austin Tx?..

Dan is in Houston, but I don't know how he is since Hurricane Ike hit. :(

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78

Walter

[Jolley]

Daniel is doing great. He is open for business. :)

[doc3toes]

pop over to see april in vancouver. http://www.petsbeautiful.com/aquarium/index.php

[Apistomaster]

Amazon Pets on North Aurora and about 100TH St( I haven't lived in that area for awhile so I may be off a few blocks) but the owner breeds some pretty discus right in his shop. He can only raise a few color varieties, mostly Turquoise and solid blues, in his limited space but at least the fish are as locally bred and you wouldn't be making any drastic changes in water chemistry.

There are a couple others who import a broad variety of Discus but it is always best if you can buy discus bred locally no matter where you live when you can.
I would try to sell you some if I had any but I am starting my domestic discus over from scratch using Discus Hans' Stendker Brilliant Turquoise stock so it will be at least a year before I have any domestic discus for sale. The Brilliant Turquoise I received sure are fine fish. Their blues and reds are the most intensely colored I have ever had.

I would ask April if there are any regulations to contend with when it comes to bringing fish across the Canadian/USA border because she has experience with doing that. She has nice Discus and a good variety of colors.

[Crstfr]

Dan is in Houston, but I don't know how he is since Hurricane Ike hit. :(

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=78

Walter


cool, thanks!

[alxjss]

That is true....I tried to save a few bucks and bought from a "cheap" internet dealer....out of 6
2 DOA (eventually refunded)
1 Died the next day (live ARRIVAL only guaranteed...no refund)
3 had to be medicated for 10 days....add an extra $30 in meds)

So instead of paying $17 ea....I ended up paying about $32 ea after you absorb the cost of the unreimbursed loss and the meds.

None of that happened once I ordered from Dan (Elita Aquaria) on this site. His fish were awesome (still are) they arrived in excellent condition and stayed that way. No meds, all of them lived (and are thriving) so in the long run I paid LESS for excellent quality discus by ordering through him.

I can vouch for that. Dan is very nice to deal w. He called me and talked for a while about all sorts of things. He keeps me in mind and i appreciate that. His fish r breathtaking. I have one that is just a yr old and he is @ least 6" and another one thats a dab bit smaller but georgeous. Dan The Man:p

[Lauren]

Like others have said buying discus from reputable people while may seem more in the actual cost , in the long run usually is much cheaper. Between possible deaths, sicknesses, medications, trying to bring weak/thin discus back to health etc the price can add up quite substantially.
Im not sure about where you are, but the cheapest discus around here are about $25 for 2"(with no guarantees) and in incredibly bad condition, for a little more I can have quality sent to my door usually with some guarantee.
There are a few (and far between) places that sell good discus near me commercially. But their cost is way above most of the breeders on here.

[Valik]

Amazon Pets on North Aurora and about 100TH St( I haven't lived in that area for awhile so I may be off a few blocks) but the owner breeds some pretty discus right in his shop. He can only raise a few color varieties, mostly Turquoise and solid blues, in his limited space but at least the fish are as locally bred and you wouldn't be making any drastic changes in water chemistry.



I personally would not buy from Amazon I think he is over priced for the quality of fish he has, though it's a fun little place to go look around, he has some cool reptiles and other stuff in there also. I would also stay away from King's Discus in the international district(if he is even still around) He use to feed live tubiflex and his he was always medicating at least one tank everytime I went in there.

[Apistomaster]

It's been about 4 years since I last visited Seattle but I think the prices at Amazon are not all that high when you consider they are home grown and if you live in the area, you don't have to spend a $100 or more to have 6 or 8 fish delivered to you by overnight freight. Most breeders will negotiate a lower price if they know you are a serious buyer so I would not place much stock on the prices marked on the tanks.
It isn't always easy to find a local breeder and when you can, that is a definite plus. Seeing what you are buying and knowing that the fish are being raised naturally is a plus if you hope to breed the fish you are buying. I am not saying Amazon is the best place to buy discus but it is one of the few in Seattle where you can deal directly with a guy who only sells the fish he raises. His operation is too small to offer a large variety; the guy is just a fellow discus hobbyist who happens to raise his discus where he spends most of his time.

Many of us who breed Discus feed them live worms regularly. I have cut back some what because the cost of overnight freight has become ridiculously high so I mainly bring them in for conditioning catfish breeding stock but I still feed them to my discus. I used to bring in a pound or two every week but now it's only about twice a month. True Tubifex are virtually non-existent in today's fish shops. Normally, only black worms are available and there is little evidence that live black worms are a source of disease in discus. There are usually a few leeches in the worm shipments but they are predatory on the black worms but not the fish. Besides, these leeches die in warm water anyway.
I used to collect real Tubifex worms, sold them to shops throughout the PNW and fed them to the wild discus I was breeding and clean worms are more repugnant to mess with than they are bad for your fish.

[Greg Richardson]

If you around Seattle get a hold of Kayce.
I'm out as well. Right now is good timing he just had large spawn.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/for/849426356.html

[krazykat]

hi shd17! I agree with greg about contacting kacey. he has quarter-sized and 2-3" discus juvies right now. the parents are absolutely gorgeous and are the biggest discus I have ever seen! they look very healthy and well fed! beautiful fish!

[shd17]

Thanks for all the advices, guys. I will definitely check out all of your recommendations.

[pherfect]

Hi, hey I live in the Tacoma area and just bought some discus in Woodenville from mac's discus this week. I had lots to choose from and he was very helpful with information regarding discus. Much better quality and cheaper than pet stores.

[Apistomaster]

Mack imports all his discus so he can carry a larger variety at lower prices but anytime you have the option of buying from a local hobbyist/breeder like Kacey, you will get much better fish and they will make better future breeders than those mass produced at the SE Asian Discus farms.
Those imported fish are the discus of last resort.
I have found that the mass produced imported Asian Discus had serious problems with fertility.
I bought 16 discus from Mack when I started over with breeding discus and I got five pairs out of 16 fish. Only one of the five pairs produced young twice then never raised another brood. The other four pairs produced dozens of infertile spawns each. I had to raise some of the few fry from one of the successful spawns in order to get a group of fertile pairs; adding another year to reach full production. I don't know why the SE Asian imported Discus have such poor fertility but they do. I wasted year that could have been avoided had I been able to buy from a local hobbyist breeder in the first place, but around here, I am the only one breeding discus in salable quantities. There aren't that many people living in SE Washington State, let alone discus breeders. At least there are many more breeder/hobbyists in Western Washington to buy fish from.

[pherfect]

Mack imports all his discus so he can carry a larger variety at lower prices but anytime you have the option of buying from a local hobbyist/breeder like Kacey, you will get much better fish and they will make better future breeders than those mass produced at the SE Asian Discus farms.
Those imported fish are the discus of last resort.
I have found that the mass produced imported Asian Discus had serious problems with fertility.
I bought 16 discus from Mack when I started over with breeding discus and I got five pairs out of 16 fish. Only one of the five pairs produced young twice then never raised another brood. The other four pairs produced dozens of infertile spawns each. I had to raise some of the few fry from one of the successful spawns in order to get a group of fertile pairs; adding another year to reach full production. I don't know why the SE Asian imported Discus have such poor fertility but they do. I wasted year that could have been avoided had I been able to buy from a local hobbyist breeder in the first place, but around here, I am the only one breeding discus in salable quantities. There aren't that many people living in SE Washington State, let alone discus breeders. At least there are many more breeder/hobbyists in Western Washington to buy fish from.

I was wondering why know one mentioned Mac... now I know. I'll make the best out of what I purchaced from him and enjoy. I wasn't planning on breeding anyway. So how can I get a hold of Kasey as I was thinking of getting a few more this Xmas.

[Turok]

Go talk to Kacey, I bought a 4 from him. You will not find any better around in the Seattle area.
He 'had' some 2 inch fry LSS for sale, 5 bucks each? on craigslist.
10 minimum.
I would buy more from Kacey, but I'm out of tank space, besides, I'm waiting for his AESs to have babies...

Kacey post ALOT here, PM him

I just started raising discus this year. At first I just wanted to see if I could keep them alive.
I bought discii from Ken's, Mac's, Liem, been to all the stores in Seattle area.
If I were you, buy from Kacey 50 bucks, 10 juvies, see if you like raising Discus. Then place an order with one of the sponsors here.
There is more variety from the sponsor sites.
Unless you like LSSs, Kacey got some young adults for sale to.

If you don't want 10, I will split 10 with you, I want some more LSSs, but not 10. I'm looking at 4 little ones... PM me if you want to split.

[shd17]

Go talk to Kacey, I bought a 4 from him. You will not find any better around in the Seattle area.
He 'had' some 2 inch fry LSS for sale, 5 bucks each? on craigslist.
10 minimum.
I would buy more from Kacey, but I'm out of tank space, besides, I'm waiting for his AESs to have babies...

Kacey post ALOT here, PM him

I just started raising discus this year. At first I just wanted to see if I could keep them alive.
I bought discii from Ken's, Mac's, Liem, been to all the stores in Seattle area.
If I were you, buy from Kacey 50 bucks, 10 juvies, see if you like raising Discus. Then place an order with one of the sponsors here.
There is more variety from the sponsor sites.
Unless you like LSSs, Kacey got some young adults for sale to.

If you don't want 10, I will split 10 with you, I want some more LSSs, but not 10. I'm looking at 4 little ones... PM me if you want to split.


I actually bought 5 3" from a friend who knows someone that imports fish and they seem to be pretty nice. So I'm running low on space. Thanks for the offer though. Can you post pics of the ones you got from him? Maybe by kacey's next spawn, I can have another tank set up. His discus does look very nice though so definitely wanna get some from him next time.

[Turok]

I posted some pictures a few months ago here:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=64688

The spotted ones are from Kacey.
The others are from Kenny, by way of April.