I started out back in 1998 wanting to get back into keeping
cichlids
again. I hadnt kept a fish tank since I was a boy and I was
looking
for another hobby. Growing up, I had three tanks and many betta
bowls.
One of the fish I kept were a pair of wild caught brown Discus.
They
werent colorful, they didnt have an attitude compared
to
my Oscars, and they didnt spawn for me like many of my other
fish,
but they were the most graceful fish I had. They really caught my
eye
every time I looked into the tank. They loved to make eye contact
with
me it seemed and they were beautiful.
A couple of years ago my wife asking me to get another hobby
because
my computer hobby was costing way too much money. She felt that if
she
encouraged me to find another hobby, that I would stop spending so
much
money on my current hobby. Little did she know that I would get
bit
by the cichlid bug and start spending all kinds of money on fish
and
tanks. When I started thinking about getting back into this hobby
I
knew I wanted a large tank, Discus, and live plants. I did my
homework
when it came to Discus and knew that the recommendation was
roughly
ten gallons of water per adult size Discus. This was the first
rule
I didnt pay attention to. I went out and bought a 65 gallon
tank,
spent way too much on it, waited two months to let it cycle, and
then
set out to find some Discus. The prices I found in the pet stores
were
a little high for me and I wanted to see the parents of whatever
ones
I was going to buy. I found a breeder that had his hatchery not
too
far from where my parents lived so I made a weekend out of it. I
was
amazed at this guys 200+ tank hatchery. I walked around for
probably
45 minutes before I decided on six striated turquoise, 2 blue
diamonds,
and 2 golden dragons (clean pigeon bloods). Over the next year I
managed
to kill all but six of them. They just kept getting sick and I
kept
trying to treat them for one sickness and then another and
another.
All the rest ended up either becoming runts or stunted.
I felt that I was going to have to give up keeping Discus because
it
seemed that I was just not meant to have them. I talked to some
other
Discus keepers and told them my story. I learned that I was
treating
them incorrectly for sicknesses and that I probably started out
with
a bad batch of youngsters to begin with. By this point I had
bought
and setup three other tanks spread throughout my house. Things got
old
when it came to changing water, so I decided to make a 7 by
14
room in my basement into a fish room. It took a lot of badgering
on
my part to talk my wife into this one. After I got the room
started,
I wanted more Discus. So, I started my search for another breeder.
This
time, I was going to check the breeder out. I was going to talk to
some
of their customers and I was going to compare their operation to
other
breeders.
After about three months of checking out different breeders, I
selected
one in San Francisco called Universal Discus. I talked to the
breeder
a couple times on the phone and he gave me the impression that he
was
still a hobbyist and not a businessman. I talked to about a dozen
of
his customers over email or on the phone and I didnt find a
single
unsatisfied customer. As luck would have it, I needed to go to San
Francisco
on businessss, and so I made an appointment to see his hatchery.
Samson
and I sat and talked Discus for almost eight hours one night in
his
hatchery. I was amazed at all the different color varieties he
had.
He told me he had been keeping Discus for almost 40 years and had
started
out when he was a child in Hong Kong with a tank full of wild
Discus.
He admitted to me that he killed most if not all of them. I ended
up
coming home from that trip with 11 Discus. Six Angel Blue
Diamonds,
3 clean pigeon bloods, and a pair of a turquoise variety that were
dancing
for each other in a tank. They werent a proven pair Samson
told
me but he had high hopes for them. The male was the biggest Discus
I
had ever seen and I instantly knew I had to have him. I came home,
got
these guys setup in a couple different tanks and have been trying
to
figure out how to get more Discus ever since.
Now, I did say this was going to be an article on raising Discus
and
I think I have just given my experience with Discus and not a lot
of
information on how to raise them. For that information I think you
should
read some of the books available out there, read a lot of
whats
on the Internet, and talk to people like myself when you have questions.
What
Ive found is that most Discus hobbyists are all too eager to
talk
about and show off their fish. I would also recommend visiting
some
breeders and hobbyists if youre new to Discus and see what
theyre
doing. After youve researched the many options for keeping
and
breeding Discus, you develop your own method that works for you or
follow
a proven method that works for someone else. □