 |
|
In the early 90's, I bought and read a ton of Discus books - everything by Degen and Wattley and Axelrod. It was then that I decided to give the fish a whirl. My first Discus were from a local breeder in Shirley LI by the name of Gil Curtins. A few hours with Gil, and you felt you could set the world on fire. Course, since I knew it all too - I decided to try some things my way. I consequently killed quite a few fish. However, time and learning by trial and error, I eventually managed a spawn of Royal Blues. I actually raised three to maturity!
I kept my hobby rather small, and then decided to increase my room by converting my garage in Bayport (home at the time). I increased my fishroom to about 20 tanks, and things were going very well. Then came the BIG mistake!
I purchased a group of 10 Ghost discus from a LFS. I had them in their own tank in the fish room, and they seemed fine, but all of a sudden, the rest of my fish got deadly ill. It was what was currently known or being called the Discus "Plague." It killed about 90% of my stock, and I never really did get back into the hobby til last year. This attack was in 1997, or 1998 - I forget which.
Up until last year, I had only a few tanks, and maybe 15 fish and was slowly getting out of the hobby. I then came back and with a splash! I have spent a ton on fish and new tanks, and have increased my number of tanks to about 30 of various sizes. I have approximately 125 adults, and 10 to 15 pairs to work with. Many of the pairs are as yet still unproven, but coming along nicely. I do not have an auto WC system yet, so I do spend 6 to 10 hours a day, working on the tanks. In my opinion- there is nothing like clean tanks and clean water for keeping Discus. Ask my best internet buddy, Tad Fujita - and he will tell you I preach Clean, Clean, Clean!
more...
|
 |
