How did YOU get involved in this hobby?

[Nathan]

hey i just thought itd be interesting in how people got involved/interested in the hobby of fishkeeping and the keeping of discus. Also how long theyve been in the hobby for?

anyway i guess i should start off, ive been keeping fish for a couple years, then earlier this year i got really quite sick and needed something to keep my mind off things, so my parents kindly got me a 3 ft tank (gotta love sympathy) and here i am now, just crazy about discus.

[G-1000]

I have always had a disregard for water restrictions and when I found out how much water is wasted on discus - then that was it for me !

haha

G

[DR.V]

Hmm I started keeping fish when I was 6.

Started with goldfish in a very small tank as well as betta in jars. Bought them with my pocket money ^^

As I grow older, I started buying bigger tank and more expensive fish. And love the hobby until today.

[marg]

Bought a 2 foot tank to fill in a blank spot in the Kitchen/Dinig area and stocked it with Guppies, Neons & Cories.

Went to the Pet Shop to buy some Fish Food - saw a small Discus and fell in love - now they have taken over my house - Tanks everywhere.

It's a good way of preventing the Kids from returning home - no spare bedroom anymore - it is now a Fish Room :lol: :lol: :lol: .

Marg.

[wickedglass]

My fish story goes almost as far back as Dr. V's story. I had a tank when I was about 9 years old. When we came to Australia I was 14 and never got another tank until 10 years later.
In the early 90s I was working in the hospitality industry and working long long hours, weekends I would work through from friday morning to sunday night with only a couple of hours sleep along the way. I couldn't sustain that without help (the white powdery kind). After a year of doing this almost every weekend (and being by this stage totally hooked on the help), I realised I had to stop and so I did. Addictions are easiest overcome when you can turn them from a bad addiction into a good addiction, so I bought a fish tank, which soon turned into 7 or 8 tanks. I bred just about every reasonably sized fish I could get my hands on, including discus. The tanks gave me something peaceful to look at, and something to do other than my work (by that stage I'd remembered that I was a glassblower and started a business for myself). When I went back to University I had to sell my set-ups as I found myself quite unable to take them with me to the new place, and all I kept was a 4 foot tank. So I finished my masters degree, but I never had a place big enough for having that 4 footer come out of storage ..... until now!
earlier this year I moved in with my partner and when we went to my storage to get some stuff out she saw the tank and actively encouraged me (poor girl, she didn't know what she was doing) to set it up. we don't have any space at home, so we set it up in the studio. Being glass artists, we had the fortune to have a heap of flat glass lying about and we decided we could build our own tank. It's a 4.5 footer .... then she discovered ebay (YARGH) ... now we have 4 x 4' tanks, a 7' tank, a 2' cube for fry grow-out and 4 breeding tanks, as well as an empty 4ft at home and our latest aquisition ... an 8 foot tank with a gabled hood on it!!! It came from a smorgies restaurant!!!
Anyway, we're both full-blown aquarists apparently and the poor girl has thanked me on a few occasions for introducing her to the hobby ... but really I must thank her for not only understanding, but actually actively encouraging and participating (although it's still me who gets to do all the waterchanges ;) )
I love my life, my girlfriend, my work, my fish, my girlfriend!

bah, I never intended to turn this into a novel, however as fish keeping has not been a continuous activity for me, it's hard to say when I really got into them. The short answer would be that I've always been interested in this hobby (and that story is quite a lengthy one in itself) and the long answer is a lot longer than I could write here.
Fishkeeping adds to life a certain dimension of calm, it spurs on the imagination, it has the ability for temporal displacement (that's when all of a sudden you realise you've been watching your fish for over an hour, when you actually only intended to sit down for 5 minutes), it soothes, it helps you meditate, also it can be like watching a daytime soap-opera or a drama, or an adventure, I'm sure it slows your heartrate, lowers your blood pressure and very therapeutic, it's a great way to overcome substance addiction (it worked for me).

And that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!

[RichVic]

Midlife correction story for us.
I saw some Discus around 10 years ago, & promised I'd get some when life started to slow down a bit. (We have 4 boys, three over 17) and its enough to get everyone to training and sports every week, not to mention feed and clothe them all etc. Rich(ard) had tropical aquariums at home as a kid but had never got around to setting up his own, work was hectic and involved travel etc. Finally last Xmas, he realised he was turning 50 the following year and had a bit of a "senior moment" then announced that he wanted to get a tank started now, reasoning that we had settled down, had a large brick house (built on a slab) and had no reason at all not to get a big tank! I agreed, and added that he could choose the tank and plants etc, if i could have some discus as part of my mid-life correction. Thank god he didn't want a Red Sporty Alpha Romeo!! The rest is history - His plants and my discus were not compatable - So, yep another tank, equal size needed and then a couple more tanks for the Quarantine and Breeding and yep now more tanks for growing on the babies and so on. Love the kids but now waiting for the Year 12 to vacate his bedroom, next year when he heads to Uni. in the City. Rich jokes that only 6months on, this hobby has cost as much as a little red Alpha Romeo
LOL but True.
Cheers

[taksan]

I used to keep fish back home in Africa (mainly tigerfish) in our pond and when we came to Australia in 1977 I discoverd my Uncle who had been here for several years had got bitten rather badly by the fish bug and had some 30 tanks including some Discus. Back then keeping Discus was very new and soon I joined him. Together we built up a discus/angelfish breeding operation of about 100 tanks which continued all through the 1980's while I completed Uni and started my career and my uncle became the founding president of the Discus society. In 1991 he contracted cancer and due to that and my work commitments we ended up scaling our fish operation down. When he died in 1995 he only had one tank left and I had no tanks whatsoever. In 2002 I was now sold out of my main business and running a studio and media brokerage and decided I'd like a tank for my office foyer. Following the principle that tanks breed better then any species of fish I now have over 20 tanks personaly and many others in partnership with other friends in the hobby. I still love my discus but I've been concerntrating on raising other species of fish since I've got back into the hobby.
In the words of my 4yo daughter when asked what her daddy did "My daddy plays with fish"
:D

[JNS]

I started in uni - my roomate had a small 5L tank. We were in a 6 room residence, and there was always one kitchen chair sitting directly in front of the tank (if someone put it back, someone else would grab it and put it in front of the tank). I learned about discus then, and did want to keep them should I ever start up the hobby.

I didn't start myself until several years after that. I kept a 10L tank for about 18 months, then migrated to Australia. Had not thought about fish keeping until we moved to a house that had a LFS closeby. Took my credit card and bought a 3ft.

When we moved to Sydney (couldn't afford the rent in a big enough place for my 3ft), I downsized to a 40L goldfish tank. Only 2 years ago did we have a big enough place for my 3ft, I started it up then. I was more obsessed with plants, but Discus were always on my mind. Finally decided it was time to do something about my cravings, and finally got to them, fifteen years later after on-and-off fish keeping.

I would never turn my back on fish keeping now. Love it. Planted tanks...and now discus.

[goldenpigeon]

It started when i was about 10. My parents marriage had started to fall appart and things were not the best at the time for me. I needed something to help me concentrate and keep my head clear. Im one of those very emotionless people so basically if im dying of some disease you cant tell (im not lol). My parents didnt know i was being affected by it and at the time i was breeding Cockatiels very sucessfully, handraiseing about 30 birds a year, considering i had 4 pairs of birds.

Unfortunantly i couldnt afford the exotics i wanted so i had to make do with something else. At the time my brother had gotten some gouramis but didnt stick with them long. after he was done i got some guppies and bristlenoses. I liked my fish and constantly researched finding every bit of information i could about my fish and other species.

I had started to breed the guppies as well as my birds and while getting supplies for both hobbies at the pet store once i saw some discus. I researched them, got scared because they were "so hard to keep and only for the experienced aquarist" and i had only been doing fish for a few months so i kept doing what i was doing until i couldnt resist a discus. All was well but still being relatively new to the hobby it died. Then i discovered the Trading Post. There was a guy who was selling nice pigeons for $10 a pop so i decided to get some of them and get to know the species better before heading into more expensive stuff.

As time progressed i became more affected by my parents break up so coincidentally the tanks multiplied. Then as time went on more i discovered Discus Forums where i learned a lot more and then about 2 years later i am here. (yes i know i havnt been a member for 2 years but i have been here before signing up).

thats my story.

[sammigold]

Well....... as a kid one of my friends dad had a goldfish farm.. he used to breed all manner of goldies in 3ft high round swimming pools (I could never understand why we couldnt swim in the pools!! in summer :lol: )
So of course we had to have goldfish!! :D

My mum bought me and my brother and sister all a goldfish each and we had several of this same goldfish for quite a few years (if you know what I mean)... There is a backyard in Beaconsfield which rivals the pet cemetery... anyway thats another story.... :oops:

so my first experience with fish was as a child....

I never had fish after that until I moved in with my partner about 8 years ago and he had a big homemade 4ft tank which was too big for our little terrace in Fitzroy that we were renting at the time... anyway I was at work one night (Theatre restaurant) and I was talking to one of our bouncers about our tank and how it was too big and we needed a smaller one and he happens to mention that he had a 3ft tank and stand set up which he would be happy to swap for the 4ft as he wanted to keep those blue yabbies....

:D
so it was a done deal... we started off with a community of wildly incompatible fish that somehow managed to live ok together until we bought in a guppy that had some disease that wiped out virtually our whole tank.... we were discouraged but decided to start again being much more selective about our choices of fish until we had a happy community.

then we moved house to Preston and had a little more room and decided to buy a 40ltr octagonal tank for guppies.

then december 2004 had to move again and when we were looking for a new rental we discovered our current home and the deciding factor for us was the big 4ft tank under a bar in the lounge.. we thought.. this place is meant for us!!!... 8-) (The house could have been falling down, But Hey! its got a fish tank!!) :D :lol:

so now we had a 4ft tank... and I said to Vic... I really want to have discus.... I started to research... found the discusforums... got some wonderful advice and started from there.. got my first 4 discus last July and currently have 6 ....

I also bought another 2ft tank for my gups and I have 2 quarantine tanks and a pond outside.... so I suppose you could say I am now a FishGeek!!!!
But I love it and wouldnt have it any other way!!!! So thats my story....

[Xtreme]

I used to work in Real Estate, Wayne was a Brick paver, he did his back, and was bed / house bound after major back surgury for more than a year. I bought him a lunch box sized tank with two convicts - no laughing, neither of us had been into an aquarium before! The convicts had babies, he rang me at work and made me get another tank for the babies. The the babies had beabies, and so on!!
Next thing I know we are looking for a new place to live as the tanks were taking over!
Now here we are with an Aquarium of our own.....what next?? Lol!!

[weird]

Wow, Xtreme got into fish when Wayne did his back in ? The first time I met Wayne he was delivering a 4ft, almost holding it all himself !

I got into fish, when I last went back to Indonesia, and my future brother in law turned my wife's family home into an aquarium. And in one tank ... he had discus ... now I knew that was the fish I wanted ! ;)

[ellwa]

I was living in an apartment in Crows Nest with my ex, and working 55-65hours a week in sydneys biggest nightclub.

I needed something other than a massive TV to wind down on the odd day off, and went off looking at aquariums.

Discouragged with a 2ft setup at about $500! i let it go.

Came home on my birthday, its pouring rain, she locks me out of the apartment, when she finally lets me in, there are streamers and stuff all over the apartment[she's done her back at work, had ALOT of time on her hands], then dragged me downstairs to the carpark, and had me carry up my pressie.

A 2ft tank, heater, and small powerhead, as well as 2bags of gravel.

A few hours later, sitting ontop of a 10" subwoofer enclosure I'd built in highschool[I was a computer person, not a hands on tool guy, it was square, and solid, though] was my new 2ft tank, with gravel, a filter, and a light. Little did I know, that night, dinner with mum and dad, they'd come to take me out for my birthday, and to check out the new place.

We had Malaysian and dads favorite restaurant. It was superb.

Little did I know that night would be the last time I ever had a drink with dad, more on that later.

All started there.

Tried planted wood, and other banana lillie style plants, and african cichlids. A few weeks after my birthday, maybe 6weeks, dad had been with family in the Caribbean, had spent a week unable to pee, and with a body riddled with tumors, somehow gotten home from the states, and spent a week in intensive care, tubes in and out of him.

Within two weeks of him being in hopsital, I was moving home, and I'd been declined in breaking up with the other half.

Long story short, mum wasn't too keen on having a 2ft tank in her longue room.

A search was on. high and low for a nice cabinet and hood for a 2fter.

Less than a week later we were the proud new owners of a 40G corner unit.

A cool $1200 on the table.

We figured it would be good for dad to have something relaxing to lookat when he was home between hospital stints.

Unfortunatly, dad came first, and he wasn't home much. Doing 10hour days in a nightclub mon-tues, then thurs-sat nights in a club, and fitting in as much hospital time as possible.
Broke up with the girl, she was broken hearted, lost my dad to a disease that fought hard, and eventually won, and we've got the great aquarium that everyone is talking about at his wake.

Its in the corner! and its HUGE! he's always liked other people aquariums, and now he had a son that had one, that was close enough.

For about a year it was filled with africans, then, it was all a bit much.

A few incarnations, diffrent plants, no success, the africans had done there dash, the 5" Synodontis was thriving, the clown loaches were having a ball, and the 6" bala shark just needed more room.

Planted Discus tank. That was the plan.

Did all my research, thought I had it all down.

Purchased a cheap co2 kit, the nutrafin, had my Fluval 204 working nicely, water was srystal clear, but I couldn't even grow algae.

Thought I was working it all out just before the trip to Canada Mum and I had organised for her, my brother and I, december last year, she calls me, wigging out, the tank has sprung a leak.

I now have 3 discus living in the Maternity ward in the SAN in Wahroonga, all the nurses love them, and they look sensational.

I now have an addiction, that is helping me fight my own addiction.

I'd rather have discus, than be stoned.

Its been a wierd experience, but now every chance I get I'm looking at aquariums.

I'm planning a garage tank come summer, I'm thinking 6x2x3h with discus, and some nice pleco style numbers.

I love it.

reminds me of my dad, and keeps me calm and relaxed.

[Womby]

Wow some of the storys on here are just amazing the ups and downs its just moving

well my own story is not so good. it starts with me and my partner getting a 4L bowl which we kept(well tried to anyways) 2 goldfish, needless to say i woke up to dead fish so i thought we will just try 1 this time well same story.

Well we got a bigger tank a 25L which we kept 4 goldfish and 6 Zebra danios which actually servived but the goldfish got to big so we got a 2ft(50L) and kept the same fish for awile but with each passing day the tank seemed to get smaller and smaller and it was about this time we got the internet on and well.... dident i feel bad :oops:

Now i have 3ft (160L) Amazonian Tank with 8 Angels, the 2ft is a guppy tank with 10 guppy of which one just gave birth so the 25L is now a fry tank and am likeing the look of a spare wall where a 4ft will fit(dicus anybody) :lol:

[Jadels]

I started with a fish when i was young and conviniently they all died. For my 18th Birthday last yr i bought a fighter called aioli and he died recently cos his water got too cold but he was with me for 18months which is a good inings anyway.

I bought a 2ft tank earlier this year and started with gold fish and neons which were all meant to get eaten by some cichlids which i was to be given but they never came ?? so 3 gold fish died (as they do), then i gave 3 to a friend in a swap for a large angel fish. And we had suckers to keep the tank clean. Then the neons got eaten by the angel fish so i bought more which just got eaten. And i bought a tiny ghost knife and it just died one night. I also bought an albino shark and a rainbow shark, but the rainbow picked on the albino so i put it in a little net and mum left the lids off and it jumped to its death. I bought a pleco which has almost doubled in size and another shost knife and a discus now.
I euthanised 2 suckers the other day so now have 1 stunted sucker - it never grew its still like 3cm long?

So currently i have 1 discus a pleco a ghost knife, a rainbow shark and the recent addition was a few neons and of course the tiny sucker.

Everything seems happy and i love my tank and fish.

Next is a 3ft marine setup hmmm

[Phlipper]

Simple..............had fish since I was a teenager, had a break for about 5 years from the hobby..............bought a nice Jebo tank 3 years ago......went totally insane and now have 50 or more........need to get out more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

[Davo]

I first started off in the hobby as a teenager in the early 80's. My mates had community tanks so I purchased one. Gourami's, tetra's, platie's and swords etc.

I then had a break and in 1999 I was in Crows Nest as part of my job and I went to a pet shop and was hooked again.

I bought a 4x2x2 tank and started off with a community tank but after looking at several US discus sites on the web I was hooked and eventually bought some discus from SLS.

I now have a 4x2x2 tank with compact fluoros, CO2 and some great discus thanks to SLS.

This started out as something to do on my days off but it has become an obsession. I am now planning a breeding tank as 3 pairs of my discus are laying eggs.

Dave.

[Nathan]

i had a feeling itd be an interesting thread, come on everyone started somewhere? where was it?

[Seaview]

This is an interesting thread, everyone started somewhere and thought we should bump this thread one more time and get everyone involved. everyone had to start some where so heres our store

it all started when i was about 12 and my parents bought me 2 guppies in a bowl. well at the time my brother work in a fish store and he felt sorry for the guys and just by chance a broken tank was brought into the store. so he asked the boss if he could fix it and have it. He agreed. so the guppies had a new 2ft home. well this is where it started.

from there My brother bought a 40L octagon tank which had a baby ribbon eel. then there was the 4ft with Barra's, after that there was a second 4ft under the first with cichlids. so the total was 4 tanks.

after that our parents decided to extend the house and build a gamesroom. well that was just music to my brother ears. once the room was build in went the 6x2x2 marine tank and the 4ft's. and the 2ft got turned into a tropical tank and was in my room at the time.

through the next bout 5 years the 2ft changed to a walking fish tank and then got up graded to a 30inch. following the next few years the 30inch went through a few changes. freshwater, planted, marine, back to freshwater, discus.

about the time I upgraded to the 30inch our parents got a bit angry at the eletricity bill and the 6x2x2 and the 4ft's where sold and 40L retired into the shed. but the 30inch continued.

in 2000 my brother had the lucky chance of buying into the store that he had worked at for the past 7 odd years. Well then that was it. who need a fish room at home when you have one at work everyday. i was still finishing high school so my brother was in full charge but once completing school and insisted in helping out on my days off through tafe. nedless to say after i finished my tafe course i was already hook into the hobby and got my self dragged into the business.

and now here we are. a family run business that is fulled by the love and passion of the hobby.

from a conversation i had a few days ago, there is only one word that descibes the fish fanatic and thats

BIGTANKITIS

you always want a bigger tank! or more of them.

Mike

[Nathan]

from a conversation i had a few days ago, there is only one word that descibes the fish fanatic and thats

BIGTANKITIS

you always want a bigger tank! or more of them.


couldnt be more right!!

come on how about some other people? how bout you pro an lr? everyone started somewhere!!

[RJ_Archer]

i started when i was 13(2 yrs ago) with goldfish, but the little fish kept dyeing so i got into cichlids there nice but nothing compaired to the discus. and i need the extra cash so i got into breeding cichlids but i got so many exams coming up so iv got out of the breeding but NOTHING can stop me from keeping discus.

[stonedavid]

Well, very similar here started with a small tank of mollies and that went from one to two to three etc, that was when i was 10.

Thirty two years later and they control me :roll:. During that time lived overseas in Japan for 2 years and during this time made friends with a couple of fish farmers over there, mostly fancy japanese goldfish and koi. Learnt about the culling techniques, and breeding and keeping of these fish, the fish they cull over there wld be our A grades quality fish over here. One thing i did learn is to cull very savagely and if u only get one good fish out of a batch its still worth it.

Currently i have an 8 X 4 metre shed filled with tanks and grow out ponds and outside ponds growing swords and and other exotic plants. Good thing about living here in the tropics is most of my discus breed 10 months of the year, but some of them still breed through our mild winter.

My motto with fish is "if it ain't broke don"t fix it!"
In short every individual has their own way of breeding fish and if it works for them dont criticise it, adapt it and use it to work for u.

Any way have rambled on enough lol, until next time
ciao Pete

[mcloughlin2]

Dad came home one night with 30 goldfish and we threw them in the pool (We had not put chlorine in there for god knows how long)

Then on my birthday i was bought a tank in which i put most the goldfish out of the pool ... LOL

They all died when mum cleaned the tank with windex so i gave up fish for a few years. Then i was given a tank by a family member with a filter, heater etc and i got into cichlids.

Now what can i say its gone from there. :lol: