The truth, the whole truth... I am not proud of my mistakes in this hobby however insignificant it may be but I hope that you will learn from them as I have and save yourself heartache and money. My favourite saying is; "Aquarists look after water, not fish. Fish look after fish. After all we are aqua-rists not fish-arists" -unknown
Einstein
I started with my first fish at about age 13, his name was Einstein and he was a regular comet about 2 inches in length. I kept him in a small 2 gallon tank with some gravel and no filtration (my parent's allowance wasn't exactly huge). I did total water changes every week rinsing out the gravel too (I didn't know any better back then) and he was happy and growing for at least a year before our family went on holidays to Asia for 2 months. My uncle (our house sitter for the 2 months) was in charge of Einstein and given explicit instructions; "feed him a pinch of flakes once a day and change his water once a week, don't forget to use the de-chlorinator when you do the water change". I said my good byes and I was off.
I remember the the first thing I thought of when we touched down at Sydney airport was Einstein and how my uncle was doing with him. To my horror when I got home his tank was totally cloudy with heaps of food floating around in his little tank! But he was alive! immediately I changed his water and gave my uncle an earful of "how much is a pinch to you?" (this is why you should prepare the food for "baby sitters" when you go away on holidays, as apposed to assume they know how much to feed them). Anyway about 2 weeks later he turned belly up and I was heart broken.
This is where my journey of the fish keeping hobby began. Although after Einstein I was too heart broken to keep anymore fish and pursued my other passion of motor racing. Ayrton Senna was my hero and until his death in 1994 all I wanted to do was race. I built scale models, went go Karting, but alas without money and family support in this country there is no reality for young racing talents, only dreams. I will never forget the day he died, I was getting up for my weekly paper run (my source of income back then) and hearing on the news that the legend was dead...
Bobby
Years later at 19 I purchased a brand new 10 gallon hexagonal tank that I got for a bargain price of AU$25, gravel and a black moor named Bobby. Bobby was a cute little fellow and he thrived. Weekly water changes, flakes and 2 years later he was still growing strong, or so I thought. In hindsight I don't really know how he died, or what the problem was but it was his time I guess. Either that or perhaps my denial that it was my laziness at fault that is blocking the truth, I am not sure. I was not very educated in the arts of fish keeping back then and was still pursuing other hobbies such as sport and photography.
Tropical Fish
Just over a year ago now I started getting more serious about keeping fish, I am working now so the budget was slightly higher. This time I approached the hobby from a new perspective and did a little a very small amount of research before buying a 30gal tank and started with an air driven UGF, plants, bogwood, an Ebo Jager heater (by fluke) and a fluorescent lights. I cycled my tank for a few days and started with some simple black widow tetras and a few corydoras. Prematurely I added dwarf gouramis in and I had not learnt about nitrates or ammonia yet. They slowly died one by one until only the corys and tetras were left.
I still remember my pair of female dwarf gouramis, they were hard to find as females are seldom sold at local fish stores (LFS). They were metallic blue and were doing very well on freeze dried blood worms and flakes. However ammonia or nitrites got the better of them. Enough was enough for me and I took my first real step on the path of becoming a true aquarist: I did real research. And so they say the rest is history...
The hobby of keeping fish
As you can see, I am no expert. I'm not a chemist, I'm not a biologist and I have not kept fish all that long. Simply I am a hobbyist with a lot of spirit. I love fish. I love to keep them, swim with them, catch them and eat them. This page has been put together due to my sheer enthusiasm for the hobby of discus fish. I have read, asked and heard many things relating to discus and I want to share what I have learnt with the internet community in the hope that I may inspire someone to take the plunge and keep these wonderful pets. I can assure you that with a small bit of effort on your part, they will be more than worthwhile!
I sincerely hope you enjoy my site and of course I will try to update it as often as I can so stop by once in awhile for a peek. I wish you all the best of fortunes in the aquarist hobby that we both share.
Chong Ly Hoang 02/09/02 [email protected]
Simply Discus
One stop shop for
discus advice and information. Share your fanaticism with other discus nut
cases!
Discus Page Holland
One of the most
comprehensive resources for discus information