The Discus Book Tropical Fish Keeping Special Edition: The Discus Books, #3

By Alastair R Agutter

A very big welcome to The Discus Book Tropical Fish Keeping Special Edition - Celebrating 25 Years since the first edition. For Natural Aquariums, Healthy Diets, Fish Care and more. A book for all Tropical Fish Hobbyists, Discus Lovers and Cichlid Keepers.

The original “The Discus Book” was first published in 1989 and still remains a Best Seller world-wide even today and a classic collectors edition. Since then and 25 years later, "The Discus Book Tropical Fish Keeping Special Edition" celebrates 25 years in 2014 as a full colour special edition. With over 110 full colour pictures and just 17 black and white images of early days spanning 25 years as a special edition book.

This Book is for all Tropical Fish Hobbyists and enthusiasts. Where you will find inside the book, proven methods for the successful keeping of any tropical fish, always healthy and disease free, but especially Discus (symphysodon). 

This “Special Edition” is suitable for all Tropical Fish Keeping enthusiasts of all ages. With a blaze of fabulous colour plates and pictures, including images and photographs from the breeders first book 25 years ago as mentioned earlier in the description, and now these archive images serve as a time capsule in book form, for every Aquarist to study, reminisce and enjoy! 

Covering Fish Care for Discus, Cichlids and other Tropical Fish species. Natural Aquariums, Successful Breeding of Cichlids, Community Fish Aquariums, Filtration, Lighting, Suitable Plants, Special Recipes in the book for Preparing High Protein Fish Food to ensure your tropical fish are always healthy and thriving. 

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS - The Discus Book celebrating 25 years on since the 1st Edition was written, the advancements and specie strains since those early pioneers of breeding, INTRODUCTION - Introduction to the Book and the concerns expressed even 25 years later after writing this book in hard copy, CHAPTER ONE - The Discus and its Natural Environment, CHAPTER TWO - The Wild Discus Species from South America, CHAPTER THREE - The Importance of the Correct Aquarium, CHAPTER FOUR - Live and Prepared Foods for the Discus Diet, CHAPTER FIVE - The Requirements for Discus Fish Filtration, CHAPTER SIX - The Genetics and Different Strains of Discus Fish, CHAPTER SEVEN - The Lighting and Electrical Needs, CHAPTER EIGHT - Collecting and Purchasing the Correct Fish, CHAPTER NINE - The Correct Water and Techniques, CHAPTER TEN - The Spawning of Symphysodon (the hard work begins), CHAPTER ELEVEN - A Natural Discus Fish Aquarium with suggested Plant Species and Equipment, for a stunning aquarium, CHAPTER TWELVE - The type of other Fish species you can enjoy and have with Discus Fish in a Community Aquarium, CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Fish Care and the important points for having healthy Discus Fish and other Tropical fish species by forming a bond and routine, CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Identifying Symptoms of the Discus Fish diseased and other Tropical Fish species, the remedies and the steps you can take to try and cure and CHAPTER FIFTHTEEN - Concluding points and other related resources and places of interest on the World Wide Web for following your passion and interest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alastair Agutter Digital Publications
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499289831

Alastair R Agutter

Alastair Agutter is one of a select few world-wide to successfully breed the Discus (symphysodon) species King of the Aquarium in captivity and an authority on these tropical fish species and others, as an accomplished Best Selling Author of Specialist Books Internationally. Alastair began keeping and breeding tropical fish as a hobbyist from the age of just 9 years back in 1967 (now 50 years in 2017) and has successfully bred many species. He was one of the very first Aquarists in the United Kingdom breeding cichlids from the Great Lakes (Malawi and Tanganyika) in the early and mid-nineteen-seventies. His enthusiasm as a dedicated Aquarist continues today with a number of projects underway; including the development of new biological filtration systems (Polyatomic-ion Biological Reactors), to help improve the success rate for keeping thriving plants with tropical fish species. Other projects include breeding a number of endangered species including original strains of the symphysodon family and other smaller indigenous species native to South America mainly inhabiting the Great River Amazon. Alastair also continues today designing and making his very own aquariums and equipment for his projects, and also endeavours to write more tropical fish hobbyist reference books as a freelance full-time author, in the interests of further serving the local and wider Community Internationally.

Book preview

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS

The Discus Book Celebrating 25 years (1989 to 2014)

It seems only yesterday, since I wrote The Discus Book published in 1989 and now celebrating 25 years on in 2014 and I am delighted to release this full colour Special Edition for all Tropical Fish Keeping enthusiasts of all ages.

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The Book that inspired the Author to Breed Discus: Jack Wattley's – Handbook of Discus

The Book Covers Fish Care for Discus, Cichlids and other Tropical Fish species. Natural Aquariums, Successful Breeding of Cichlids, Community Fish Aquariums, Filtration, Lighting, Suitable Plants, and High Protein Fish Food Menu’s for always keeping healthy fish and more.

The proven methods in this book on Tropical Fish Care if followed will ensure you always have disease free thriving tropical fish and eager to breed.

I had always been a tropical fish keeper and enthusiast since my early days as a very young School boy. Where one day, I accompanied my friend to his house and as I entered the hallway, I was introduced to a tropical aquarium. As I viewed this beautiful bow fronted gold angle iron fish tank, with hood and stand. I was only 9 years of age at the time in 1967 and a year later, I was breeding Blue Acara Cichlids. Over the years, I had bred a considerable variety of Cichlid species, including Jack Dempsey, Firemouth Cichlids, and then I began breeding the Great Lake African Cichlids from Malawi and Tanganyika, namely Psuedotropheous. As Rift lake cichlids became introduced to Britain in the late 1970's by the importers. Discus Fish, in the 1960's, 1970's in Britain were very rare, if ever seen at all in tropical fish shops.

But I did start to read articles about the symphysodon in the late 1970's and began to hear about the successful breeding of these species in captivity from Germany, by Dr Eduard Schmidt-Focke and an American enthusiast, who was beginning to make a name for himself, by successfully breeding these beautiful fish in captivity in volume and was even developing food formula's, so he could feed the young fry away from the parents. Of course, the man I am referring to was none other, than Jack Wattley.

Jack Wattley, inspired me to breed Discus and no doubt as like I, must of had many heart rendering times and frustrations in those early trial and development days until he found a system suitable and one that worked for his success. I never had any desires to develop a commercial program for Discus, but just wanted to record and breed these species in captivity, so we had another record documented of my experiences, to relay to other Discus lovers, to ensure enough of us around the World could ensure the survival of this beautiful and most curious specie of evolution. For each day as a humanitarian and humble student concerned for the environment. The industrial world of man had reached the deep unspoilt regions of South America, especially Brazil around the Amazon and therefore the Wild Life habitats of these species and others, were under threat from pollution, caused by de-forestation, where trees were being cut down, at a rate equating to the land mass in tree destruction, the size of the Country of Wales every day.

25 years on, we are still discussing climate change, a concern I echoed 25 years go and where little has changed since, to stop this continued destruction of our planet. But the likes of Jack Wattley and others in our society are the very custodians of hope, as the human journey today begins to explore the World of Quantum Mechanics. Jack Wattley's work as an enthusiast in those early days and later, as a commercial fish breeder for the famous Turquoise Discus and where he has created new species from selective cross breeding and therefore subsequently, demonstrated man's power and ability to shape our World. For today, we see an array of absolutely stunning strains and new sub species of the Discus fish, most if not all, who breed these beautiful creatures today, will have had a connection somewhere relating to Jack Wattley’s work in discus fish breed such as the Discus Handbook telling the story of his success as a very humble and wise man.

Most Discus breeders around the world today, owe a considerable debt of gratitude to Jack Wattley. As they continue to operate the Jack Wattley way, with vast water supplies running through masses of aquariums. Where successive generations of Discus Fish have been bred in an acclimatized environment of the breeders conditions and where these species know of no other. They certainly do not know of the under root crevices in the river systems in, or around joining tributaries of the Great River Amazon in South America.

Today's species of Discus for the aquarium are all almost certainly tank bred and these species are very hardy in comparison to the species just twenty five years ago, where I had to import from the wild in South America. Then, so often very tragically, there were many discus fish causalities, from the long and arduous journey, they either died from stress, or brain damage leaving species in a vegetative state, from a lack of oxygen in transit.

In this special edition of the book I have including additional chapters, one in particular referring to planted natural aquariums. To have a sterile aquarium in the home is not really a conversation piece if you are that way inclined and worse still it could cause you a divorce. But a planted aquarium today with Discus and possibly some other species to complement your new underwater world can have a stunning impact in any environment. So in this special edition of The Discus Book there is an array of colourful pictures and extra chapters as mentioned, covering the natural aquarium and types of plants suitable and the most appropriate community species of other fish species, you can house in the Discus Fish Aquarium.

You will come across some pictures in black and white, also some in colour that I have still included in this new book as they are historic records of a young British breeder 25 years ago, who successfully bred the King of Tropical Fish in Britain.

So welcome to this special edition and I am convinced the information found will be a wonderful time capsule of the past. I know the book has worthy content, for I always remember Jack Wattley congratulating me on its publication and even sending me a cheque, that I have never cashed, and keep as a nostalgic keepsake as a bookmark in my Discus Book.

The Discus Book since I re-wrote the original in 1989 has been when re-written for today's world of technology such as Amazon Kindle Book Editions. The publication of The Discus Book is now also available today in paperback. The Discus Book has always remained in the Amazon Best Sellers, for Fish & Aquariums and only last week, topped the number 1 spot on Amazon's Best Sellers in the United States of America.

The tropical Fish Keeper today when viewing this book can become very encouraged to set up a fabulous tropical fish aquarium with discus fish and others. They can grow to a remarkable size and look absolutely stunning when shoaling in numbers swimming around bog wood and plants.

The availability of the Discus fish today is as a result of the advancements made in the breeding of these majestic and beautiful creatures for all to enjoy and we all have a debt of gratitude to Jack Wattley, the Father of breeding the Turquoise Discus, where he began a journey many years ago of intensive cross breeding to develop the amazing vibrant colours of Discus we see today!

Warmest Regards and Successful Tropical Fish Keeping,

Alastair R Agutter

Author

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

There are few places remaining on this Earth Where Man has not Trodden Written 25 Years Ago

In this modern day and age, we have seen the disappearance of many beautiful wild creatures that have roamed our