Fish so pretty it almost makes you cry tears of joy

[TwoTankAmin]

I kept Altums for a number of years. I no longer do so as I am downsizing and so I sold them to a member of my club who already kapt some. One of the reasons I had to have Altums was the vid below.

 

[GaryE]

I had altums, and to me, they represented grace and stately beauty.

"Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be at all" was the old surrealist Andre Breton's interesting definition, and that makes me think about absolute beauties who combine movement and colour to amaze us. Iriatherina werneri, the threadfin rainbow is up there. A group of 5 or 6 Chromaphyosemion biteniatum circling each other and dancing off without biting each other is one of nature's great shows that fits in an aquarium.

We have dancing beauty, sitting there and staring back beauty, stately grace, impossible colour intensity (freshwater killies and many marine fish), "man" made beauty like Betta splendens linebreds - so much. I have keot little Enteromius jae whose redness almost hurts to look at, and seemingly electric blue Celebes rainbows.

I don't like to be smacked in the face by anything, including beauty. I like realizing how good something is after a few glances. That's why I would never include fish like linebred Discus on my list of beauties. I find the pigeon blood and similar fish outright ugly, though if you have one, I'll pretend to be impressed if you are.

 

[emeraldking]

Well, to me the altums remain the ultimate angels there are... Wild caught ones are hard to get overhere. And if they are present, the price will be sky high... So, if we want to get some altums, it will be offspring of a number of generations of those wild caughts.

 

[Uberhoust]

Always like altums, but don't like to keep my fish tanks above 75f because when I go higher it is too hard to keep the house cool in the summer.

 

[Ceez]

Prettiest fish to ever live..

I have kids....sue me

 

[plebian]

I had altums, and to me, they represented grace and stately beauty.

"Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be at all" was the old surrealist Andre Breton's interesting definition, and that makes me think about absolute beauties who combine movement and colour to amaze us. Iriatherina werneri, the threadfin rainbow is up there. A group of 5 or 6 Chromaphyosemion biteniatum circling each other and dancing off without biting each other is one of nature's great shows that fits in an aquarium.

We have dancing beauty, sitting there and staring back beauty, stately grace, impossible colour intensity (freshwater killies and many marine fish), "man" made beauty like Betta splendens linebreds - so much. I have keot little Enteromius jae whose redness almost hurts to look at, and seemingly electric blue Celebes rainbows.

I don't like to be smacked in the face by anything, including beauty. I like realizing how good something is after a few glances. That's why I would never include fish like linebred Discus on my list of beauties. I find the pigeon blood and similar fish outright ugly, though if you have one, I'll pretend to be impressed if you are.

To each their own. I really find angelfish attractive--while they're still juveniles. I especially like the black marble breeds. The larger they are the less attractive. And I don't really care for their natural color/markings. To me, altums appear somewhat monstrous. I have easy access to them but have absolutely zero interest in keeping them. I find discus much more attractive, wild or farmed. I have to agree with you regarding pigeon bloods, but I find most other farmed varieties incredibly beautiful.

I think some people claiming to dislike discus really dislike some of the cult-like attitudes of some of the elitist keepers more than they dislike the fish per se. I for one would argue that aside from beauty in form and color, discus display unmatched behavioral sophistication.

 

[GaryE]

I've had this sort of debate a few times - often about veiled swordtails, oddly enough. I was once told I was genetically defective because I didn't think the old 'Simpson Hi-Fin swordtail' was a nice fish. The man really meant it - it wasn't delivered as a casual insult. He was sure his fish was the most beautiful strain of any fish anyone could see, and that it appealed to innate sense of beauty we all should have. Oh well

I don't think there's a standard for beauty. I feel about Discus as you do about angels - they okay. I never want to keep them again.
Their behaviour is interesting, especially with the fry feeding, but once you've seen it a few times, meh.

You can debate taste til you turn blue, but there's no resolution. I don't enjoy watching how Discus move. If I see a well proportioned Discus, wild or close to wild colours, I will stop and admire it. But once I got over the old fish books talking about it as the "KIng of Tropicals" and realized keeping them was like keeping a lot of other fish, no more no less, I haven't been drawn to them.

It's a simple statement. You are good with Discus and I recognize and salute your skill.

 

[plebian]

I've had this sort of debate a few times

I wasn't really trying to start a debate. As I said "To each to their own." I just thought I'd contribute an alternative view, since I see almost as much discus "bashing" as I do "king of the aquarium" prattle. There are lots of beautiful species, many of which can be universally agreed upon. What I wanted to add to the conversation was something other than appearance.

The breeding behavior of discus is absolutely one of the most fascinating things to observe, unique among species. But the interest I have in their behavior goes way beyond breeding. In fact, I have no interest in breeding them, though I have witnessed a few spawns.

If you could see the way the pair I now own interact, you might agree. Watching their interaction is like watching two young lovers who can't keep their hands off one another. They have their well documented "bowing" ritual, which they repeat regularly, but they also race one another from one end of the aquarium to the other, side by side. They frequently forage together, again side by side. I've had bonded pairs who vigorously defended their bond against interlopers (usually an unattached female trying to dislodge an attached female). In those situations I've seen the attached male insert his body between his mate and the attacking female repeatedly, even engaging in mouth fighting with the interloper. This went on hourly, every day, for over a month. I finally had to remove the interloper to restore peace to the (community) aquarium.

In short, I have never witnessed behavioral interactions as subtle and complex as those displayed by discus displayed by any other species of fish, though those may well exist. I think it's a sadly overlooked aspect of discus keeping. I think the primary reason for that is because most people keeping them are more interested in their appearance and have adopted a "kaleidoscope" and "fish in a barrel" fish keeping practice. You can't observe natural fish behavior without providing them the space and and the environment to do so. Enough said, probably too much. People believe what people believe, and people do what people do.

PS - For context, my single pair of discus occupy a 180 gallon tank that measures 9 feet in length which they share with two small groups of tetras and a few dwarf catfish.