Plymouth Discus

Plymouth Discus is based in the northern part of Plymouth and is owned by Chris Ingham.

The company was born out of Chris’ passion for breeding discus and has now grown into a full blow business. Chris has over 31 years of fish keeping under his belt and also gets considerable assistance form his partner Christine.

Chris’ works from home, which may sound good but it does have some disadvantages. It is certainly good for the for the customer that at 11.05PM has just noticed that their heaterstat has malfunctioned or a water pump in a main fish house has blown up . . .The disadvantage is you’re your on 24 hour call 365 days a year. The premises are constructed in two parts. There is the discus fish house with quarantine facilities and there is the discus dry goods store.

Chris employs two main central systems. Fortunately the water is excellent in Plymouth i.e. the GH is 3, KH 3, and the PH 7.2 which may seem high for some, but by the time it goes through the purifiers and into the tanks it settles at 6.5 – perfect – no RO unit is needed. 12% of water is changed each day, through the purifiers on a slow feed and into the main sump systems. In addition Chris uses UV sterilisers and an ozone unit (at night) in order to raise the redox levels, and to maintain pristine conditions.

Chris tends to have a high turnover of the bread and butter types of discus, but will also import anything odd, rare or extra special. At the moment their stock includes: Mozart discus, Marlboro Reds, Snakeskins, 1st grade Leopards, Red Diamonds. Regular stock includes: Blue Diamonds, Snakeskins, Solid Blues, Leopard Spotted Snakeskins Pigeons, Super Red Melons, Red Turquoise, Brilliant Turquoise, Browns, and Morning Glorys. Chris nearly always has a small selection of wilds but will increases his stock considerably during the collecting season – October through to March. His favourites discus are pigeon bloods, especially, the leopard spotted snake skin pigeon.

Prices range from £12 for a 2.5" fish, up to £79 some of the pigeon variants – for a full list See the Plymouth Discus website or give Chris a call.

All fish are quarantine for two weeks prior to sale. This goes hand in hand we the fortnightly delivery schedule Chris employs. As part to the pre-sale conditioning process the fish are wormed and fed on the new gourmet discus diet discus delights.

Plymouth discus stock external filters, internal, air pumps, water pumps, lights and starters, freeze dried and flake foods, discus wormer, treatments, RO units and purifiers. All are sold at below RRP. By the time you read this article there will also be an on line shop that will accept all credit and debit cards.

Chris puts his success over the last few years to the help he receives from Christine and by endeavouring to employ a first class customer service and discus delivery record.