Given its flat round compressed shape, height of about eight to 10 inches and colors that go from solid, striped, to spotted, the Discus attracts aquarium hobbyists in the fresh water world.
At the Jack Wattley hatchery in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, there are a variety of colors strains that do not exist in the wild. The Miami hatchery has between 10,000 and 15,000 Discuses with prices ranging from $30 to $300.
“We don’t want to keep more because the economy right now doesn’t sustain that,” Posada said. “It makes no sense to breed 30,000 discus, if we are not going to sell it.”
About 80 percent of sales have gone down because of the recession, according to Posada.
“Years ago, international sales going to Russia and Saudi Arabia for example were between $10,000 and $15,000 worth of fish at a time,” Posada said. “Now the sells are about $3,000 and $5,000.
BREEDING
From the wild, the Discuses come brown and they have little patterns of blue. Through genetics, Jack Wattley was able to isolate the ones that were producing the most blue and continue breeding them for 10 years until he got a perfectly solid blue fish.
A new strain takes about three to five years to create. Discuses live to be around 15 years old.
Right now there must be 40 or 60 varieties that don’t exist in the Amazon River, according to Posada. There are all tones of blues, reds, yellows, whites, spotted and striped.
“It takes about four months to get the fish to sellable size, about half a dollar piece,” Posada said. “Whatever stays over becomes bigger and the future breeding stock. Every two or three years the breeding pair is changed once their egg production has gone down.”
At the hatcheries, Posada and Wattley try not to breed brothers and sisters for more than three generations, because genetic flaws start appearing. Thus, they will trade with another breeder from another part of the world.
“For example, we’ll send them 40 of our blue diamonds and they’ll send us 40 of their blue diamonds and then we cross them together and create a new blood line,” Posada said. “Genetically, it makes them stronger.”
The hatchery is divided between a breeding system and independent tanks. In the breeding system, once the breeding pair goes into the breeding cycle the female release pheromones, a type of hormones. It goes through the system and will trigger all the females into the reproductive mode.
The rest of the fish are in independent tanks because these fish release a growth inhibitor toxin.
“The larger fish won’t let the smaller fish grow, so what happens is that if we put them all in one system the small fish will stunt out.”
In addition, there are two types of water: one for the breeding tanks and the other for the independent tanks. The breeding tanks need reverse osmosis water, which has very little minerals equivalent to rain water needed for the eggs to hatch.
“Once the babies hatch out, we try to immediately transfer them to regular well-water where we can get the trade elements to help them grow. The problem is that the trade elements that help them grow will hurt the eggs.”
Discuses will eat pretty much anything. They are omnivorous. In the hatchery Posada makes up a beef heart mix, which consists of beef heart, spinach, grilled meal, multi vitamins and raw garlic. They eat about a hundred pounds of that every month.
“We use the garlic as medicinal, as preventive, because it doesn’t let the nematodes attach to the stomach lining in case they get infections.”
Water changes are done constantly because the beef heart pollutes the water. They get an 80 percent water change daily, which adds up to 6,000 gallons a month. According to Posada, that’s what keeps all the ammonia and bacteria levels down and regenerates the strain elements so that they grow faster.
The hatchery located in West Palm Beach is nothing but breeding. There are no customers allowed. Everything is sold from the Miami hatchery.
