2005 APRIL MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - MARIO/TURKIS

[DarkDiscus]

Hello everyone and welcome to our first new spotlight in quite some time! Owning a home has been more demanding than I anticipated and I've been very busy. Depending on the reaction here, I'd like to get back into the monthly trend. Anyway, our victim this month is Turkis. Everyone thank him warmly for his time and effort!

Q - Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions today. Let's start with a little bit about you. Please tell us your real name and what you did for a living prior to your retirement.

A - My name is Mario Carvalho, prior to my retirement I used to work in the Nuclear Generating Station: water treatment plant, the water intake channels, zebra mussells control, heavy water distillation process here in Toronto. Since retired I do a lot of steelhead fishing, golfing and I have returned to the aquarium discus hobby.

Q - Please also feel free to let us anything you want to about your family and / or your life in Canada.

A - As for my familty, I have two kids still living at home, one graduated from University last year and the other has two more years to finish her degree.

Q - So how did you first get into discus all those years ago?

A - I first started with angelfish and got into breeding them. I had always heard that discus were a special kind of ornamental fish and was told by many people that is it was a big challenge to raise them, and breed them due to water chemistry and they were prone to get sick easily. One day when I was trying to sell angel fry at the LFS, I saw some discus that were reddish in colour and bought 6 of them. Unfortunately I later found out that they were colour fed and they turned out to be browns.

Q - And what did you do then, after you were hooked?

A - A friend in Ontario introduced me to certain German breeders from whom I did obtain some good stock - specially from Manfred Gobel.

I found out the hard way that it wasn't easy and it took me a few months to find the proper water chemistry to breed them. The majority of discus came from either Dirk Schlingmann, Schmidt Focke and Manfred Gobel.

Q - Please tell us about your set-up back then. How many tanks did you have? How many fish? Were you able to breed the wilds? What kind of filtration did you have?

A - My fishroom is 12'X 12' and it consists of 500 gallons of water and runs on two centralized system. Two different feeds in the central system with either low conductivity or high conductivity water.
I have the aerobic and anaerobic filtration system using Siporax as a filter media plus a UV sterilizer.

When the Siporax was developed by a German breeder, Manfred Gobel was in charge of the testing and he found out that it contained a lot of surface area for bacteria to colonize and he taught me how to set it up.

The tank's overflow goes into a sump which contains filter floss to remove the waste food and fish waste then it goes through the sponge filter and then to the Siporax filter media. A submersible is used to pump the water through a 5 micron Ocean Filter then it is "T"ed off to a fluidized filter media which contains Siporax at a very low flow. It then goes through a UV sterilizer and back to the tank.

Q - What made you quit raising discus back then? It sounds like your set up was running well.

A - The load was too much at work, I was working as a night shift manager and when I was transferred back to day shift it was impossible. I was looking after three times the amount of personnel and on call for 24/7.

Q - Did you miss keeping discus during the time you were away? Did you keep any other fish during that time?

A - I really missed the hobby, but I made my decision and the system was drained and boxed up.

Q - What made you get back into discus recently?

A - I retired and decided to get back into discus to keep busy and to keep myself sane during the winter months. And I do like the hobby. I just fired up the old system, made a few changes and it is running smoothly.

Q - Where do you get your fish now?

A - Some of the fish came from a Penang breeder about 19 months ago. The rest came from Wayne Ng Discus Centre.

Q - Please tell us about the fish you have now.

A - I have Red Melons (Bunga Raya), Mandarin Red Passion, Super Red Melons, Spotted Eruptions, White Eruptions (red spotted white), Golden Albinos and San Merah.

Q - Do you have any plans for breeding the fish? It sounds like you have an impressive collection.

A - I am planning to breed them this fall as a hobby. Right now the males are not ready. I did breed some of the Penang Eruptions and Ruby LSS a few months back.

Q - Can you think of anything that was done when you first started that would help discus keepers today?

A - Definitely do not buy any discus that are fully spotted at 2". They are either hormone fed or colour fed with synthethic carophyll or the use of CR6. This will cause some problems.

Q - Do you have any tips for the Simply Discus readers?

A - I have no tips right now, but if they do need help they should just send me a PM and I'll try my best to answer their questions.

Q - Do you have anyone that you would like to thank with regard to your discus keeping?

A - The list is too long, Al, Barb, Cosmo, Tag, Jason of Thunder Bay, Dkarc. I am sure I'm forgetting someone!

Q - Is there anything else you would like to add about discus, the website or anything else?

A - I just want to say that the website is fine and runs like a charm.

Okay Mario! It has been great to meet you and thank you so much for your time and wisdom! Please feel free to post all of the pics you can and comment on them for us. The few ones you posted after you got voted in were great!

[turkis]

More discus pictures for your enjoyment.

[turkis]

Golden albino's.

[turkis]

White Eruptions or Red Spotted White.

[turkis]

Spotted Eruptions.

[turkis]

Spotted Eruptions.

[turkis]

Spotted Eruption.

[oodi]

Great interview and even better pics!!! Thanks John and Mario!!

Judi

[Barb Newell]

John and Mario, great interview!!! Thanks. Nice fish Mario.

Barb

[bmrin1]

Great job John.
Mario very nice interview and have really appreciated your knowledge.
Brian

[Discus_KC]

Mario,

Nice getting to know you better !!! You have some really "Sweet" stock !!!!

Jack

John,

Thank you !!!

[turkis]

My special thanks to everybody and specially to John for the wonderful interview.
Mario

[Cosmo]

no no no... thank YOU Mario Fascinating reading and beautiful pics..

Jim

[allan_mark76]

MARIO I am so happy you are out SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH ! ! ! Congrats and nice looking DISCUS.

[ping]

Great interview .
Very nice discus Mario .
More pics please

Regards,
Ronny