OCTOBER 2006 MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - ANGELA & ANDREW

[DarkDiscus]

Here we are with this month's spotlight. Hopefully Angela and Andrew will add on some pictures of their setup and their fish soon!

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 do for a living, if it’s something other than discus. Please also tell us anything you can about your family, other hobbies, and your life in general.

My name is Andrew Richardson; I am a Project manager for an architectural millwork company. I currently have a couple major projects going for the University of Tulsa which is taking up A LOT of my time right now. I have been in construction my entire career. Growing up my dad was in the oil field business and I have lived in numerous countries world wide. I have 2 kids, Mandi who is 26 and Andrew who is 18. My daughter is married and I have a grand baby (Madison) that is almost 10 months old.

My name is Angela Richardson; I work for the local Police Department as Records Officers and 911 dispatcher. I was born and raised in Oklahoma. I have 3 kids, Justin who is 16 and Jake who is 8 (almost 9) and Samantha who is 11 (will be 12 at xmas).

We also have a dog named Lucy (a min pin) and 2 cats. We have an African gray parrot named Sunshine who is approx 4 years old and repeats everything !!!!

We enjoy boating, camping, fishing, hunting and sports. We also have a passion for raising Orchids, gardening, our Koi pond and cooking.

I work long hours and Angela sometimes works weird hours so between that and the kids and hobbies, we stay incredibly busy. Just the way we like it!

It’s great to be married to someone that is your best friend and shares common interests and hobbies. (Yes, Angela hunts she just can’t hit anything though. Lol)


Q - So how did you first get into discus?

I saw my first discus in a LFS in New Orleans in 1966. I was shopping for Delta Tailed Guppies to add to my collection. I could barely afford one pair of guppies but caught the discus bug by just seeing that first 3” brown. I actually did not own my first discus until much later in 1983. I bought several fish from the LFS, ordered from Discus Haven (they shipped dime sized discus in what looked like a large stainless steel thermos that you had to send back). I actually was able to raise some decent looking discus and did some breeding. My source of information was writings by Wattley and some other limited sources. Due to a new job that involved extensive travel I had to take a break from discus in 1989.

After many life changes I married the love of my life Angela in 2001. Later that year Angela and I purchased a 75 gal and set it up with African Cichlids. Shortly there after we were at the LFS and saw some DISCUS! Angela had never seen them before. She was hooked immetialy and I always was. I told her she had to be my controlling factor or this would get out of control. That didn’t work! Lol Anyway, the Africans were gone and the discus were in and we started adding tanks from there.

Q - How did your first discus keeping experience work out?

At the time in 1983 I had about 5 tanks running, salt water, Africans and South American cichlids. I was breeding Africans and selling them to a local fish store when they got in some discus. Of course I had to start a discus tank, ordered from several sources and after trial and tribulation I ended up with a few pairs. There was not much information on raising discus in those days but pretty much counted on what information was available and trial & error. I was given a copy of Whattley’s book (Hand book of Discus) in 1985 by the owner of the LFS that I dealt with. That information was extremely helpful and I considered it gospel. All were raised with under gravel filters at first but the breeding pairs were in bb tanks with canister filters. I used peat moss to soften the water for the breeders. I did get some fry but nothing to brag about. I did try my hand at artificially raising fry and ordered a lb of egg mixture and did have some success. However, it did take a lot of time! Most of the Discus was blue or brown strain types. There were not a lot of different strains available at that time. Some of the Blues were quite nice. I did do a lot of wc’s and always with a bucket. I was young and didn’t mind the work. And then as I said earlier I had to give it up and move on to other things for some years.

When Angela and I started keeping Discus we didn’t realize the web was out there and how much everything had changed and the different strains that were available. Angela & I purchased our first discus together at a pretty decent LFS about the same time we started doing research on the internet and that’s when we found Simply. That was the biggest factor to us being successful with Discus. This in turn added a lot more enjoyment to our hobby.

Q - Please tell us about your set-up.

We currently are running 18 tanks ranging from 29 gal to 120 gal. We have 8 breeder tanks. A little over a year ago I built a fish room in half of the garage. That is were our breeders and some grow out tanks are. The heartbeat of our operation is a mag drive 1800 gph pump which is connected to our drain line and hard plumped to our tanks, Ro tub and to 165 gal storage tanks. I have set up overflow drains on all the tubs so Angela doesn’t flood the house. Lol The waste water in our RO unit system drains into the twin 165 gal storage tubs so we are not wasting that water. Breeder tanks are set up on gravity drains to 60% and filling is done by pump and opening ball valves. I have it set up to where we can drain out side to water the yard or just straight down the drain. (quite a few ball valves) We have two 165 gal storage tanks in our laundry room that are connected together and then also connected to the fish room to do on demand fills by pump on the tanks out there with the aged tap water. For the tanks that are not in the breeder room, there is a (submersible 1250 gph little giant) that we use to fill the rest of the tanks with. It takes us a little over an hour to do all wc’s. Between our schedules we alternate on the wc’s. I get up at 4:00 and wake the fish up and feed BH to the tanks that are getting wc’s. (babies, juvies and 2 adult tanks) All these tanks get at least a 75% wc then. Angela gets up around 5:45 (normally hits the snooze so it’s more like 6:00. lol) She does the wc on the breeders before she goes to work. Angela is able to come home for lunch so she feeds everyone flakes, bloodworms or whatever she fills like feeding at the time. In the evening the tanks getting wc’s get fed bh again. She normally does these because I’m working late. This would be all the baby tanks and juvie tanks again. And then 3 other adults tanks that don’t get a wc in the morning. Again, everyone is getting at least a 50% wc. This may sound crazy but our stocking levels are high too.

Q – I’m not sure – are you a breeder or an importer of discus, or do you do both?

We are breeders, we do not import. We very seldom add new fish to our collection. Last time we added fish to our collection were from the ACA in Ft. Worth last year.

Q - Where do you get your fish now?

The fish we got at the LFS are gone! We are currently maintaining strains from some local breeders in OKC (L&S Discus). We did 2 big orders from Heps Discus which were Asian imports (they were nice) and an order from Cary at Great Lakes (they were great!). We got some fish from Hans at the ACA in Ft. Worth last year. We also share fish with Britt (1977). Mixing multi source discus does run the risk of disease. We have cleaned our source discus up and they are compatible to where we do not worry about cross contamination. That is why we are leery about adding discus from other sources. This keeps it easy and a lot more fun.

Q - Please tell us about the fish you have now in stock and let us in on anything special that you have on hand.

Right now we currently have a variety of fish strains. Ruby Leopards, GD’s, BD’s, Ghosts, Rose Reds, Red Melons, Blue Pigeons, White Butterfly’s, LSS, Calicos, Blue Pigeons, Siam Yellow SS.

We are currently experimenting with a Siam Yellow Snake cross x a Tangerine. The F1’s are just starting to mature and have spawned a few times. We are also experimenting with a Blue Pigeon x BD. Most of our breeder activity right now is new young fish while the proven breeders enjoy life! We are not about production we are still hobbyist that sell quality fish on the side.

Q - Is it hard for you to not keep all the best fish for yourself?

It is very hard to not keep all our fish. We cull very hard on all fry. We cull all the time even on juvie fish because sometimes you miss stuff when they are small or don’t notice something until they get a little bit bigger. We try to keep 6 fish out of every spawn. Lol We sell only the best of the batch. So any fish that we would keep for ourselves somebody else is going to get also! We are limited by space and our long term goal is to have some awesome fish and maybe something different.

Q - What are your favorite fish that you currently have? Tell us about them!

That is a tough question. We like all the strains that we are currently working with. I guess the biggest and roundest of each. It is probably a short coming but we like a large variety of strains. We could do more with a limited number of strains but we like to offer a variety to those that purchase from us and for our own enjoyment.

Q - What have been the biggest challenges for you as you have been going commercial?

There really aren’t any big challenges going commercial for us. We don’t do this for a living so we keep ourselves to what we can handle. We take pride in our fish and our name. We list on aqua bid periodically but not on constant clock work like some. Simply is where we do all our advertising and then we also have our website. If we sell fish OK if not then we keep growing them. We also supply the local market and one LFS takes care of our overflow. We would like to eventually get into the show arena. Hopefully we will have some fish in Sacramento.

Q - Can you think of anything that you do in your tanks that would help discus keepers?

The biggest thing to remember is keep your tank as clean as you can. This goes for bb or planted. Clean your back filter pads and sponges daily (we do it on all our juvi tanks) or as often as you can and other filters you have in the tank. Wipe the inside of the tank when it gets slimy and don’t forget to keep the glass covers clean on the inside. A lot of wc’s and high quality food will keep your Discus happy and growing to their potential.

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

There are always little tips and things you can do in raising these fish. Everyone has there own way of doing things but don’t ever hesitate to try something new. You never know if it works until you have actually tried it. If you don’t like it or it doesn’t work then at least you can say you have been there. If you think you want to breed make sure that you have room for the up coming fry. Have some long term goals and a plan for where you are headed. If you are going to breed, do so in a means to improve the strains you are working with. Culling is a necessary evil and if you intend to breed be prepared to cull or don’t go there.

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

I want to thank Angela for being equally as interested as I am with Discus and having shared goals. Without her this hobby wouldn’t work for us. We both would like to thank Al and the Simply Discus team for the great service they do for the Hobby. Also like to thank the other sponsors for the support they give Simply and the many others that give there time daily with the input to the Simply site. Too many names to mention! (EVERYONE)

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

Thanks for the opportunity to do the spot light this month. Angela and I both did this survey it was a lot of fun.

Q - Thank you both for a fun and informative spotlight!

[pcsb23]

Excellent, a great insight. Thanks John Angela and Andrew.

[brewmaster15]

I didn't even see this thread until a minute ago! I must need glasses.

Great interview John!

Andrew and Angela,

Thanks for sharing your experiences and lives with us.. By the looks of your discus you two have a great system. I personally would not be surprised to see some show awards in your future!'

Keep up the great work !
-al

[tpl*co]

Wooo Hooo, I see I need to make some quarantine space in preparation for this coming summer! . Let me know what you'll have available so I can put my dibs in now .

Tina

[CliffsDiscus]

Andrew and Angela,
Great interview, great Discus couple, keep up the excellent work and hope
to see some of your Discus in next years ACA show.


Andrew, BTW, Discus Haven is famous for their Albino Discus, Len the owner
is still around.


Cliff

[Tad]

A&A,
Thank you for sharing your passion for the hobby with all of us...best wishes to your future endeavors...

regards,
Tad

[Giniel]

Thank you Andrew and Angela for sharing your lives and hobby with the rest of us..

Very nice set up inside and outside ...Some of the nicest discus around big and round..

Thanks Again
Debbie

[fishmama]

Angela and Andrew-

Thanks for the great info and interview. Very interesting. I too have a few orchids...BTW, do you use any of your tank water? I use a bit of "fishy water" off my community tank. Had 15 blooms at once on a single plant!

I know of a great orchid grower in MO if you are ever in KC.

Keep up the great work,
Fishmama

[Ryan]

Thanks for the interview, guys!

It sounds like you guys are busy. What do all the kids think about fish? Do they pick up bits and pieces of the hobby from you or are they totally oblivious to it?

I'd love to see some more pictures. I know you post them all the time but I don't think I've seen your Calicos, and I like the ghosts too.

Ryan

[White Worm]

Very nice spotlight. Angela, my wife is also police department dispatcher. i just wish she had discus fever like you do. It must be real nice for a couple to really enjoy the same hobby with such passion. It might be a good thing though because things could get out of hand. If it wasnt for her, I would have already turned the family room into a fish room I already have an 85g and a 29g breeder in there, lol. hope to meet you both in Sac next year.
PS..I still do my wc's by bucket but I'm not getting any younger, may be time to implement the auto ideas I have been collecting.

[Kenny's Discus]

Hi Aces - it's great to get to know you 2 wonderful people better with your superb interview. Thanks for sharing your other interests with us...it's always interesting to see what others do in other part of their daily lives.

Best wishes to you & yours. Remember to keep up with what you've been doing!(hint: produced high-quality frys ) There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you two are an asset(s) to the discus hobby!

Kenny

[jeep]

I agree, I'd like to see some photo's as well. They are mandatory in a spotlight

[1977]

Great interview guys! You are absolutely an asset to the hobby and to Simply. I don't think I would have kept going without your help, you are great friends. I wish you could get my wife to love the hobby, oh well I'll have to brainwash my daughter into loving discus!

[AADiscus]

Al,
We both would love to win any category at a show. However, just being there with our fish and friends is rewarding.

Tina,
We will keep ya posted.

Debbie,
You have actually been to our house. We have added some since you were here. Stop in next time your in the area.

Ryan,
The kids…….lol Some of the kids enjoy the fish and some have better things to do. Lol Samantha would be the most into the fish. She will fill tanks behind me as I drain sometimes. She will clean sponge filters, etc. I am a little picky so I won’t let her do some stuff. Mandi and her husband enjoy discus and at one time had a couple tanks set up. Having a new baby and all they didn’t have a lot of time so they set them back up for Africans. Little Drew actually did everything for us last year when we went to Ft. Worth for the ACA. I don’t know who was more scared us or him. Lol He did a wonderful job with draining, filling, feeding fry bbs, etc. We also have a friend that does not have any discus but loves ours and he has actually stayed at the house for the weekend and did wc’s, etc. for us while we were gone.

I’ll post some pictures here shortly. I am actually off work today (we have 2 shipments going out this afternoon) I’ll take some current ones and get them up loaded.

Thanks again everyone. Like we said, we enjoyed doing this and it was an honor to be nominated!

[crimson cross]

Great interview, enjoyed reading it. Keep it up.
Phil.