FairyLakeDiscusPalace--Discus

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Went to San Francisco/Yosemite last week (just got home 3 hours ago). As promised I stopped by Henry Chan's Fairy Lake Discus Palace on Clemente Street in San Francisco's China Town. Purchased 8 German Blue Rams (4 small, 4 mediums).

One of the neatest things I saw in his fish store was a Pair of Pigeon Bloods (looks like White Dragons to me...but really, what do I know?) with fry. How many of you have seen LFSs that are clean enough to have Discus breed?

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Here's a second one of Mom only with fry.

She doesn't have buldging eyes..that's my horrible photography. I just can't photograph through water and behind glass.

[EIHAB83]

Hi ... they are nice pair .... didn't you buy them????
how much are they
good luck with the ones you bought :)

[oodi]

Geez, Pete...

You went right by us. We visited Fairy Lakes a few months ago... he has quite a few breeders. Several pairs were spawning when we were there.

Judi
:)

[oodi]

Sorry... PeteR

Force of habit... my son's name is Pete (no R)

Judi
:)

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Peter, that's Herman, not Henry, I believe ;D That was my first adventure to a discus breeder about 3-4 years ago and I could not even speak when I was in there :o Oh yeah, I did manage to get one question out of my mouth. I asked him about his water.........he said he ONLY used Phosphoric acid to treat. I had NEVER seen discus the size of a dinner plate before! My wife asked all the questions as I stood there like a vegetable, drooling at the gorgeous tanks of fish. I'll never forget that experience and the size of the fish in there, they were HUGE. Even my wife was impressed at the sites and if you knew my wife............enough said! ;D I'm glad to hear he's still in the game. He was a very kind and gracious person, opening his house/business up to me during his dinner, long after the store had closed for the evening!

Steve

[CARY_GLdiscus]

Hi Peter,
Nice pics! IMO the pair is a blue/white (snowflakeX blueDiamond ;)

[Tad]

OD,
Damn wished that you let us know you were in the area..would like to have made the trek with you to Yosemite...You had to go through our neck of the woods to have gotten there ;D......

Herman is a delightful guy who like Steve says "Invites you for lunch or dinner with his family"....Its a small store that has a lot of character. Glad you had gotten a chance to visit his store...Did you get to see his fish room off to the side of his living quarters and the one behind his display tanks?

Heres Herman ;D

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Yup it is Herman. Don't know why I always say Henry. Well at least in his store I called him Mr. Chan.

Yes, I did see his fish rooms, both of them. The one to the right behind the tanks has his Ram breeders. They are very, very big. I was anxious about getting the super large pairs as they had to be bagged for 24+ hours. Too bad I didn't speak up sooner to you folks. Yosemite was beautiful. I'll post up a few pics in the 'You talkin to me forum'.

Cary, Blue and White...thanks.

[crazy4discus]

mr chan always has babies in everytime i go there his discus already had babies other pairs has frys on there back or tending to there eggs

[Chris.L]

wotta site to see in real life :D! it's always awesom seeing discus with babies, no matter how many times u have seen them (which isn't very much here :()

[calgalindi]

Herman at fairylake was the first person who had successfully bred heckle discus.

[brewmaster15]

Herman at fairylake was the first person who had successfully bred heckle discus. I like more info on that. I'd never heard that Before..

-al

[calgalindi]

There was an article posted in his store saying that . The newspaper looked real old. linda

[brewmaster15]

Does Herman have an email address? If he bred Heckels, maybe he could give the board some tips. I'd also like to find out when he bred them.

-al

[calgalindi]

Herman started breeding discus a long long time ago (before I was born, lol). I don't think he uses computers however his son is a medical Doctor.
I didn't see any heckles on my last visit about two weeks ago.

[paulmat]

We could all learn a lot from Herman!
He has forgoten more than some of us will ever know, he has been doing this for many decades and is a very humble, sweet person,that always has that smile on his face ;D
A must stop on any visit to the Bay Area ;)

Paul :guitarist:

[montydiscus]

We purchased a Heckel- Pigeon Cross and two Wild Teffee Green - Blue Turk cross juvenile's 6months ago. He had both Adult pairs at the time. Since that visit he has sold both breeding pairs. (FYI) Herman said he had only been successful 3 times in over 30 years in breeding Heckel's.

[jeep]

When I lived in SF as a kid I lived right down the street from Herman. I use to go into his store and stare at his fish for hours. He eventually gave my my first tank and some of his juvie discus.

I guess that was a nice way of getting me out of his way :)

All I can remember of his store is that it was completely lined with tanks from the floor to the ceiling. Very impressive...

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Herman is very nice. I'm suspicious he's beginning to loose his hearing though. Just sort of nods at whatever you say. Wife shouts at him in an attempt to 'translate' what you're asking. His wife appears a bit annoyed by customers wandering around with dropped jaws. Kind of humorous. We made it worth their while though by purchasing plenty of Rams and Kribensis (Justin purchased the Kribs, not me). The store is definitely not as tidy and clean this time as it was back in March when I was there. They're getting up in years and the store is quite a bit of work as the layout and cramped spaces makes for difficult and time consuming maintenance. So who knows how long this jem will remain. So get there now if you've been thinking of it.

[montydiscus]

Herman, does business the old fashion way, right in his store/home front. There is no high technology associated with FairyLakeDiscusPalace, no website and no email address, that I am aware of. I agree he is a very, very nice man!!!! :)

[Tad]

My last visit to FairyLakesDiscus was about 7 months ago and Herman had a couple of Heckels paired up with some other types.

I think it was Willie who observed that FairyLakes is like it's just out of a Harry Potter Novel ;D

regards,
Tad

[CliffsDiscus]

Back in the 60's Herman was mostly breeding
Heckels, mostly Heckels cross with Royal Blue, and Heckels with wild green and etc: One of his customer was Dr.Wall from Los Angeles. Dr.Wall later sold his hatchery to Bing
Seto in the 70's.
I was at Herman's store a week ago, but didn't see any Heckels, but other types of Discus spawning.

Cliff

[A Niner Fan]

I was just there Saturday! I'm weaning myself from aggressive CA cichlids and am in the process of creating a discus/uaru SA biotype tank....I think I will buy my discus here.

I purchased my uaru (wild caught) from Justin at Ocean Aquarium. He really knows his stuff as well. Carries a great stock of rare fish. Just got in some biotodoma cupido, I've only seen these in books and mags! Anyone ever been there? It's small and messy but the stock is top notch.

[FischAutoTechGarten]

No I missed Ocean Aquarium while I was there.