Thinking back to '93

[Trevor W]

I would just like to ask if anyone here happens to remeber the "opal" discus? I believe marc weiss of world wide fish farm used to advertise it and I believe it was developed in asia. This was around 1991-1993 or so it was when Jack Wattley was introducing his "panda" discus to the public. If anyone has more info or pictures I think it would be interesting to post it.

~Trevor

P.S I have a couple of older advertisements with the opal in it from t.f.h magazines that i have had since the early nineties. I will try and post it here as soon as I can find a scanner. They look similar to a modern day ghost discus except they have a blue hue to them quite awesome IMO

[William Palumbo]

I remeber the opal Discus from their ad in TFH. I also remember their metallic cobalt and bluediamond...which at the time, most aquarists could not afford. It was cool looking, but I never really saw a large pic of it...Bill

[Trevor W]

Yes that is where and how I remeber them aswell. They were really nice and the pic i do have of them is quite small. Once again I hope to find a scanner and then I can share it with everyone. And also how about all the GIANT Gan brothers discus?! They were quite something they were huge round and blue! They were also working on other forms of morphs which were quite odd and I never did get into them as much. they were blue turquoise morph with irregular scale patterns its hard to describe but if you seen it you would understand.

~Trevor

[acroken]

I believe that was a Sunny low wing yat fish. I was at Marc Weiss's place in NYC to see them around that time but they were not available or just acclimating??? Can not remember exact details. Those Sunny Low-wing yat and Gan's soilds blues were the hot strains.

[Trevor W]

I believe that was a Sunny low wing yat fish. I was at Marc Weiss's place in NYC to see them around that time but they were not available or just acclimating??? Can not remember exact details. Those Sunny Low-wing yat and Gan's soilds blues were the hot strains.

YES! they were awesome! And you are 100% right the opal was a sunny low wing yat fish. It was a cross with a ghost and a ............? No maybe I am wrong perhaps it was just a color morph of the golden ghosts.

[Dkarc@Aol.com]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=53539

Post #8, a pic of my "Blue Ghost" that I had as a throwback from one of my very first spawns from a "Wattley" brilliant pair. This similar to what you are talking about (it was blue rather than green compared to whats in the picture...camera playing with colors)??

-Ryan

[Trevor W]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=53539

Post #8, a pic of my "Blue Ghost" that I had as a throwback from one of my very first spawns from a "Wattley" brilliant pair. This similar to what you are talking about (it was blue rather than green compared to whats in the picture...camera playing with colors)??

-Ryan

Ummm... well not quite However it is hard for me to say due to back when they were available in '93 or so I never did have the chance to see any "opal" discus first hand, just in pictures in ads and another in an article written in '94 I think.. but I can't seem to find that magazine right now. Those discus of yours are very nice and I would definatly be proud to display them in my aquarium. Good Job btw! I am still trying to find a means to scan the pics I do have and when I do I will post them here. Sorry I couldn't be much more of a help Ryan.

~Trevor

[William Palumbo]

The one that Ryan posted looks like the opal the way I remembered it being. I feel at that point in time Lo Wing Yat had THE best Discus...Period.. Gan had some nice ones as well, but the majority of the pics they would publish, I did not like most of the shapes. Some of the best Discus I ever bought were Yat's Discus thru Weiss...$6.00 each!...Bill

[Trevor W]

I would have to agree they were amazing I however being just a young hobbyist with an obsession I merely was only able to look at photos and dream hahaha

[William Palumbo]

Same here Trevor...got into Discus mid 80's. I know when the Blue Diamond first came out it was $350 per 1 inch fish if I recall correctly. WAY out of my league! Was THE most expensive freshwater fish on the marke they claimed. Now I see F1 Browns that cost more than a Blue Diamond. Go figure! I think back then there was a pair that was sold off at an auction for $10,000...Bill

[Trevor W]

I do remember the madness Bill it was crazy! ofcourse don't let me mislead you I was only just a kid in the 80's and 90's but I have been around fish my whole life and got my first pair of angels to spawn at the age of 11 and a couple years later got my first group of 6 red alencer discus which were even quite expensive. I was sooo obsessed and couldn't wait till my dad took me to get the new tfh mag of the month to read the ask jack column and stare at awe at the ads by macs discus and jack and mark weiss and ofcourse the gans and yat discus. they were breaking all sort of ground in the early 90's and it was pure madness! Like you stated the bd's that were so insanely expensive and even all the pb's that were covered in pepper and still sold for close to $100 for a 2- 2.5" And I also would have to agree with your opinion of the gan brothers discus they were quite hit and miss but we should all recognize and know what they did for the hobby. They have seemingly been forgotten and I remeber there giant fish and the strains they were developing which could be comparable to todays altums and other high bodied discus. They were one of the first to introduce this variation (that is to my knowledge, I could be wrong) I will never forget the pics of their chunky giant discus however I was not a fan of alot of their later fish and the odd scale pattern morphs they came up with. Also the patterning was quite lacking in alot of their fish and not to say this was the case in all of their discus by any means but it was the case in alot of fish that I seen. Also as far as Yat's discus well whats not to like? they were the pinicle of that era for me they were virtually flawless! Say does anyone know if Bing seto is still producing fish? or has anyone got any fish from him?

[MostlyDiscus]

Some photos in a few books I was riffing through, Brand New Discus by Fimitoshi Mori has a few in there as does The Allure of Discus by Axelrod. Close to the same photo and both said they came from Malaysian and or Singapore. Seems like most TFH books had tons of Gans shots or Degen. Is Degen still breeding? I remember buying Scibbled Reds from a dealer. Ed

[William Palumbo]

Am not sure if Degan is breeding...or if he ever was a breeder. I heard he was just a publisher...but back in the day there were LOTS of rumors. I too got some of his fish thru a friend from Jack Graves in Texas. I Had some nice Schlingman red's from another source back then, that I wish I would have held on to as well....Bill

[acroken]

Bill your bringing back some good memories(and some bad ones too, when i think of the stupid things i did to those poor fish in my inexperience back then,LOL). The Dirk Schlingman red scribbles were crazy looking. I tried so hard to obtain that strain, i ended up with alot of b grade scribbles which i payed a ton of money for.:mad: No computers, no internet, just land line phones and letters sent out through the post office. I remember sending hand written orders to Kitti discus in Bangkok and waiting weeks for a reply. I am amazed at how easy things are now, compared to those days of long distance phone calls and waiting anxiously for the next discus publication to be released exposing the latest discus breeding/keeping secrets(LOL). If only i had some of that money back now:D.

Kenny

[Triadtropz]

Gan, marc weiss, watley, they all made some big money in 93...I called gan to get a pricelist ,the call cost me 10 bucks. and he never even sent it..lol

[smsimcik]

Am not sure if Degan is breeding...or if he ever was a breeder. I heard he was just a publisher...but back in the day there were LOTS of rumors. I too got some of his fish thru a friend from Jack Graves in Texas. I Had some nice Schlingman red's from another source back then, that I wish I would have held on to as well....Bill

I also got some Degan discus from Jack Graves in 1992. I drove to Fort Worth and picked them from Jack's tanks. I got Brilliants and Cobalts. I assume Degan bred them. They came with certificates of authenticity just like Wattleys do. Those turned out to be some really nice discus in spite of all my limited discus skills at that time. I'd love to have some like that again.

[CliffsDiscus]

I still have the Gan fish cross now with the Singapore Fireworks. I did buy some Discus from
Jack Graves in Forthworth, but they were not a good shape, finally got some nice Degan's
solid fry from Strictly Discus. As for the Schinglman there were too many Browns which were
bought as Scribble Red, most the browns were females these were from Aquatic Life.

Opal, the ghost Discus, grey or yellow they were never a hit, tons of these Discus were just
sitting at the Bay Area Discus Stores.

Blue Diamond bred in the Bay Area from Wayne Ng's stock, Jim Quales was at that time
buying them up like crazy and complaining all the way along with Premium Discus.
My Blue Diamond breeding stock were from a Doctor in Hawaii, he sold a pair for $8000.
My Wattleys were originally from Ray Kasaka stock in Hawaii.
Schmidt Focke fish were orginally from Wayland Lee(in Wattley's first book) this was before
the numbering given by Aquarium Rio.

Cliff

[William Palumbo]

I think back at that time that Dale Jordan in Canada was into the Schmidt-Focke strains pretty heavily. A few breeders here at the time in the Chicagoland area claimed to have a few of the strains as well...#5 and #7 I think. But it was hard enough just dealing with strain names...trying to get what you paid for, now there were numbers too, with which I think Yat had as well...up to 20 or 22 number of strains. Cliff you're dead on about Aquatic Life in Roanoke...as I had ordered some from Paul as well. But as I began to look back on it...some of the best Discus in the states were right here...from Wattley! Males were always huge, and mostly pretty solid as a Discus could get back then. His only bad rap was sending thumbnail sized Discus. But you ALWAYS knew what you were getting when you ordered from Jack...Bill

[Trevor W]

I would just like to thank everyone who took the time to read and post on my first thread. I look forward to getting to know some people on here better and sharing experiences and knowledge on this wonderful hobby. Thank you all!

~Trevor