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		Dennis Hardenburger
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		JE: What's your secret? What do you feed? What's your routine? DH: I feed all my fish a beef heart formula, tetra bit, tetra crisps, and frozen brine shrimp don't feed live foods, I don't think it is necessary to have large healthy fish. I might explain that my breeding has just been for my self as I enjoy watching them and it lets me keep the best of the best fish. My breeding has supported the hobby but I am not interested in doing it as a business or letting it get out of hand, my markets for fish are limited in my area and it is a four hour round trip to the airport for shipping fish. Everyone does things a little different and I think where I am different is that I use larger tanks for breeding than most, I like to breed in 65 gallon tanks, 36 long 18 deep and 24 high, I just hate to crowd two large fish into any thing smaller. My tap water is suitable for breeding but the hatch rate is very low so I use RO water and tap water mix, I like to breed in water that is ph 5.8 - 6.0 and a conductivity of 60 microsiemens this gets the hatch rate up to about 90%. JE: And, most importantly, what are your goals? DH: My goals with Discus are to keep breeding on a limited scale, working with three or four pairs and some day I would like to set up a 240 gallon community tank with a few large discus in it. JE: What strains do you like best? DH: I guess my taste is traditional as I like the older strains best, I don’t think there is a prettier fish than a nice red turquoise, red diamond , blue snakeskin etc. JE: Any interest in wilds, if you like the traditional strains? DH: I haven’t had much in the way of wild fish but think that I would like to work with them some day. JE: Okay. So tell us "The Heckel Story." DH: Heckels are not one of my favorites but I wanted to see if I could breed them. I purchased what were f1s from Ray Kosaka ( Discus Hawaii) I have a lot of respect for Ray very nice person to deal with. These fish were from Jonathan Teh, the female looked like 100% wild heckel but the male looked like he could have been a mix of heckel and brown, what thier genealogy was I don't know for sure. It took quite a few spawns before I had success with this pair the water was 20 micresiemens and a ph 4.5 and to keep it from crashing I change 50% every twelve hours. Theres no secret and it worked for me. JE: Do you have any credits you want to give for your success? Or any final thoughts? DH: The hobby has changed so much with the computer and forums today, the information exchange is just great and it seems more than just a fish hobby as it is people coming together with a common interest and becoming friends, I know I have meat some wonderful people because of the Discus. It still is a learning experience for me and every one that contributes is greatly appreciated. Thank you Dennis, for taking the time to answer all my questions. I think that the SimplyDiscus crowd thanks you as well!

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