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		Mike Wells
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		JE: What is your most frustrating moment with discus? MW: These fish have become a big part of my life. When you eat drink and sleep discus you lose touch with all your "normal" or non fish friends. I was pretty close with someone and I let jealousy and ego come between us. The time we spent apart made me realize that anything I could have possibly gained was not worth losing the friend I once had. JE: Any major disease issues that you had to solve? Troubles that came up that were killer? MW: For the longest time I could never really relate to any of the serious disease issues I had seen or hear about until about 4 yrs ago. I received a few discus from a friend. I placed them in a separate tank for 4 or 5 days and they looked great. I assumed they were healthy and I trusted the source. This is something you should never do, and I was dumb enough to do it anyway. I mixed them with my existing stock and in a few days all of the discus in that tank crashed. Except for the new guys. They were fine. Every day a few more tanks started to get sick, clamped fins, floating on the top or lying flat on the bottom. We sent them out to a diagnostic lab for testing and they came back positive for a mild case of coulminaris. At one point over 5000 discus were black and nasty. Amazingly enough heat and salt cured them all. I collected a few new strains and for the next year or so I pretty much bred and sold all of our own stock. With all the new varieties hitting the market, I decided the time had come to introduce new blood to the hatchery and import from abroad. That's what sparked the idea for the new fish room. I need a place to land new arrivals without jeopardizing the main hatchery. Trust me when I say its already paid for itself. I've seen a lot and learned quite a bit about different bacteria and protozoan that can be divesting to these fish. I'm not trying to scare people away, just trying to educate the public. You need to be smart. Always quarantine new fish no matter what anyone says, and if you don't have the knowledge or background leave the importing from overseas to someone that does and buy from a reputable source. JE: Do you have any future discus plans that you would like to share with us? MW: I'm pretty excited about going to Singapore for Aquarama next May. Its the Mecca of the tropical fish industry. I've met some great guys over there that put quality before quantity and Id like to meet them in person. As for the hatchery. I really like the solids. In the near future you will see us producing more of the Red Melons, Snow White, Blue White, Red White, Solid Yellow, San Merahs, and Blue Diamonds. Will still carry a few clasic and wild strains just not as many. JE: You mentioned Aquarama. Have you ever been there before? Will you be looking for any new strains while you are out there? MW: Nope this will be the first time. I would love to collect some new discus while I'm there. White Leopards and Solid Yellows, Yellow Snakes etc... They dont have to be new strains or types. I would be happy with nice hi-body Blue Diamonds. JE: How do those in your life feel about discus? MW: My wife likes the discus. She thinks I'm a little obsessed with them. My boys can care less... they are too into video games. My daughter hangs out with me in the fish room quite a bit but I think she just likes spending time with her dad. more...

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