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Discus breeding activities in Hong Kong

Hongkong is located between the tropical and sub-tropical climate zones. Temperature can cool down to 10 deg. Celsius in Winter. In Hongkong 20% of the families have fish tanks (mostly gold fish and koies).

Worldwide Fish Farm: This breeding facility is situated on the 9th. floor of a building, the facility is clean and the floor dry. size: 500 tanks, 200 active breeding pairs and 400 pairs in reserve. tanks are bare, planted tank photo as background and green appartment plants between the tanks. Aeration through air stone, large PVC tube used as support for eggs. Tap water is used for breeding and raising it comes with a hardness of 3-4 German deg. and a pH of 7.0. Temp. in tanks is around 30 deg. Celsius.

Rocha Discus: The store was shown, this is a top class store where only the nicest, adult size discus are sold. The shop is very small, total surface is 10 square meters.

Wison Chan: This breeding facility is situated on the 14th. floor of a building.. the facility is clean and floor is dry. size: 350 tanks, annual production 17 to 18,000 discus. Water quality: Tap water is used, hardness is 4-5 German deg. and a pH of 7.4-7.5. Temp. in tanks is around 29-30 deg. Celsius. Water changes between 33% and 50% per day. each tank has an auto drain system. Each tank has its own manual suction pump to remove food and excrements from the bare bottom. A small power pump sends the water to the top of the tank where it drips through a small filter (one layer of filter material size about 15 X 20 cm,(it looks like cotton or sponge)) before dripping back in the tank. Above each tank, a second tank of same size, without fish serves as water reserve. At the end of each row of tanks a sink is placed to rinse equipment and filters. Most operations (like water changes are fully automatized). Fish are fed on a mix of beefheart and mussels. Artemia and shrimps are also fed to juveniles.

Since appartments and buildings is extremely expensive in Hongkong the breeders are situated in city buildings. They must keep their installations clean and the floors dry. Filtration is not a big topic but drastic water changes. There is no central filtration system. The water is used with its original hardness, only the pH is lowered for spawning. 75% of the discus are shipped to Taiwan, 5% stay in Hongkong and the rest to the rest of the World (10% to Europe). The dominant colour is blue, red is coming up.

Besides the pro. breeders many amateurs breed discus in their appartments to increase their income. Most cannot afford the top quality but very expensive breeding pairs.

Written by Francis Vilbois