Interview by MondoDiscus: Tamer Dogan

24 Novembre 2007

English
Interview by MondoDiscus: Tamer Dogan

MondoDiscus Interview Tamer Doğan

Who is Tamer Dogan? Since when have you been breeding discus?

Hi I am Tamer Doğan, I have been breeding discus since 2003, actually before 2003 I feed discus but the focusing on breeding was after 2003.

Which is your favourite kind of discus and why?

My favourite discus and which I breed is Spotted and Leopard snakeskin variations. Why I like them? Because it is more difficult to get the colour and pattern which you desired than the other line of discuses. In shortly I like difficulties and Spotteds patterns.

Which are the criteria you use in making the selection of the discus for breeding?

My criteria are;

1.   The female, which is time to breed, must have the colours and patterns of its parents.
2.   The form must be perfect.
3.   Patterns and bars must be smooth.
4.   Must be healthy and it must not be medicated.
5.   Absolutely it must not be taken hormone before.
6.   Type of feeding is important. It must be feed with home made food which ingredients beaf hearth and not be feed with Tubifex.
7.   It must show its variations properties.

According to your opinion the discus is a difficult or easy fish to breed?
And for you exist a particular kind of discus more difficult than others to breed?

Actually is not so difficult fish but it must be breed from fry and they need so much concern. I have to say that you must have experience and knowledge about them.

According to me Stopped, Leopard snake skin and Diamond variations is more difficult to breed than the other variations. For example, Piegeon blue, Marlboro or blue/red Turkuaz is easier to breed.

Which are the principal aspects in managing a farm like yours?

Cleanliness is more important and I take pains to it. I never add fish from the outside into my farm or I use quarantine to fish, which I take from the other breeders. I am open to all guests. You can come and see my farm.

Are you breeding your own particular line of discus?

I wasn’t able to breed new line of discus, yet. I am trying to get new line I hope I will breed new line of discus in near future.

If yes which are the efforts in term of time, human resources and tecnologies to reach a self-made line?

For trying to breed new line of discus, I benefit from genetics. The important part is the selection of pure and original mature females and males. If you know the gene, which you have, you can use it get new variations.

Do you think that having your own line of discus can be useful in your country doing commerce with discus?

Recently there is a lot of concern in Türkey to discus. We hope to breed new line of discus which is particular to Turkish. If I or one of my discus breeder friends breed new line of discus which is particular to Turkish, discus lovers will increase. Maybe we can export it to the other countries.

For you does exist “The turkish discus style”?

Not yet. I hope in near future we have new line of discus.

What do you think about the culture in your country about acquarium in general and in particular….obviously about discus?

Aquarium hobby is spreading very fast in Turkey, because it is making very scientific and consciously. Generally, our biggest problem is about poor quality of import fish. Of course, when the number of farms increases the number of hobbyist will increase, too.

There are many difficulties of breeding discus. For example, the import fish are poor quality. When a new breeder buys this poor quality fish, it dies couples of days so that the discus hobby dies, too. The other problem is about climate, water quality of Turkey. Our county is colder from Fareast countries for example Malaysia, Singapore. In addition, the water parameters are not same it causes to fish get ill quicker. Although this disadvantages discus fans increases day by day.

Is there any foreigner breeder from whom you get inspiration?
Who are the best breeders of discus in the world for you?

One of most foreigner breeder whom I get inspired is Wayne Ng. I know many breeders from Fareast and Europe and I admire most of their breeding activities. The other breeders, which I inspired, are from Singapore Roy khoo, David Lim, from Malesia Tont Tan, from Germany Jörg Stendker a.t.c.

In your experience exist particular assumptions for breeding healthy discus and which are
the most common problems or illnesses that can happened in breeding?

One of most important rule to bred healthy discus is preparing sterile environments. The mates must be health and purified from worms and parasites. Regular water changes, cleaning of aquarium, selecting and preparing food for fries and fish, especially must be carefull with using Tubifex,.

According to me, the biggest illness is Gil Worms. If the mates did not purified lots of fries die.

Speaking about Italy….Have you ever heard or you know any italian breeder or italian name in association with discus?
I know Lorenzo Vecchio from Italy who won 3.rd degree in turquoise category.
Also Carmole Arico, Rosario Curcio, Stefano Manzati, Alfredo Scarano, Antonio Trimboli are very successful names, I congratulate all of them.

What do you think about our web site “Mondodiscus” ? In Turkey does exist any similar web site?

I like your site “Mondodiscus” so much. Your reportages, forum, articles all other thins are so useful. So thank for all of these things and about the best quality pictures. In addition, I appreciate the moderators and administrators of your site.

There are lots of aquarium forum in Turkey. However, they do not offer rich environment as much as your site. Just about six months ago, I started project for all of Turkish discus fan which mane is www.discusfunclub.com . I will end it up as soon as I can.

This last question is the question we do to all breeders we virtually visit: If I ask you to give only one advise to a person that want to start breeding discus what would be?

If I ask you to give only one advice to a person that want to start breeding discus what would be “if you don’t have discus love in your heart don’t buy discus”. Because I know a lot of people who start to breed but bored quickly. Breeding discus is not cheap and you need so much equipment. According to me, most important and first thing is “discus love”.

I want to thank you Mondodiscus, because of giving me a chance to tell about discus hobby in Turkey. I wish all of you healthy days with lots of fries.

With my best wishes Italy…