Interview: Clifford Young on MondoDiscus
Interview: Clifford Young on MondoDiscus
by Luigi Del Favero
Hello Intenational friends of MOndodiscus! Tanking to the kindness of Mr Clifford Young we succed in having a great interwew with a person that have seen for shure many many discus in his career!
Have a nice reading!
1) Who is Clifford Young? Since when have you been breeding Discus?
I am a Discus collector, starting as a hobbyist in 1963, I bought a couple of Wild Discus, from then on I was hooked as a Discusaholic. Breeding Discus didn't start till the 70's. In the 90's I was honor by volunteering services by leading and mentoring a Discus Group for the San Francisco Aquarium Society (www.sfaquarium.org ), this last for around 5 years. Late 90's I opened my own Discus and Aquarium Service business. (www.Cliffsdiscus.com )
2) Which is your favor Discus type and why?
Currently I would say my favor is the striated type of Discus. Why, each Discus show a individual pattern.
2) Which are the criteria you use in making the selection of the Discus for breeding?
These are some of the things I look for when selection:
1. Health
2. No deformations(possible genetic)
3. full body with good thickness, finnage, eyes and etc.
4. good genetic bloodline
3) About breeding…You make the 80% of breeding artificially; Would you describe to us how to process this discus artificially?
Already sent the process. This is only one method, this method is more foregiving than some others, especially design for people away from the Discus fry for more than 8hrs, sure as people working 8 to 10 hours a day this method works wonders, also the breeder can get a good nights sleep too.
4) According to your opinion the Discus is a difficult or easy fish to breed? And for your exist a particular kind of discus more difficult than other to breed?
Todays Discus are domesticated(human made) they live in local city urban water. These Discus also breed in urban waters, I would say that breeding is easier now. Books published and the internet can provide the hobbyist with an abundance of resources and information never available before. When I started there was only one book for general tropical fish keeping, said Discus breeders knew the secrets and would never tell.
Only time when difficult arises are when I inherit breeding pairs that are not in good health, other times are when linebreeding comes to an end the fry may be too weak or the females cannot produce eggs or eggs that are sterile, problem with the males are low fertilition or unfertile.
5) Which are the pincipal aspect in managing a farm like yours?
1.) organize2.) Plan
3.) Prioritize each situation on individual basis.
My origanization, must be look at as a whole, where each aspect needs to follow an standard pratice and procedure, changes are always open, as I have a open door policy where I look for valid suggestion that may be value to the business. Each procedure has a guideline, sure as changing water, order suppplies, procument and inventory. All of these or similar procedure has what is call a standard average time which can calculate how much time it take to complete.
By process the time in motion study a weekly job process can be generate, following by a monthly progressive report, monthy progressive report are compare annually and quarterly to give a overview of the business success.
6) Are you breeding your own particular line of Discus?
Yes, I usually will breed my own Discus, just to establish some traits from preferred genes.
7) If yes, which are the efforts in term of time, human resources and technologies to reach a self-made line?
A timeable to establish a good line would be roughtly 10 years, if done artifically raising the time table is amazing much shorter.
Since I am the sole breeder of all artifically breeding is done by me, time spend for one spawning starts when the fry are freeswimming compare to normally breeding techniques the breeder will be at idle till the frys are 3 weeks old. Daily waterchange of a minium of 300 percent when free starts, hatching 5 to 6 batches of baby Brine Shrimp starts near free swimming, water preperation starts at the same time a close estimate would be around 20 hours of work before normally parental raise fry, this is per batch.
Technologies, Biotech field arises questions as to what they may play in the tropical fish industries.
8) Do you think that having your own line of Discus can be useful in your country do commerce with Discus?
Yes, commerically my business does the full service when selling locally, by what is meant by full service:
1. Sell as bred in the U.S., health, guarantee color on selected Discus.
2. Discus sold locally can also be maintain by my business which offers fullaquarium services.
9)For you does exist "The American Discus Style"?
There are few Styles:
The hobbyist with a community tank with a few Discus
The advance hobbyist planted community tank with Discus and one Discus tank.
The serious Discus stylist 5 to 10 tanks of Discus of different color, likes the color of the rainbow.
The master Discus breeders 25 tanks and up with Discus but only a few colors.
The professional Discus breeders 35 tanks and up Discus packed like sardine and another 20 to 30 batches of upcoming frys, these Discus breeders sometime have Angel fish too.
The last is the importers they buy to resell, sometime breeding on the side, dry goods and other typesof fish for sale.
10)What do you think about the culture in you country about aquarium in general and in particular-obviously about Discus.
My option on the culture about the aquarium in general currently has come to a flat level plain due probably because of the economy. Discus is a small part of the general aquarium culture.
11) Is there any foreigner breeder from who you get inspiration? Who are the best breeders of the Discus in the world for you?
I think Mondiscus has already very carefully hand selected the creator/breeders of some of the best in the World already. Some of them I have already had the honor of meeting either in the U.S. on their visits or aboard.
12) In your experience exist particular assumptions for breeding healthy Discus and which are the most common problems or illnesses that can happen in breeding?
I have no problems in breeding healthy Discus since mostly all of them are artifically raise, the problem of diseases are less than parental raised. Also mostly all of my Discus are mostly from my own line of Discus, also from my own hatchery. Once in a while I may have some Discus from an outside source this is when there might be problems with diseases even after a long quarantine.
Other common problems are mostly related from the water company, too much chemical add during the rainy season or water line reconstruction projects.
13) Speaking about Italy… Have you ever heard or you know any italian breeder or italian name in association with Discus?
I receive flooding of e-mail sometime daily from people all over the World, some of them were from Italy, but I honestly cannot even remember the names.
14) What do you think about our web site "Mondodiscus"? In America does exist any similar website?
My first thoughts at Mondodiscus is I need to learn the Italian language, the seconds would be great pictures with the only website that is focus on the some of the best of the best breeders in the World. I don't surf the internet but most internet websites have breeders where the Discus are not originally from them but mostly from Asia.
15) 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?
My key advise to success of breeding would be to have an Insight beyond Sight for Breeding Discus Without Borders.
My Humble and Sincere Thanks for Mondiscus for giving me the privelege of this interview
Clifford Young
Cliff's Discus and Aquarium
THE ARTIFICIAL FEEDING OF CLIFFORD YOUNG WITHOUT SECRETS
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