Breeder Survey


THE ESSENTIALS


The essentials: Name of company, name of particular breader, Address, Phone, FAX, E-Mail, WWW site.
Stan Glazewski, Jr. - Breeder
606 North 4th Street
Hammonton, NJ 08037-9720
phone 609-567-9171
fax 609-567-4189
Email: DiscusStan@aol.com
Web Site: http://members.aol.com/discusconn/




THE BUSINESS/PERSONAL


How many years have you been breeding Discus professionally, and how many years as a hobbyist?
5yrs professionally, 21 yrs.hobbyist, 26yrs total

How long have you been in business?
5 yrs

Do you specialize in any particular strains?

Blue Diamonds
Blue Angels
Pink Flamingo
Red Diamonds

What strains are currently available? Available in the upcoming months?
Currently:

Ghosts
Blue Diamonds
Red Spotted Green(pearl variety)
Red Ruby
Blue Angel
Solid Green.

Soon:

Red Turq
Solid Cobalt
Tangerines
Red Alenquer
Solid Reds
Golden Sunflower
Pigeon Blood(4 varieties).

Do you have any sales on particular strains of discus?
Sometimes

Do you sell fish other than discus? What?
Yes. Cardinal Tetras - Tank Raised, some dwarf cichlids and some angelfish.

Are color photographs available either on the Net, snail mail, catalog?
Yes,on my webpage

Are the photographs, etc, free? If not, how much do they cost?
Not available by mail.

Have there been any reviews in trade journals of your fish?
No

How many customers do you have?
Haven't really counted...in excess of 100

Can you provide a list of satisfied customers? E-mail addresses?
Yes, not to sure if they have e-mail ad's.

How many discus do you produce per year?
Approx. 4 - 5 thousand

Do you make any effort to learn how your fish do in their new homes?
Yes. I usually follow-up about 24-48 hrs. later.




SALES


Do you take Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover? Check? First born?
Check,cash, money order,and bank tranfer...1st born upon occasion!

Do you sell to hobbyists, or do you strictly sell to Dealers only?
Hobbyist direct.

Is there a minimum order in # of fish or total amount? What are they?
No, but the customer should be aware that is not economical to ship 1 fish at a time!

Do you have a guarantee? If so, what is the exact guarantee.
Live delivery

What is your return policy? Do you have one?
No returns

Do you add extra fish to orders in case of a fatality?
Never have fatalities

What sizes do you sell? Fry? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 inch? Costs of each?
I start at the 5cm size and up, Nothing smaller. Cost varies from strain to strain.

What is the minimum age of Discus fry you would consider selling?
Won't consider selling fry.

Do you sell "guaranteed pairs?"
Yes

Can buyers come to the hatchery and pick out fish? Appointment? Times?
Yes, by appiontment only.

Do you do business with and ship to international customers?
Not at this time,but will consider it on a case by case basis.

Do you offer wholesale prices? If so, what quantities have to be ordered to get the wholesale price?
Yes, with a 100 fish minimum, 25 per strain.

Do you sell any discus related products (medication, RO systems, etc)?
Yes, Marc Weiss - Aquatronics products, R.O.systems, medications, cones and cages. I forgot sponge filters too.




SHIPPING


How long have you been shipping Discus to non-local areas?
10 yrs.

Do you ship internationally? If you do not currently ship internationally, would you be willing to try on a case-by-case basis?
Yes

What are the shipping rates? Winter? v. Summer? International?
Varies

What is the shipping procedure? Does it vary depending on the season?
All fish are packed in Oxygen and given a mild tranquilizer. In winter, heat packs are used. If its too cold we will postpone shipping till the weather breaks.

What are your packaging techniques? (Bagging, oxygen, heat, reinforcement, prophylactic medications, etc.)
No antibiotics are used in shipping.

If you medicate the fish for travel, what will be the impact of this medication on the fish when they arrive (or at any time later)? Should I add the travel water to the destination tank, and if so, will it have any affect on existing residents?
The tranquilizer will sometimes make the fish lie motionless appearing to be dead, once put into clear water the tranq starts to mitigate immediately. The bag water should Never be used in your tank.

Do I have to go to an airport to get the fish?
It depends on the method of shipping the customer wants to use.

If you ship directly to my house are the fish guaranteed to arrive alive?
Yes

If I do have to go to an airport, are they guaranteed to arrive alive?
Yes

For both of the above, what do I have to do if they do not arrive alive? (I would assume send them back somehow, but how?)
If airport to airport is used, the claim MUST BE FILED IMMEDIATELY BY AIRPORT PERSONEL. Please don't ship back dead fish, the counterperson's paperwork will justify the claim.

What are your handling instructions from box to tank for the new fish?
Remove from bag as soon as you can...I recommend a 5 gallon bucket and doubling the water volume every 20 minutes for at least 1 hour, at which point you remove the fish to his new home. The tanks temp should be raised to 90 F to help mitigate the tranq. Fish should not be fed for at least 24 hrs.




ENVIRONMENT


Water, type and changing:
a) pH adults/pairs/fry
All fish in the hatchery are kept at pH 5.0 - 5.8
b) hardness (dKH, dGH)
Hardness for fry is around 60ppm adults are kept at 30 ppm or less.
c) treatments for pH and hardness adjustment
None, I have well water which is around 5.5 pH and 20 microsiemens
d) frequency and % of water changes adults/pairs/fry
Fry - daily 10 %
Adults - 10% every other day
Pairs - 50% every 3 days
e) temperature and variations of temp

Filtration: type, media, and flow rate?
Sponge filtration.

Does the system use reverse osmosis as a way of filtering?
No

Tanks, sizes and location (ie. away from traffic and height from the floor)
Tanks vary in size, location is not critical in my humble opinion as my fish are well adjusted!

Lighting, time and intensity
Fluorescent - 12 hrs - nothing special

Do you consider the position of the breeding tank important?
No

Are your hatcheries quarantined?
Yes

Do you have gravel in your tanks?
NO

Do you keep plants in your tanks?
No

Do you use some type of dechlorinator (chemical or carbon) when making water changes?
Don't need to.




FEEDING


What and how often do you feed your adult discus?
2 times a day

What and how often do you feed your breeding pairs?
2 times a day

What and how often do you feed your fry/young?
6 times a day

Do you add any hormones or artificial color enhancers to the food?
No

If you prepare your own food, would you be willing to share your formula? (if so, please give the formula here)
Yes upon request; way to lengthy

If you feed commercially prepared food, is it available for purchase? If not, would you be willing to include a small amount with a fish purchase for purposes of weaning them to a different food?
Our fish are fed many commercially prepared foods specifically because not all hobbyists will make their own food.




LINEAGE


What are the origins of your breeding stock?
Mostly Marc Weiss - LO Wing Yat

How many generations can your stock be traced back?
As many as the customer wants.

What method do you use to maintain your strains (ie do you breed parents to children, siblings to siblings, cross related lines, etc.)?
Line and inbreeding are used as well as outcrosses.

How many generations of inbreeding do you permit before "new blood" is crossed in?
5

Do you have any particular strains that you would consider hardier than most?
Generic type turquoise and the red strains seem to be good starter fish.

Do you have any particular strains that you would consider difficult to maintain and or breed? If so, what do you do different for these fish?
Some of the wild strains and some of the super hybrids.




BREEDING


What is your method for inducing spawning?
Natural cycling.

What spawning surface do you use?
Cones

Do you raise the fry artificially, or are they parent raised?
All babies are parent raised.

If your fry are parent raised, at what age do you separate the fry?
14 - 21 days depending on the parents.

Do you use some sort of night-light to prevent fry loss?
Yes, 10 watt nightlights




DISEASE/DEFECTS


In general, what is your defect rate?
Less than 1%

Do you cull your fish?
Yes

Which diseases do you encounter most frequently in your hatchery?
None

Do you keep records of any diseases or medications that particular batches of fish have been exposed to? If so, would you provide this information about any particular order that has been purchased (assuming you were asked for it)?
Yes

What medications and dosages do you use to treat for:

a) Flukes
For flukes I would use formilin or Disco-worm
b) Intestinal parasites
Metronidazol
c) Bacterial infections
Don't have these problems due to the amount of water that is changed.
d) Discus Plague
I experienced this back in the early 1980's the pH is dropped to low 4's feeding is ceased and temp is raised to the low 90's.

What specific antibiotics have been used *at any time* in the history of your hatchery?
Ciprofloxin and neomycin sulfate

Do you use ultraviolet sterilization in your hatchery?
No




OPENS


Is there anything you would like potential customers to know that is not covered in this survey?
Just that i'm available everyday by phone or e-mail. I usually try to answer all my calls within 24 hrs. I believe that detailed information is the best way to win a customer...there are NO SECRETS. Thank You very much for allowing me to tell you all about me and my operation. I currently have 10,000 gallons setup and plan for another 3500 gallons in the not so distant future. I have a website at http://homepage.third-wave.com/fcdiscus/connection.html, there are jpegs there with more being added soon!

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