Cassano Magnago (VA), Italy – 3-5 June 2016

BROWN

1st BROWN & GRAND CHAMPION

Hi all of you, and specially those which missed this great event, possibly the best (definitely most natural) discus competition in the last decades. I must say that I am very proud of my 4 college judges (Frank Tinnes fromm Germany, Attila Lukacs from Hungary, Francesco Denitto and Gennarino Iovino, both from Italy), everyone had the same object: to judge correctly only the very best AND THEY DID. At the end all 5 of us came to the very same result. The most natural discus (if wild or tank bred) have received their correct place and Eduard Schmidt-Focke, to whom this was dedicated, would certainly have been proud of the results, as we all were. But I do want to mention, specially to those persons which possibly are not happy that their discus have not won a price (although certainly would or had been prized elsewhere) that I made an error in not giving a complete detailed description of the fishes to be entered. I had written, and mentioned that this competition is to honor Eduard, who after he had done the first hybrids (cross between 2 species or subspecies), always told me and the world: “…hybrids should not be produced, only natural strains” and he stopped completely already in 1980 do cross-breed such (unnatural)forms. And some of his last words to me were : ” What was the Creator thinking when he created humans to destroy His previous millions of years of work? We must do everything we can to protect nature…”. It was from the begin my main aim for this event to honor Schmidt-Focke and his pioneer work (as in my Bleher’s Discus, Volume II) – to show again the natural beauty of this – the most magnificent of all freshwater fishes, His Majesty the DISCUS, as natural as possible, as Eduard has gave it to the world… I tried possibly not well enough to explain this aim to every one of the participants, and I am sorry for this, although I though all had read the true books and texts of Eduard, and had understood this. Next year it will definitely be explained in more detail…

Now, as I was asked I will show you in order of Category, the winners, first in wilds (Brown, Blue, Green and Heckel-Discus), the first places and later all the rest. Natasha did great photos the last days, and here some of them: 1. The first in BROWN, was also the GRAND CHAMPION, a perfect discus, as it should be. From Alessio Conti, a great young breeder who actually reclined to receive the price money (as he was one of the organizers who worked extreme hard), and the comity, thanked him and it will be invested to make this for the June 16-18th in 2017 even a much bigger event. The trophy was handed over by Mrs. Francescelli of AQUARISTICA SRL, one of the event sponsor, a beautiful hand-painted ostrich egg.

2nd BROWN

The 2nd BROWN was also a very nice fish, and Frédéric Gobert, from France, had entered it and won the 2nd Place with Trophies from AQUARISTICA, Italy.

3rd BROWN

The 3rd Place in BLUE, went to Alessio Conti, of Oasi Discus Farm, and it was also a nice wild Blue which will become even more colorful after longer acclimatization time in his place. The trophy was given by Heiko Blessin, from JBL, a great sponsor company of this event from Germany.

BLUE

1st BLUE

In the 2. Category of wilds: BLUE, the winner was a beauty nearly a real ‘Royal Blue’ colored fish, originally from Hudson Crizanto, and entered at this great event by Francis Hu, Chen Discus of the UK with Jenny Harris. The beautiful hand-painted trophy was delivered by Heiko Blessin, of JBL, another great sponsor at this event, to whom the comity is extreme thankful. And they will sponsor again next year…

2nd BLUE

In the category BLUE, the 2nd Place was also a very nice fish, almost as nice as the 1st placed, possibly it will be a fully striped Alpha animal soon (= Royal Blue). The winner was again Frédéric Gobert and the JBL-sponsor- trophy was delivered by Heiko 2 (Heiko Blessin) and the origin of the fish is from Hudson Crizanto Gonçalves.

3rd BLUE
The 3rd Place in BLUE, went to Alessio Conti, of Oasi Discus Farm, and it was also a nice wild Blue which will become even more colorful after longer acclimatization time in his place. The trophy was given by Heiko Blessin, from JBL, a great sponsor company of this event from Germany.

HECKEL

1st HECKEL
The 4th and last category of WILDs were HECKEL-Discus, and Hudson Crizanto from Brazil, delivered also this authentic hand-painted ostrich egg to the winner. It was again Francis Hu from Chen Discus in the UK.

2nd HECKEL
The 2nd HECKEL DISCUS at our event arrived very late at night from Romania and had some transport damage on the fins, which recovered fast. It was an excellent Symphysodon discus, similar to the painted one on the ostrich trophy, sponsored by Hudson Crizanto Gonçalves. The winner was Alin Jurca. It was even more beautiful than the 1st prized one, larger center bar and really perfect body form and shape. One of the most important characters of a real discus… (on the photo with Alin are 2 trophies, those of both his winning fishes and the sponsor logo).

3rd HECKEL

green

1st GREEN
The 1st place trophy of the 3. Category of wilds: GREEN, went to the Sheik of Qatar (that is from how far participating fishes came…). He personally was not present and the trophy was presented by Hudson Crizanto Gonçalves, who came specially for this event from Fortaleza, Brazil, with another fantastic painted ostrich egg. And I am holding the Sheiks Diploma up with the extreme long name: HE Sheikh Mishaal bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani from State of Qatar presented by Stavros Tsipas, from Athens, Greece.

2nd GREEN
The 2nd GREEN prize went to Kaj Persson, who had driven all the way from Sweden to participate, and although it was a older fish (about 3 years plus), it is a nice specimen. Originally send by Hudson Crizanto Gonçalves, from Fortaleza, who was also the sponsor and delivered the beautiful painted ostrich eggs… (and b.t.w. irregular bars are almost common to find in natural discus; and Green Discus must not always have red spots…).

3rd GREEN
The 3rd in the category GREEN was also a nice natural fish (one can see its colors change on these photos), and was very close to the second placed specimen, just about 1 point less). The winner was the Italian Alberto Salerio and the trophy sponsored by Hudson Crizanto who specially came to this event from Brazil (and said that this is the only championship in Europe he will always attend, and the one in Sweden…).

RED

1st RED
From the 6 breeding forms we had only 4 Categories (see later): This was the 1st place in RED from Alin Jurca, in Romania, a real natural red beauty (no Astaxanthin). Alin has also had other winning fishes… (See later)

2nd RED
This beauty was the 2nd in the category RED, a very nice young fish still developing its red color. Alessio Conti of Oasi Discus Farm was the breeder and winner. The sponsor is AQUARISTICA SRL from Italy, they also delivered this beautiful hand-painted ostrich egg.

UNCLASSIFIABLE

1st UNCLASSIFIABLE
UNCLASSIFIABLE is the category I established long ago (about 25 years) and was actually widely used for unique fishes, that is for discus of which exist only one variant or a few, which is not an established strain. Often these fishes are given fantasy names (mostly to increase the price… or to claim it is his or hers breeding). This was a very beautiful, nearly perfect variant from S. G. Discus, the famous Italian breeding establishment of Andrea Sassi Andrea and Antonello Greco, and well deserved 1st place. Sassi Andrea received the Trophy from Alessio Conti, Oasi Discus Farrn, another sponsor.

2nd UNCLASSIFIABLE
This Heckel-cross (a true hybrid, from S. discus x S. haraldi) was judged by all in UNCLASSIFIABLE as 2nd Place (2nd best). The breeder is the Italian Francesco Penazzi, and the trophy given by OASI DISCUS FARM.

3rd UNCLASSIFIABLE
With the last category: UNCLASSIFIABLE all judges had a problem for the 3rd Place winner, because of the many discus entered under this category most of them were hybrids, which hardly grow… as this 3rd placed one. It is something breeders should always remember, besides doing a very selective line-breeding, hybridization should be avoided, if private breeders, hobby breeders, or in commercial breeding establishments. And albite the points were very low, we took in this specimen, as colours were nice, eye and fins, except the breast… It cam from another Italian breeder who tries hard, Rino Casarella. The sponsor and trophy was given by Oasi Discus Farm, Alessio Conti.

TURQUOISE STRIPED

1st TURQUOISE STRIPED
The Category TURQUOISE STRIPED: It was one of the original strains Schmidt-Focke developed and established after generations of selective line-breeding, and fortunately still today this strain is around. Alessio Conti received the 1st Place for his beauty, at the great event last weekend in Milan, Italy, at www.agri-oasi.it and I wish that this beautiful (natural)strain will remain for ever. And that this event will help to keep it going… The trophy was perfectly hand painted according to the original and handed over by the Sponsor PRODAC, Giovanni Zanon.

2nd TURQUOISE STRIPED
For the breeding forms the 2nd in TURQUOISE STRIPED was a large specimen from Frédéric Gobert, from France, it could have been 1st in its category, if it had more brilliance and more ‘normal’ shape. The trophy was sponsored by PRODAC, Giovanni Zanon.

3rd TURQUOISE STRIPED
In the category TURQUOISE STRIPED another beautiful fish received the 3rd Place, a specimen with amazing colors (stripes), a juvenile fish which will be a real beauty when adult. Francesco Penazzi has bred it from real striped – line bred – strain, as Schmidt-Focke did… (following the pioneers footsteps?). The sponsor was PRODAC, Giovanni Zanon.

PATTERN

1st PATTERN
As for the 1st prize in PATTERN, it was also an amazing fish it went (the 1st place), to the breeder Alessio Conti, Oasi Discus Farm.

2nd PATTERN
In the category PATTERN (should be course pattern): S. G. Discus, Andrea Sassi & Antonello Greco, the great Italian breeders have made the 2nd Place, with this nice fish (which they call Pigeon, and others as well, although this pattern has nothing to do with the original Pigeon…). The shape is good, pattern very good. The sponsor was ANUBIAS, the great Italian Aquarium Plant company.

SOLID & SPOTTED

With regards to the other 2 Categories: SOLID and SPOTTED, for the former no discus was entered (although a very long established strain of Schmidt-Focke), and for the latter only 4 discus came. Unfortunately the judges decided not to judge these (Spotted), as all 4 were deformed and the main judging character was the BODY FORM and SHAPE – the form of a discus as Schmidt-Focke bred them for over 30 years and introduced worldwide. In addition they had gill-defects and one severe Hexamita. Therefore the points were so low, that they could not be considered. Here is one of them, no discus-shape… Naturally about everywhere else such fishes would be judged by other judges (not by Gennarino Iovino, Frank Tinnes, Francesco Denitto, Attila Lukacs or myself), and probably received a prize or be the Grand Champion…

red special prize


For the reasons mentioned earlier such discus as this red (and SPOTTED, as well as some others) were judged with only 1 point. The 5 judges combined (Frank Tinnes, Francesco Denitto, Iovino Gennarino, Attila Lukács, and myself) had decided clearly to give extreme low points for UN-normal discus, including RED’s which are deformed, exaggerated with Astaxanthin (artificial color, which they loose if not continuously fed the same way), like this one shown here…

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