Nidal (Animal Station) with a young Caiman           Yianni Xynogalas (C.E. Fish Essentials)

The Best of Discus event was the first of it's kind in Greece. Featuring approximately 70-80 tanks each holding one discus fish to be judged by the highly credible international judges Heiko Bleher (Italy), Jeffery Tan (Malaysia) & Cuneyt Birol (Turkey). There were 7 categories, Wild, Solid Turquoise, Striped Turquoise, Patterned, Red, Spotted and Unclassifiable and 3rd, 2nd and 1st prize places were awarded in each. One overall winner was also chosen as the Grand Champion of the event (Photos and information can be found below).

The Judges:            Heiko Bleher (Left)         Jeffery Tan (Centre)   Cuneyt Birol (Right)

Nidal and his team of passionate and dedicated friends and helpers worked tirelessly to ensure that this event ran smoothly, and following water quality problems at another European event just the week before, it was vital that this new event got off to a positive start. With meticulous maintenance and individual monitoring and rectification of water in each specific aquarium Nidal's team left no margin for mistakes and preparation was perfect. All fish settled into the tanks easily and very quickly began to display their colours, males and females were also displaying to each other and by the end of the event there were even a few tanks found with eggs on the sponge filters! There was much care taken and here (below) you can see Mr Bleher introducing one of the fish into his temporary home for the weekend.

Introducing the fish by hand to reduce                           Preparations taking place
markings and stress

             The discus display aquaria (above) with awards showing for new guests to see

The judging of the event took place on the Friday (whilst all was quiet) and the three judges, who have considerable experience with both judging and with discus fish keeping were able to decide which fish in their professional opinions were the ones most deserving of awards. Below is a list of all of the winners of each category.

Wild Category
1st place: Teo Koumadaros
2nd place: Teo Koumadaros
3rd place: Teo Koumadaros

    
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place 

90% of the wild discus at this event, including these 3 winning fish were fed with C.E. Discus Wildheart! or another C.E. Fish Essentials food.

Solid Turquoise Category
1st place: Michael Pikis
2nd place: Matthew Monogios
3rd place: George Giannopoulos

    
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place 

Striped Turquoise Category
1st place: Vasilis Garoufalidis
2nd place: Michael Pikis
3rd place: Nektarios Stavrakis

  
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place  

Patterned Category
1st place: Michael Pikis
2nd place: Michael Pikis
3rd place: Michael Pikis

  
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place  

Red Category
1st place: Babis Tsokas
2nd place: Michael Pikis
3rd place: Panagiotis Karamesinis

  
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place  

Spotted Category
1st place: Michael Pikis
2nd place: Michael Pikis
3rd place: D. Papagiannakis / G. Zablakos

  
1st place                                       2nd place                                  3rd place  

Unclassifiable / Open Category
1st place: Michael Pikis
2nd place: Nick Baviolis
3rd place: Vasilis Garoufalidis

  
1st place                                2nd place (Fed with C.E. Discus Pro)          3rd place  

After the winning results were announced, there was also the Grand Champion trophy awarded for the fish classified as the Best in Show. This is a prize for the fish which is considered the best fish overall and the Best of Discus 2012 Grand Champion belonged to Babis Tsokas with his 1st place fish in the red category (Below).

  
          The Grand Champion 2012!                    Babis receiving the Grand Champion trophy  

 The Best of Discus 2012 was a fantastic event organised by a very dedicated and passionate team of people and of the large consignment of our foods available for sale over the weekend, only a very small amount was left available which was testament to the desire of the greek discus community to feed only the best foods to their prized pet possessions. We were very pleased to be part of the event and honoured to finally meet and converse with many of the skilled Greek and international discus keepers present for this competition. An event that we will definitely be supporting again in the future.

     
Chris & Yiannis from the C.E. team with Heiko Bleher (left)  The Greek Discus Freaks! (right)                                

Whilst we served countless new customers during this event, we were also able to gain feedback from several who returned from the year before and were overwhelmed with the positive responses we received. One returning client even purchased enough for a year supply after informing us of how pleased they were with the results within just a few weeks of feeding our products.

 
The foods sold very fast!                          Emma trying to blend into the biotope 

We found this event has been the perfect place for us to interact directly with our target demographic as well as an opportunity to make new clients, customers and friends. It is a perfect family day out where young ones can have fun as well as learn a great deal directly from experts about fish, amphibians and reptiles and many common, rare, unusual and incredible creatures.

Aquatics Live has become quite renowned for its support of aquascaping activities and on display were works from some of the finest aquascapers in the country (results of the UKAPS contest can be found below).

3rd Place - Antoni Dimitrov         2nd Place - Tony Swinney            1st Place - Stu Worrall

In order to bring something unique to the event we decided to show an aquarium once again. Our display aquarium was in a biotope style and this was approved by biotope pioneer Heiko Bleher. C.E. Fish Essentials owner, Chris Englezou explained.

“In 2011, I displayed a ‘natural-look’ aquarium with Symphysodon Haraldi (F1) Rio Xingu and Wild Pterophyllum Scalare (Rio Negro) accompanied by some tank bred Corydoras Aeneus. For 2012’s event I wanted to create something simple but effective and most importantly better than last year! I wanted to really inspire people to be creative with their aquaria and to learn more about simulating an environment which works in harmony with the fish, replicating the symbiotic ecosystem we find everywhere in nature”.

  
Chris Englezou (left) with Heiko Bleher (right)     C.E. Fish Essentials Biotope Display Aquarium
 
We are now the UK agent for Aquapress Bleher  Heiko Bleher speaking at one of the seminars

One new addition to the event which was a fantastic viewing experience was the introduction of the UKDA’s discus display. This featured breeding stock, award-winning and world class discus fish from suppliers such as Chen’s Discus, Northants Discus and Corban Discus and others and they were nothing short of spectacular. . This was a great way to show people interested in keeping discus the true potential of these wonderful fish.

 
 
 

Also present for the second year (but first time with this excellent stand) was Mark Evenden of Devotedly Discus with his wonderful array of Stendker discus fish including a breeding pair with fry which caught the eyes of many over the weekend. 

Business aside, it is a perfect family day out where young ones can have fun as well as learn a great deal directly from experts about fish, amphibians and reptiles including many common, rare, unusual and incredible creatures. One for the calender indeed and scheduled once again for 16 & 17th November 2013 - See www.aquatics-live.com for futher information.

The event as a whole featured some of the best quality, rare and commonly kept fish species we have seen for a long time as well as some wonderful aquarium set ups and aquascape tanks all owned by very dedicated and passionate fish keepers. The quality, size and colours of many of the fish were second-to-none.

The Discus Championship results were announced on Saturday 27th October. The judging was done over 8 categories: Warms solids (Red), Cool solids (Blue), Spotted, Striated, Wild & Open. There was a final category for Hobbyist Achievement for which prizes were awarded to self declared 'amateur' discus keepers who had entered fish and an additional final category was added for 'Fine Line' which included striated fish exhibiting the 'snakeskin' gene. The results were as follows:

U.K. Discus Club Championship 2012 Results

Spotted Category:

     
1st Place: Tim Wragg (Corban Discus) 2nd Place: Clive Brampton        3rd Place: Tony Smith

Warm Solids (Red) Category:

    
1st Place: Clive Brampton            2nd Place: Tony Smith                      3rd Place: Tim Wragg (Corban Discus)

Cool Solids (Blue) Category:

  
1st Place: Clive Brampton              2nd Place: Pete Daniels                  3rd Place: 

Striated (Striped) Category:

    
 1st Place: Clive Brampton                2nd Place: Pete Daniels             3rd Place: Clive Brampton

Fine Line Category:

   
1st Place: Clive Brampton               2nd Place: Clive Brampton           3rd Place:

Open Category:

    
1st Place: Chens Discus / Nutripet   2nd Place: Clive Brampton               3rd Place: Simon Hall

Wild Category:

   
1st Place: Simon Hall                      2nd Place: Pete Daniels                   3rd Place: Chens Discus / Nutripet

Hobbyist Awards:

  (Awaiting Information)
1st Place: Tony Smith   

We are extremely proud of all of the participants whether amateur or professional, breeder or hobbyist for taking the time and effort to bring such wonderful fish out from their homes to support this fantastic event. We can also once again be proud to say that at this event, the 1st places in Spotted and Open categories, the 2nd places in Wild, Striated and Solid Blue categories and 3rd places in Wild and Solid Red categories were all fed with foods from C.E. Fish Essentials.  

This event was a wonderful opportunity for skilled aquarists to come together and share their love for fishkeeping. It was also a creative outlet to inspire amateur and potential fishkeepers to truly appreciate and understand the beauty and rewards which come with keeping fish. Not only could attendees see beautiful fish, top quality plants and artistic aquascapes, they could also learn about how to be a better fishkeeper from award winners and owners of fish in particularly good condition, they had access to the finest equipment along with advice and information directly from companies manufacturing some of the most well used and popular products on the market. Even minor details such as the full latin names of the fish on show allowed this event to not only be a platform for passionate fish keepers or business owners, but a place where aquarists of all levels could go to learn more about responsible fish keeping.

  
UK Bred A. Piwowarski Discus & Yellow Melons from Corban Discus  9 week old F1 Japura x Blue from Just Discus

There were some very good quality discus fish on sale and a good variety from well known and reputable retailers who worked tirelessly bagging fish and offering advice throughout the course of the weekend as did many other sellers.  

 
Wild Rio Xingu Golden Discus                                     Chens Discus here seen feeding on C.E. Discus Pro

One very kind gesture that did not go unnoticed and which is a testament to the warmth and kindness of the  U.K.D.C members and their dedication to the future of discus keeping was when young Caitlin Malone was given a suprise gift. Here is what happened in her mother Sarah's words:

"On saturday night we were all in the marquee after dinner, Mick Minns stood up and gave a speech thanking the set up team and various others for their hard work. He then turned to Caitlin and said that the club likes to give gifts to people, pointed to a three foot tank and said that tank is now yours, He then took her over to the show tanks and said that Tony Smith had given her his breeding pair (including the 2nd Place fish in the Red Category) to go in the tank, Tim Wragg of Corban Discus gave her a bag of goodies to help set up and run the tank, Simon Hall also offered to give her some of the food he prepares for his own fish. Mick then took Caitlin to see Mark from 'Trademark Aquatics' and said he is going to supply her a filter to make her own water. Well I don't know who was more shocked me or her?! We were both speechless with the generosity of everyone there..a truly awesome bunch of people! Following this, on Monday we were emptying tanks and packing up when Clive and Sandy asked Caitlin if she wanted a huge piece of bogwood that they had for sale. So basically we have one very lucky little girl with everything she needs to become a discus breeder of the future."

A fantastic end to a professional and memorable event organised by a group of passionate discus loving friends. We will be back for the next one!

Our ongoing research into the histology of the discus fish and the complex digestive and immune interactions have enabled us to create a product of superior composition and nutrition. Our signature smaller particle size makes the food ideal for discus fish as young as 2-3 weeks old and our unique fine woven food matrix helps it maintain it's integrity whilst within the aquarium thus reducing waste. 

                                    Click the image to get a closer look!

C.E. 'Discus Professional' contains specific proportions of Ox Heart, Fish, Shellfish & Crustacea in the base which in these measurements serve to be most effective for the optimum nutrition of the discus fish. The formula is accompanied by over 20 other individually measured ingredients which each play important roles in sustaining and supplementing the correct diet for discus. We ensure supplementation with the addition of essential additives such as essential and non essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids which are important components to facilitate the correct functioning of the fish's body. What makes C.E. Fish Essentials unique in this aspect is that we only use naturally occuring isomers of the additives we include in all of our formulae. This means that even when using synthetic additives we only use types which are naturally compatible with the species and in amounts which work best with the species itself. An example is with the use of the vitamin 'L-Ascorbic Acid' and below this is explained a little further.

Ascorbic acid is produced in four main forms and only one of which occurs naturally. When these compounds are created synthetically the bonds create isomeric versions of the compound which are arranged differently in space (see above) and these different isomers can in many cases react differently within the body of the fish (and us humans!) creating different biproducts, many of which are not beneficial and often detrimental in the long term. This is why we pioneered this unique practice which we feel is essential for the long term health of the fish we feed all over the world. We are also the first to use a combination of natural synbiotics to aid the effective digestion of the discus fish we all love. Truly responsible manufacturing with the interests of the fish at heart.

 
Italian Distributor Pino Paolino's awards       Swedish Distributor Kaj persson at the Nordic Discus 
                                                              Championship 2011

Many of our clients, consultants, distributors and customers in recent years have reaped fantastic results not only in their home aquaria but in local and international competitions with their fish and many will use nothing but the Discus Professional food or others in our Discus range. Above and below are some of our valued friends who have made respectable achievements in recent competitions.

 
Teo Koumadoros won 1st,2nd & 3rd at                Distributor: Tim Wragg Won 1st in the Spotted
Best of Discus 2012 (Athens, Greece)                category at the UK Discus Championship 2012

 Here is our list of winners who feed C.E. Discus Professional and the C.E. Discus range to their fish.

 Nordic Discus Championship 2011                      Aqua Diskus Tage 2012 (Germany)
1st Place (Open Category)                                2nd Place (Open Category)
1st Place (Wild Category)                                  3rd Place (Striped Category)
2nd Place (Wild Category) 

Best of Discus 2012 (Athens, Greece)                  UKDC 2012 
1st Place (Wild Category)                                     1st Place (Spotted Category)
2nd Place (Wild Category)                                    1st Place (Open Category)
3rd Place (Wild Category)                                     2nd Place (Wild Category)
4th Place (Wild Category)                                     2nd Place (Striated Category)
6th Place (Wild Category)                                     2nd Place (Blue Category)                                                                        
7th Place (Wild Category)                                     3rd Place (Wild Category)
8th Place (Wild Category)                                     3rd Place (Red Category)
9th Place (Wild Category)
10th Place (Wild category)

British Discus Show 2013
1st Place (Striped Category)
1st Place (Spotted category)
2nd Place (Striped Category)
2nd Place (Open Category)
3rd Place (Open Category)
3rd Place (Solid Category)

See discus fish eating C.E. Discus 'Professional right here on our >> youtube video <<

Buy C.E. Discus 'Professional food today and observe the long term results. 

    
We approached C.E Fish Essential's a couple of months ago for a high quality feed for our breeding programme and after detailed conversation about our fish requirements and what we need from a food product we purchased some stock feed to try.

When it arrived it was still frozen and whilst putting it away in the freezer I decided to open one of the packs and try the fish on it to see if they liked it. I put the food in the tank whilst still frozen and noticed it sank straight away. This told me instantly that I had bought 100% fish food and not fish food with ice (as it is the frozen water in frozen food that causes the floating and not the food). As for the fish they went absolutely berserk over it, Mbuna and hap's alike. The way it is produced we found it is good for all size fish from two week old fry right through to large adult Hap's with no need to mess around breaking the food up for the smaller fish. 

We now use this food alongside our regular staple granule food and our fish seem to be thanking us for it.

We have mentioned C.E. Fish Essentials to some of our customers and they too are giving good report's back with their findings with this food.

The pigeon blood discus strain was developed by Thai discus breeder Kitti Phanaitthi in 1989. They were named after the rubies of the same name found within the Mokok Mine (Myanmar). This name was given by Kitti because some of the fish exhibited deep red coloured eyes. The strain was a result of crossing a unique Striped Turquoise male originally from Schmidt-Focke lineage (this fish was unusual with a golden base, violet stripes and black dusting 'peppering' all over). He had obtained this fish from a friend for ฿100,000 (Thai baht) which was approximately $3000 (U.S) and bred it with a Red Turquoise female (Schmidt-Focke) owned by Kitti himself.. 

Schmidt-Focke 'Red Turquoise' (Photo: Eberhard Schulze)

50% of the initial breeding resulted in Red Turquoise individuals and the other 50% were the Striped Turquoise. These individuals had the ‘pigeon blood’ phenotype from the father which included a lot of black spotting (peppering) on a pale orange / yellow base with noticeable yellow or occasionally red eyes.

The original Schmidt-Focke 'Striped Turquoise' strain still exists in the hobby today. This fish is owned by customer: Vasilios Riniotis of Greek Discus (Greece).

The true pigeon blood strain was never stabilised but many individuals were shipped worldwide and the gene was spread across the globe after Kitti exhibited the fish at Aquarama 1991 and these hence manifested in multiple locations. Pigeon blood types have been refined through selective breeding over many years by breeders around the world (including Kitti himself) who saw the value of this genetic mutation. Not only for the creation of new marketable strains but more specifically the removal of the dark pigment within the base colour allowed for accentuation of the pattern layer amongst many other possibilities.

The original Kitti Phanaitthi 'Pigeon Blood' strain (after considerable selective breeding to reduce the peppering)

One of the distinguishable aspects of the pigeon blood was the lack of ability to darken its appearance (e.g. during breeding) and the lack of vertical stress bars. These traits had been genetically disorganised to appear in the phenotype only as black spotting, but where present still active as the ‘mood indicator’ of the fish. In aquaria, the appearance of ‘peppering’ can be greatly reduced when housing these fish with a white background and substrate. Equally it can be increased somewhat in darker coloured environments as the fish attempts to adapt to its environment.

A badly 'peppered' example of a discus with the 'Pigeon' gene. 

Detailed information and further history on Kitti Phanaitthi and his Pigeon Blood strain as well as an insight into the breeders of the last 60 years can be found in Heiko Bleher’s book “Bleher’s Discus Volume 2" available exclusively in the U.K. only from C.E. Fish Essentials.

 
              Male (left)                           Female (right)
 

Gregory feeds all of his fish with C.E. Fish Essentials foods and varying dried foods. He finds that his Parancistrus Aurantiacus also enjoy stealing C.E. Discus Professional food from his discus fish and reject foods such as courgette. The ideal food for this species is C.E. Pleco Carnivore.

 

In the photo (above left)you see the male Parancistrus Aurantiacus guarding the fry. The photo (above right) shows how the caves are situated in the aquarium. interestingly these fish chose to breed in a higher cave on top of another. Previously, the male had also rejected some of the eggs which Gregory was able to save (see below). The fry are currently housed in an egg tumbler device which Gregory had to improvise and the first few fry have begun to hatch. 

   

We have uploaded a video to the C.E. Fish Essentials Youtube account to document this wonderful achievement by Gregory and would like to wish him the very best of luck! Congratulations from us here at C.E. Fish Essentials.

------------------- Update: 30.04.13 -----------------------

8 fry saved by Gregory are all doing well. No fry found in the cave.


------------------------- Update: 02.05.13 -----------------------

6 days old. Yolk sacks almost completely consumed. 


------------------------- Update: 04.05.13 -----------------------

8 days old.


------------------------- Update: 18.05.13 --------------------

14 days old


------------------------- Update: 23.05.13 --------------------

19 days old