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(1). Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Erwin Mursalim, I'm a Discus hobbyist and
also committee in the Klub Diskus Jakarta. I'm involved
in the Klub Diskus Jakarta (Discus Club Jakarta) as a
person in charge of research and contest. My main responsibility
is to do research in Discus and share the result of the
research with the members of the club. I'm also responsible
in organizing local Discus contest in Jakarta. We worked
closely with the fisheries department to promote Discus
in Indonesia and also help our breeders and members in
any way we can.
(2). When did the KDJ (Klub Diskus Jakarta) started ?
We started KDJ in the year 1999
(3). What are the events that KDJ have organized before
?
The Discus competition is a yearly events, this year
hopefully if everything goes well we will have one before
the end of the year. Other events that we do organized
are training, presentation and gathering, but this kind
of events are always done in parallel with the competition.
(4). Have you ever invited judges from other country for
the competition ?
Yes, we have invited Bing Seto (USA), Johhny Yip (Hong Kong), Kwan Koo Yen (Taiwan), Martin Ng (Malaysia), Kitty (Bangkok), Andry Souw (Singapore) and Chung Wy Shing (Hongkong) to judge our local competition.
(5). Can you tell us a bit more about the local discus competition ?
Our Discus competition is different compared to other
country because we use what we call an "OPEN COMPETITION"
philosophy, anybody and everybody can see the points given
to the fish and at the end of judging time the participants
are given the chance to discuss with the judges about
the points awarded to their fish if they are not satisfied.
We want to implement an open and fair competition, so
people will have the confidence and be satisfied with
the results. My ultimate goal is to implement a real time
system scoring system where the score are viewed by others
in real-time flat screen TV. This will allow people to
know what is going on in the judging stage in real time.
(6). What are the bad experiences you ever had when organizing a Discus contest ?
We ever had a bad experience with heater before, as you
know most of the time competitions are held in a closed
environment with air condition so each aquarium needs
a heater. One day before the competition 8 of the fish
were fried because of heater malfunction, the heater automatic
system was not working and the water become very hot and
killed all the 8 fish in different aquarium. Since that
incident the committee requires the participant to bring
brand new heater by themself. We just provide water, filter
and aeration.
(7).Do you visit Discus competition in other countries ?
Yes, I do visit Discus competition held in other South
East Asian countries, and I have made a lot of friends
along the way. We do exchange information and ideas with
them and sometimes there are members from other country
that come and visit us to learn more about the technique
that we used for breeding Discus, and also technique that
we used for judging competition.
The reason for this is because our breeders and hobbyist
are very active in breeding and they always find new ways
to breed and raise Discus, this is thanks to mother nature
that has provided us with abundance resources.
(8). Does the government help to promote Discus in Indonesia ?
Yes, just recently in the month of May we were the host
for the WORLD AQUACULTURE 2005 event, held in Bali. We
display Discus and other tropical fish so that people
knows about our Discus. The event was attended by participants
from 86 countries.
Besides that we do have the yearly ornamental fish exhibition
called "INDOFISH" where we exhibit Discus and
other ornamental fish breeders as well as exporters, this
is a National event.
(9). Since you have visited and see Discus competiting in competition in South East Asia countries, what do you think of the quality of the Discus that the breeders breed in Indonesia ?
Discus bred and raised by the local breeders are top
notch quality Discus. You will be surprised at how many
of the breeders have got Discus that are beyond the quality
you ever find in any competition. Most of the breeders
are very concerned when it comes to quality, as they understand
that Discus is not only a "commodity fish" it's a "quality
fish". Our breeders are educated people and they do lots
of research when it comes to breeding and raising Discus.
They are the kind of people that love to do a lot of
experimenting, and they will keep on doing that until
they get the quality of fish that they want. If you see
Indonesia is rich in freshwater fish and most of the breeders
learn the technique of breeding Discus from the experience
that they have breeding other fishes. Their accumulated
knowledge cannot be measured by any books available in
the market, because through this trial and error process
they manage to capture the best of the best knowledge
that are used until today to breed and raise Discus.
(10). Does the discus club produced any Discus
poster to the general public ?
Yes we do, in the year 2000 we released a Discus poster
that took us 4 months to produced. In it you will find
Discus that are bred by our breeders and also some unique
Discus that the breeders by chance got from their breeding
stock.
(11). Does the discus club has got any plans to write Discus
books ?
We do have a book that were supposed to be published
in the year 20001-2002, but due to some reason it was
not published. Hopefully we can get it published soon.
(12). You know all the breeders and hard core hobbyist Discus
in Indonesia by now, from the information that you gathered
since when did we start breeding Discus ?
Discus has been in Indonesia since 1950s, there are many
retired breeders that have been a professional breeder
during the 1960s and 1970s and they can tell you very
interesting stories about their Discus.
(13). What do you think is the most important thing that we must look for when selecting a judge for Discus competition ?
A judge must be a person who is very experienced in all
aspects of Discus and he/she must be neutral and objective
and open to critism, and most important that person must
not be subjective. In order to select head of judge complete
thorough background checking must be done prior to the
competition as this will determine the success or failure
of a competition.
(14). What do you think is needed
for the Klub Diskus Jakarta to move forward in the future
?
Government involvement is in the top of the list. With
their support we can be more than what we are now. The
government has got a campaign running and it's about introducing
pet fish to young children, with this campaign in place
hopefully it can help the new generations to be more involved
in Discus and also other ornamental fish.
(15). Have you ever been invited to be a judge in any competition outside Indonesia ?
Yes, I've been invited to judge an arowana competition in Taiwan in the year 2002.
I would like to thank Mr. Erwin
for taking time out of his busy schedule to contribute to
this website. He is a very resourceful and helpful person,
he doesn't mind talking to me about Discus for hours and
hours, he is what I coined as a "Discus Maniac".
His ideas and philosophy in Discus is truly amazing. Something
that I've learned during the interview is that a fish club
can only be successfull if the committee are totally neutral
and they have the same vision and mission. It takes dedication
and endless hours of communication between the committed
and members to really make the club worked. You need to
have passion in the hobby to run and manage a club, if you
don't have that then better not start a club and save your
time. Keep up the good work sir, and we are counting on
you for time to comes.
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