My name is Rusli sometimes my friends jokingly call me "Mr.Spotted" because I'm breeding mostly Spotted type Discus. Besides spotted I also breed Red Turquoise

I started keeping discus in the late 1980s when I was studying in high school. My first encounter with discus was when I visited the local aquarium store, I thought they were marine fishes. After finding information about the fish I was attracted to it since then. That's how the whole journey begins.

I started breeding discus for the first time in 1998. During that time, I didn’t know many discus hobbyists here in Indonesia and my only source was the local aquarium stores. I bought around 10 pieces of red turquoise and after some time, I realized a pair started to form as they are by themself in one corner of the aquarium I was very excited and bought another tank to house the pair. From this pair I did not get many fries, as I was pretty new in breeding them. The obstacles I came across for the first time when I start breeding was rotten eggs.

The most unforgettable time was the first time when I saw my pair laying eggs, they were swimming up and down and it was very interesting to see this kind of breeding It was so amazing!

Right now I have around 15 pairs of Red Spotted Green, Leopard and Red Turquoise, I don't have other strains as I’m focusing mainly on the spotted breed.

I don't do any special preparation for my breeding stocks. I put them into the community tanks after they lay eggs for 3 times. They will be rested for 2-3 weeks before start breeding again. I just use normal tap water that have been aerated for 24 hours.

All of my fries grow up at pH of 7.5 - 8.3

I've bred Marlboro, Pigeon Blood, White Diamond, Blue Diamond, Wild Red Spotted Green, Heckel and many more. However, among all these, RSG is the most interesting one.

My interest got intriged in breeding wild when I bought male wild RSG from a local importer back in 1999. I didn't expect that I would be able to breed it but boy was I wrong or what, the RSGs laid eggs after 2 weeks. I mated the wild RSG (male) with a Fineline Golden Snakeskin (Female). Ever since that, I've just focused on the spotted strains.

My spotted discus have reached F4 generation. I've managed to improve my spotted discus quality in terms of colors, size and spots better in every generations.

For now I just want to focus on my spotted discus but I have bigger plans in the future to breed arowana too, as I have quite an experience in arowana. Hopefully in the middle term I can breed another African fish called aba aba (GYMNARCHUS NILOTICUS) which I found very interesting and exotic.

For my juvenile fishes I just feed bloodworms for 3 - 4 times daily and once every week I feed them with beefheart mix to pump more protein into their body.

I feed them the same as what I'm feeding my juvenille and also I feed them Tetra Bits

The most common diseases are Velvet and White feces. To treat for Velvet I usually use salt and heater and it will be gone in 2 - 3 days time. For white feces I use metronidazole tablets mix into the water and into the bloodworm too so that the fish can digest it directly into their stomach. Usually it will take about 5 - 7 days before it's totally cured.

I use mainly tap water that runs through my carbon and sand filter before entering into my storage tank. The filtered water will be in the storage tank with heavy aeration for 24 hours before going into the discus tanks.