The interview of Sun See Seng, Trophy Discus , part 1

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Dizkuz
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The interview of Sun See Seng, Trophy Discus , part 1

Post by Dizkuz » 26 Feb 2008, 17:53

The interview of Sun See Seng

Dr Sun,

1)I'd like to thank you for taking the time to participate here in our interviews on Diskusforum.se. Maybe we should start with a little background on you.. What do you do for a living?

I work as a Family Physician in Singapore for about 30 years, so from this you guys should roughly know my age. Ok, here the exact age … 59 years! So you see, very old already, but still keeping Discus! Still doing my daily water change, and it is actually a good form of exercise for me!



2)When did you first get involved in Discus? Any memories you want to share?


Ever since I was very young, I have always love fishes. It’s strange as I don’t come from a family of fish farmer, but somehow, fish-keeping have been the main hobby for most of my brothers. My sisters … no, no ….. they can’t stand the fishy smell from the aquariums.

During my school days, I used to frequent the fish shops and browsing around the fish tanks. We used to have a whole row of shop houses, about 6 to 7 units doing the ornamental fish business. After school, I would take a bus to my favourite haunt and browse around the fish tanks one shop after another. Fishes were very expensive then to a small school boy like me! However, after saving enough from my recess money, I would get my hands on those fishes that appealed to me! I remember one day, I brought a pair of bettas to school. I hid them inside the desk, and when the teacher was not looking, I would quietly lift up the desk-cover to peek at them. Unfortunately, was ultimately caught and sent off the class room!

3) Do you have any other hobbies besides fish Keeping?


Haha, I love football! Used to play for my class in school, that’s all! However, was never up to the school standard. Presently, enjoy watching the English Premier league every weekend, when I am not indulging on my other past- time, Mahjong! I am a Arsenal supporter!
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4) I know you work with Discus competitions, can you tell us little about that and what your part in it, and how you guys look at in judging a discus? How does the process work in giving points to the discus in the competition?


Haha, maybe our club can claim the credit for organizing the most discus competitions in the world. My club have been running a National discus competition annually for the past 10 years! In addition, we had also organized two International competitions, the latest being the Tetra World Discus competition in November, 2006. We have also co-organized the discus competitions bi-annually during Aquarama. So you see, actually quite an achievement! But, honestly, these activities could not be done without a good support from my club members and that’s extremely important.
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Singapore 1st International Discus Competition



Over the years, we have developed a system for the Judging criteria.

In order to have a fair system, the Classes (or Category) of discus for the competition must be clearly defined. That’s crucial because the whole judging criteria is based entirely on how you class the discus.


Marks are given to deportment, size, shape, body pattern and colour.

Deportment and the external appearance of the discus take up about 20% of the total marks. From this, you can appreciate that a fish (in our case, discus) must be able to perform and carry itself well in the brightly lighted tank. This is important because they need to catch the eyes of the judges for them to proceed to the next round.


In the second round of judging, the discus are marked according to their individual beauty, and those with deformities are penalized!

Maybe, I shall post separately the judging criteria that we use in our competitions. But, essentially what the judges look for are based on the external appearance (or phenotype) of the fish.




5) You where in involved of making the book Trophy Discus with Dick Au (USA), Dr Francesco Denitto (Italy), tell us little about this project and what you guys thought you want to give to the readers and how this book come in mind.


After the Tetra World Discus competition in November 2006, Disk Au thought that there was something missing from his perception of the discus competition! Dick Au and Francesco Denitto were two of the international judges we invited for the TWDC.
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We decided then that we needed to produce a book that is able to tell the hobbyists the judging criteria in discus competitions, in order that they may be better prepared with their fishes. We thought that it would be interesting and worthwhile for the people to buy the books if we were to also tell them the different aspects of Discus genetics as well as the strains of discus needed to create new varieties. This aspect is important as most new hobbyists do not have the required knowledge of discus genetics, and we were hopeful that we could share our knowledge with them.


The whole project would not have happened if we do not have the internet facilities. Imagine, the three of us coming from three different continents of the world, namely Dick Au (United State), Francesco (Italy, Europe) and myself ( Singapore, a tiny dot in the map of the world in South East Asia) We started by setting a dateline, hoping to launch the book at Aquarma 2007. So, over the course of 2 months … we wrote the book by emailing to each other our assigned chapters and corresponding on a daily basis via the internet.


From the very beginning, we had a common understanding and that was the publication of the book should not be used for monetary gain! We printed 5000 copies world-wide, with the help of Dr Ad Koning from Cichlid Press. One year since its publication, the three of us had just managed to recover our capital outlays, but true to our original intention, no profit at all. However, I think the three of us had enjoyed tremendously the challenges that came with the publication and the fact that the project had in a way, brought our friendships to a higher level. That was the main satisfaction.


6) What lines of fish are you working with now? Do you have any breeding pairs set up?
Any favorite strain?


Currently, I am working with the Golden Leopard snakeskin, and the albinos. Somehow, I have a weakness for these golden varieties of discus, and find it challenging to work with recessive strains. They are slow growers and they do fall sick easily! So, it is a constant challenge to give them the best care and the cleanest water.





A pair of albino turquoise
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Golden Leopard
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No end to Karma, so we should be very careful about our actions
Poff!

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