My Life by Andrew Soh

Here will we post Interviews with breeders and hobbyist from around the world.
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Matte_g
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My Life by Andrew Soh

Post by Matte_g » 17 Jan 2008, 21:00

When I was 19, a friend asked me to accompany him to see fish. He told me that we are going to a discus breeder’s home. “What is discus?” I asked. He told me “Very beautiful and big”…and in mandarin, discus is called ‘Rainbow or Seven Colors’ I remembered, on the way there, I was still asking, “You mean that discus has seven colors combination …wow?” He replied “No la, but is majestic, mesmerizing and the color is stunting” I was still pondering over how that fish could look like…seven colors… majestic…stunting color…really couldn’t form an image in my head…

Finally, we arrived at the breeder’s house. We went into the hall and I was a bit disappointed for I didn’t see any discus there. The owner led us to a bedroom, which he has converted into a discus room. The moment he opened the door, I immediately got stung by millions of bugs…the discus bugs!!!

I was totally stunted by the beauty and gracefulness of the discus…and the most amazing and mesmerizing scene that confronted me was 100 plus beelike-fry dancing and pricking on their parents. This is really a discovery journey of no return. I told myself “I must have them!!!”

But being young and with financial constrain, I reluctantly settled for 10 pieces of Brown discus that cost S$2.00 each over the Royal blues which were priced at S$20.00 each. Twenty dollars is a lot of money back in the 70’s. Anyway, that was how I got started with discus.

After a few years, I started working and visited an Aquarium shop every evening after work. I would sit in front of a pair of Adult Green discus for hours, observing their movement and study them. Sounded crazy, right? No, that was the pair I wanted to buy but it was too highly priced…@ S$2, 200.00…and my salary was only S$900.00 per month. Day after day, I patiently sat in front of the pair and once in a while negotiated with the owner to let it go for a lower price. Took about 2 months to come to a compromise and we finally settled @ a price of S$1600.00…my two months’ salary.

Happy that I got what I wanted, I set up a new small tank and placed it next to my television. Being budget tight and learning from ‘the experts’ that discus needs heater no matter what and so went to buy a cheap 150watt non-thermostat heater (thinking that the bigger the watt, the warmer and better). I was doing all I could to pamper them. I would switch on the heater early morning at about 6am and switch it off @ 8.00am before going to work and switch it on at 7pm and off at 9 pm. This is because I learned from past experience that warming the water stimulates appetite.

Saturday, four days after my purchase, my young niece of 8 came to my house early morning after I left for work. She played in my room and finally settled down to watch television. When I came back at 7pm, she was still watching but as I approached my new pair, I was shocked to see them floating on the surface. Oh gosh…they were dead. The heater was sharing the same plug with the television and once the television was on, so was the heater. I cried…but what can I do…lost S$1,600.00 (two months’ salary) in four days…down the drain. I was so reluctant to throw them away, I placed them in a plastic bag and kept them in the freezer for months. What an unforgettable experience!

In 1989, I turn this hobby into my main business known as Associates Aquarium Pte Ltd and in a few years, acquired a piece of 4.5 acres land to further my production in other ornamental fishes. Did lots of research in the farm and created the Koi swordtail, the first in the world. But before that, tried to mutate the Alencer discus into an Albino, but seeing no result from the offspring, sold all of them to a Hong Kong breeder. That was in 1991 and in 1995, the first Alencer Albino appeared in Hong Kong, 12 pieces only and these 12 pieces became the forefather of the modern Albino discus. Is there a relationship? I leave it to you.

I sold my farm back in 2006 because I wanted to stay in US with my son, who is reading Mathematics in Stanford University. But later, I changed plans and opened a small business here but it was a business misadventure…losing over a hundred thousand dollars in less than 6 months. Now, I am involved as a Regional Farming Consultant, flying in and out of Singapore, giving advices and giving talks and seminars and judging competitions. My company is known as ‘Aqua Innovate’. At the same time, I am selling books that I write…I am still writing my third book, which is a discus book, and selling my pro-products.

As to my hobby and leisure achievements, I have a lot. When I was 6 years old, I invented the battery-ran electric cooker. At that time, there was no electric cooker in Singapore, and when the girls (5 to 8 years old) were using branches to burn while playing ‘Kitchen’, I used my battery- cooker. Very advance in those days, but unfortunately wasn’t spotted by a company, if not, could have been a millionaire.

I was the best parachute jumper during the course back in the army. I was once a Commando and I know how to open locks without a key and played with bombs… he! he! he! I am a fairly good singer and during many of my Karaoke sessions, there will be girls (strangers) from another table asking me to sing with them. Even the boyfriends of some girls will ask me to sing duet with their girlfriends.

I also love shooting and have been a marksman for years…sometimes releasing 21 rounds yet got 22 rounds on target….hmmm...

Archery is one of my interests and also a family event. Of all the games, Bowling is a game I spent most of my time indulging. I used to go bowling seven times a week, have an average of 185 points and the highest score I ever got during a competition was 263 points in a single game.

I love eating and am very good at cooking. When I dine out and happen to find a particular dish that gives me the ohms, I will go back home and try to replicate the same dish/taste and invite all my relatives to try. I love to try out things that others claim are difficult. The more difficult the task, the stronger will be my drive to solve it. That’s a hobby too.

I have an inclination to the occult. I have the grand cross in both palms, a sign of psychic power. In fact, I learned palmistry at the age of 12 and now I am 53 as of 2008.

Hell driver? Yes, though I don’t do it now, as I am getting old, I used to car-speed @ 220km per hour on the Malaysia highway. Not a single car ever overtake or cut my path…ha!ha!ha!

Finally, one word sums up my character. I am a perfectionist. Whether in fish, in sex, in hobbies or in work, I strive to be the best. At one time, my attitude towards quality earned me a phrase in the discus market “If you want high quality discus with minimum deformity, go to Andrew. But if you want cheap discus, go elsewhere”

Even though I may not be good at it, I discovered my love for writing the moment I embarked on writing my first discus book, Discus, The Naked Truth. It is not the grammar or the language power, it is the opportunity to express and share with all readers my successes and failures, and the knowledge I have acquired through my life experiences and is truly a joy to disseminate information and knowledge I once held so close and dear to my heart.

I have also written a book on adult self-help, Thrusts That Last…writing my success story in solving a Global sexual problem in hope of helping those in need…which specialists and therapists up-to-date are unable to solve. 65% to 75% people globally are in that category. Isn’t this book unrelated to my trade, fishes? Yes, I may not have a degree in car mechanics and engineering, but I am successful on the wheel and am definitely qualified to teach you how to drive!!! One thing you can be sure. I don’t write a book just for fame or for money. I write because my information works.

What should be the direction of the discus hobby?
We should be willing to embrace the fact that domesticate discus or the tank-bred discus are getting more vibrant and exotic. Adding in wild gene pool is a good option but not necessarily a must. The fear of too much inbreeding seems to worry many a hobbyists but I would like to believe that the many crossings among different phenotypes have maintained a fairly good genetic vigor among strains and is still far away from possible genetic degeneration or inbreed syndrome.

The market needs new varieties to boost the market and to sustain the trade. Without injection of new strain, the discus trade will keep on moving towards the downward trend.

So, to hobbyists all over the world, don’t just keep discus for the sake of keeping. Take up the challenge and create a new phenotype that you can call your own…a phenotype that the discus world would thank you for!!!
Andrew Soh

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