Southwest Discus Arizona's Leading Discus Breeder and Importer
Southwest Discus Hatchery started back in 1990 while I was in the U.S Air Force. While growing up in my parent's home my father always had a fish tank here or there full of Arowanas and Wild Discus. The fish were nice but hard to maintain since in the early 1960's not much was known about these fabulous fish.
During my Air Force days, I spent eight years in Germany and would always see Discus in the German Pet stores. I didn't speak German to get much information about them, but on weekends I would travel to the pet stores just to look at them. They were so nice, and I told myself one of these days, I will get some.
Well, when I returned to the states I purchased my first 180 gallon aquarium and set out to find my first Discus. I found a fish magazine at the local grocery store and found a supplier. Well after saving my money I got those Discuses but unfortunately they were sick and didn't live very long. At the time I had limited internet access and most breeders kept what they knew about Discus a secret, except one person I found named Jim Quarles. Jim was a very nice guy and was full of information, but I had a long way to go before I could even think of doing what he had done in his lifetime. I am sorry to say Jim has left us, but he left me with some valuable information from emails sent back and forth.
After losing my first set of Discus I waited another year before getting some new ones and starting over. I did a lot of reading on Discus forums, buying what few books I could get my hands on and asking questions about Discus. My local pet store was no better than what I had gotten the first time. They were expensive, and trying to get a half decent looking Discus was difficult. Many Discus breeders offered/sold sick looking runts that were small for their age, and full of diseases.
In 2004, I started looking to import a few Discus on my own, and imported my first Asian Discus from Chai Discus Farm. I had another great importer get me some beautiful Blue Diamonds from Lee Tong Juan. Now my brother James and I decided to Import some Asian Discus from Lucky Tropical Fish Farm in Malaysia. We already have imported some Bulldog Leopards from them for our own use and have had a successful spawn from 2 pairs. Since we cannot breed all the Discus strains our local and internet customers want, we have chosen to import them. We will do this on a small scale to see how it works out, and if everything works out we should fill a void that exists. We will sell locally and direct to fellow hobbyists providing only the highest quality, healthy discus at affordable prices. All of our imports will be quarantined and treated for internal and external parasites even if they do not show any effects from parasites to insure quality, healthy Discus.
It is our goal to increase the awareness of Discus fish locally and through the internet. We will work hard to offer quality fish at affordable prices so local stores will quit importing junk. James and I will sell to and support all hobbyists who are interested in keeping our beautiful Discus.
The pictures you see on our site are pictures of Discus we offer for sale and some will be adults of our future breeders. These are representations of the Discus fish we have and similar to the ones you will get. You are welcome to visit and hand pick your discus. We need 48 hours notice that you would like to come by since we are not a retail store. Some pictures shown will be adult Discuses that have reached their full color; the younger ones take time to develop this color.
Thank you for taking the time to read about us.
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