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REPORT FROM DUISBURG 2008
Premises were not the best: when we arrived in Duisburg at the Landschaftspark about at 12:30 on Tuesday, I went to the reception of fishes for competition and I spoke with the person in charge. He checked his membership list to assign us tanks but ...… there was not our name!!!
So I showed him the copy of the registration form and he, first watched me and then said “ I’m sorry but all tanks are busy”.
In that moment I had a lot of worry in my head: “I have 5 discus and I am 890 Km away from home what I can do now?” ... “ Where do I put them?”... “I have to come back to Lainate?”
I started to get angry....
Luckily a few days earlier I had just spoken with that man and he confirmed me that the inscription was arrived and that everything was ok. For that reason he immediately tried a place also for our fishes: the difficult was to combine any vacancies with the categories of fishes.
He was able to find 3 vacancies: one for the Pigeon, one for the Red Turquoise and one for the Red Melon. For the other fishes, two White & Red Leopard, we had to wait until 6 p.m., hoping that someone would not arrive to the championship.
After a fast dinner and after being in the hotel, Marco and me came back to the exhibition were, luckily, the person in charge told us that had freed two places and so we were able to put the other two fishes in tanks... mission possible!!!
Now, I was more comfortable and I could do a tour of the tanks. I noted that the quality of discus was higher than that of the last two editions especially the quality of breeded discus.
Generally Stripe Turquoise were beautiful, I appreciated very much a Snake Skin Blue with a perfect shape and with the ruby eye (a very difficult feature of this variety).
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The beautiful Snake Skin Blue
Solid Turquoise were not very much in the competition, and this fact show a lower quality in breeding of these varieties in the recent years (who does not remember, however, the fantastic Blue Diamond who won the Best in Show three editions ago?).
Red Turquoise were all of good quality, but this is normal because Germany is the motherland of this variety!
Red Turquoise third place
My favorite category was that of Red: fishes of Yang were very beautiful.
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I spent a lot of time in front of tank n° 210 and I appreciated this beautiful fish with perfect shape, eye and fins, and with a colour intensity that I newer had seen before. Scales were very small, this gives to the fish a red velvet effect that really impressed me: in my opinion this was the most beautiful fish in the competition.
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This is the discus that impressed me the most
The Open Solid Class, was specifically introduced in order to win an Albino Blue Diamond (and so it happened!!!) it don’t impressed me very much.
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Blue Diamond albino are very popular in Asia but I don’t like them so much
In Open Stripped-Spotted category there are a lot of fishes: 57 exemplaries that are very interesting to estimate for their future cross. The Snake Skin Golden Spotted (third place) is very beautiful: his pattern is made up of very small spot that never come together in lines.
Is fantastic the spotted pattern of this fish!
Ring Leopard has a beautiful pattern with a very clear contrast of colours: it is very difficult to obtain this variety, in fact, maybe, this is the only real Ring in all the competition, and so, even if it has not a perfect eye and a right size, it won the award for Best in the Show.
The Best in the Show: a rare example of Ring Leopard
Continua >>>
Pigeon category is the second for the number of fishes in the competition (40) and it has a good quality level, but I don’t want to say anymore, cause results obtained!!!
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Pigeon Blood, in order, third and second place
For the first time I note in Spotted Red category an high quality level: there are a lot of exemplaries very spotted on the body and on gill. Very beautiful are fishes of Suel-Yang Yi that have a very deep red base and a pattern that is similar to a thick blue spider web on all the body. Unfortunately the eye is not red.
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The color base and the pattern are very beautiful, maybe it has a few spots, but this is a good discus
Good standard have also Wild Blue and Brown. Wild Green have a beautiful color but not an excellent shape (characteristic of this species): I liked Heckel. Wild Discus suffer greatly during these competitions and for this reason, are often not the most beautiful examples to win but only those who at the time of judgment show the more intense color and are of larger size.
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Wild Green winner in his category
We spent the next day at the fair, where this year we met a large number of Italian fans, and between Germany and Holland to visit our customers.
Like all other editions, the more visitors come to the Show especially on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. There are a lot of stand dedicated to Discus with Asian and European breeders; other are reserved for Crustaceans (a new trend in Germany), and other stands are dedicated to the general aquarium, where animals and accessories are sold cheaply.
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And now the most exciting moment in the Show: the prize giving.
We had a strong desire to win some award, also to ensure ourself that our work was going in the right direction… but we did not expect the result that we obtained.
First results arrive for the Red Turquoise category, where we don’t have many possibilities cause the beauty of the other fishes in competition.
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Our Red Turquoise: born of a Wild Blue and a German Red Turquoise
In Red category we have not chance: discus of Yang have a superior quality to our Red Melon (that arrive at sixth place).
Our Red Melon female of 12 months old
There is some little hope for White & Red Leopard, we work on this variety for more than 3 years and now we hope for a good result. But it don’t arrive: our fishes have a bit out of proportion and a little red eye.
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Our White & Red Leopard: their eyes are, unfotunately, a little red
We are arriving to the last chance. Mr Degen is talking about Pigeon category: we start to hope when he say that this year the winner is an European breeder for a category where usually excel Asians. We are the only Italian breeder in competition for this category and, when the Mameli hymn start to play, our hope became reality. We have a scream of happiness. Antonello, almost in tears, go on stage to receive the award and I try to make space for myself among people to make some photographs to capture this important moment: winner in Pigeon category with a fish born and raised in our breeding.
What can I say…. This win is for us a confirmation of what we hoped and that our work is going in the right direction and maybe…. step by step…. someday…. We will reach the Asian giants!
We were rewarded for the variety for which we are selecting to more of than 10 years. This is the evidence that only the time can give good results in breeding of this beautiful fish.
I would like to thank all the people who supported us and our work, both in hard times than in those happy, and that gave us the strength to continue this dream.
congratulations to Lorenzo Vecchio and Giuseppe Paolino for their third places in Wild Brown and Solid Blue category, and also congratulations to the other Italians who have participated to the competition.
Andrea Sassi
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.jpg "La premiazione, Antonello Greco")
