Mike has spent the last 8 years breeding, showing and importing world class Discus and is currently in a partnership with Jeffrey Yang of “Fish Trade Zone” in Malaysia.  Mike and Jeffrey are working  together  to import the latest strains out of the Asian market.  Mike currently imports and stocks one of the largest selections of quality Discus in the North American Market.   He has been in the hobby on and off for over 40 years and enjoys every minute of it.

Mike is sponsored by Randy Thomas

Tony Silva has been an aquarist for nearly 40 years. He has been involved with discus for almost 35 years.

Antonio Silva

During this time, Tony has collected and studied discus in their habitat in Brazil, Peru and Colombia and even discovered an introduced population in Ecuador. He has visited countries from Europe to Australia and Asia to Morocco to visit discus breeders. He has met and learned from all the old time discus exporters, including the now forgotten Rafael Wandurraga and Mike Tsalikis of Colombia and Willi Schwartz of Brazil. He obtained discus as a youngster from Jack Wattley and learned to raise the fry artificially from Harry Matson and Carol Friswold, the latter the pioneer of raising discus artificially on dried egg yolk. Tony wrote the Discus in Depth column for Freshwater And Marine Aquarium (FAMA) magazine from 2005 to 2009

After his time of military service in the German air force he bought an aquarium containing 750 liters and started to breed fish. At the age of 25 he married Helga who had the same interest in ornamental fish. Then Dieter started to study fish diseases and to examine fish health. He wrote two books, Handbook of Fish Diseases and Discus Health.

After their two children were grown up they started professional breeding of Discus and now have about 70 aquariums between 100 and 1200 liters. They are planning on expanding to 90 aquariums in the near future.

During the last 15 years, Dieter has published more than 100 articles in several languages. He has produced four films about fish healt, microscopy, and fish diseases. Since 1995 Dieter has been employed for the Sera Company as seminar manager. His functions are to orginize seminars and make lectures, produce video films and to write articles for aquaristic magazines and the Sera News.

In 1990, Dieter was elected “Consultant of Fish Disease” of the VDA, the German association of aquarist with 25,000 members. At the same time he became the scientific leader of the “Study-group of fish diseases” in the VDA.

During the years of 1980 and 1984 Dieter received 8 awards for microscopical photography from the “Association of German Biologist”. Dieter has been a member of this association since 1982. In 1994 Dieter became a member of the “European Association of Fish Pathologist”.

Andrew Soh - author

 Andrew has been recognized in the Discus world as a problem solver. Has written two books, Discus, the Naked Truth, well-received by readers all over the world and the second, Discus Problems And Solutions, a book that tries to solve as many modern issues pertaining to discus of today and also to disseminate as much as possible all that he had learned, failed and succeeded during his years in the ornamental industry.

  A simple love for discus that sprouted at the age of nineteen, this love has lead him to venture commercially and since then, had spent more than twenty years in the ornamental fish-breeding import and export industry. Now, at an age of 56 and with more than twenty years of commercial indulgence in the industry behind him, he is now a regional ornamental fish consultant. The scope not only covers in-situ trouble-shooting or disease-related issues but also that of farm-design and supply of pathogen-free live-bearers and brooder-stocks. He also created a small range of fish supplements to enhance growth and productivity.

Andrew Soh is being Sponsored by Eddie Yabarra

Dick Au with Al Sabetta of SimplyDiscus.com

 Dick Au has been an active aquarist and discus enthusiast for over 50 years. He credits his ongoing success in raising and breeding beautiful discus to keen observation, patience, and practice rather than relying on measurements and formulae.

 In addition to being a veteran speaker and show judge, he is also an accomplished author. His book, “Back to nature-Guide to Discus” has been published in 7 languages and distributed around the world. He also contributes frequently to various aquarium magazines.

Solid – Sponsored by Delightful Designs Discus Cones

Fine Line Striated – Sponsored by Pat Husband and Tara Bennett

Thick Line Striated – Sponsored by Kingdom Come Discus Haven

Spotted – Sponsored by Francis

Wild – Sponsored by New Jersey Discus

Open – Sponsored by John’s Discus

Best In Show – Sponsored by Randy Thomas

Peoples Choice Award – Sponsored by New Jersey Discus

Bred by Exibitor – Sponsored by Larry Matincheck and Roberto Munoz

To sponsor a speaker or other event please email show@discusnada.org.

Discus will be judged by the following criteria:

Speakers –We are very fortunate to have a distinguished list of speakers and topics for this show:

Andrew Soh – TBA

Dick Au – TBA

Dieter Uttergasser - TBA

Tom Waltzek – TBA

Mike Beals – TBA

Tony Silva – TBA

Scheduled Speakers subject to change and substitutions without notice.

Thursday June 21st 8am-3pm: Set up show tanks

Thursday June 21st 3pm-10pm: Tanks available for show fish

Friday June 22nd 8:00am – 1:00 pm: Special session

Friday June 22nd 7:30pm – 9:00 pm:  Session 1

Friday June 22nd 9:30pm – 11:00pm:  Session 2

Saturday June 23rd 8:00am – 9:30am:  Session 3

Saturday June 23rd 10:00am - 11:30am:  Session 4

Saturday June 23rd 12:00 – 2:00pm: Lunch

Saturday June 23rd 2:00pm – 4:00pm:  Session 5 -  Q&A Roundtable

Saturday June 23rd 4:30pm – 6:00pm:  Session 6

Saturday June 23rd 7:00pm:  Banquet

Sunday June 24th 10:00am: NADA Benefit Auction

Sunday June 24th Show fish out of tanks by 9am.

Awards Banquet – TBA

The Special Host Emcee is – TBA

Discus Show –Entry classes include Solid, Fine Line Striated, Thick Line Striated, Spotted, Wild, Open plus Best In Show, Peoples Choice and Bred By Exibitor Awards.

Auction –Sunday June 24th 10am until all items are sold.