Europe’s biggest hatchery

THE BIG DISCUS

FISH BOOK
Europe’s biggest hatchery

Europe’s biggest
hatchery
Christian Homrighausen

Europe’s biggest hatchery is located

in Warendorf, Germany. The company
is over 40 years old and is now being
run in the 2nd generation.
European hatcheries differ widely from
their counterparts in Southeast Asia.
Conditions in European hatcheries
are fundamentally different and, in
fact, they are necessarily so. Just as
in Asia, only captive bred discus fish
are bred here in Europe. This means
that the hatcheries do not produce
pure breeds from discus fish caught
in the wild. This is primarily because
a significant market for small-sized
discuses, caught in the wild, has not
yet developed, despite the fact that
this would be an interesting prospect.
In part it is also due to the fact that
discus fish caught in the wild take a
very long time to fully develop their
colouration. Only at six months of
age do the juvenile fish begin to show
any colours and they only become
truly spectacular to look at after a
year or more. For example, Curipera
captive breeds, which are meant to
be a strong reddish-brown colour,
cannot be successfully marketed
as greyish-brown juvenile fish, 6 cm
in size. So, large hatcheries must
pursue other avenues, in order to
remain competitive on today’s global
market.
Europe’s biggest hatchery

In such an enormous-sized hatchery, hygienic condi-

tions are of prime importance. Outbreaks of disease
would have disastrous results, because within a
very short time, thousands of discus fish could be-
come infected. The hatchery’s staff has been trained
accordingly.
As fish are shipped from the hatchery throughout the
week, constant sorting is necessary. Fish need to be
caught, transferred to other aquariums, or prepared
for shipping. The hatchery’s staff always controls the
size and quality of each fish, every time it is caught/
transferred.
On the left page, you can see a staff member car-
rying out these controls. He is using three aquari-
ums, so that he can take the juvenile fish from the
middle aquarium and transfer them to the right or left
aquarium, according to certain criteria. Sometimes
it is necessary to control the fishes’ size, in order to
achieve steady growth.
By examining the photo above of a group of red dis-
cus fish, it is easy to see that all the fish in this aqua-
rium are roughly the same size.
This continuous selection process guarantees con-
sistent quality standards. Also, fish that are required
for breeding purposes can always be selected using
this process.
And this is how such superbly marked discuses, like
the show fish in this photo, are selected to stay in the
hatchery, to further raise the breeding quality.
Europe’s biggest hatchery
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

The Stendker family has many

years of experience in breeding
discus fish. And obviously,
anyone who manages to
establish a hatchery of this
size, and to be unrivalled in
Europe, must have significant
experience in this field. Seven
days a week and 365 days a
year, control rounds are carried
out. Each aquarium must be
inspected, as often only an
expert can tell if something is
amiss. Once you know your
aquarium and your fish well,
however, you will develop a
good eye for this. At home,
you will no doubt also notice
if something is wrong in your
discus aquarium. In terms of
technology, the hatchery’s
aquariums are kept as simple as
possible. As you can see from
the photos, the water supply is
well visible at the front of each
aquarium. The outlet pipes are
also installed in front of the
aquariums. While this doesn’t
look all that pretty, it is very
practical – and that’s what’s
most important in a hatchery.
It simply wouldn’t be viable to
need to carry out complicated
maintenance procedures
behind the aquaria. Because
of the high stocking densities, it
is vital that the water circulates
constantly and fresh oxygen is
continuously supplied. Each
aquarium also has an air supply
via an aeration stone. As the
hatchery sells large discus
fish as well as discus fish of
all sizes, all year round, the
aquaria are always pretty full.
A red washing peg clamped
to the edge of the aquarium
indicates that no fish are to
be sold from this aquarium
at present. Usually this is
for breeding purposes, e.g.
because some distinctively
marked fish are to be selected
for breeding in the hatchery.
It goes without saying that
only discus fish of the highest
quality are used for breeding
and that only superb fish,
as in the photos on the left,
are chosen for this purpose.
Europe’s biggest hatchery

Discus fish colours are subject to fashion trends. Sometimes

fish with red spots are more in demand, other times discuses
with solid colours are “in” or “out”. Currently, discus fish with
an abundance of red spots are especially popular. This colour
variety has been in demand for several years now and it’s
these red spotted fish that are currently winning all the discus
fish championships.
A lovely breeding pair of this colour variety can be seen in the
photo above. It is important that truly the entire body of the
fish is decorated with this pattern. Such fish then “breed true”
and the offspring inherit the fixed trait from their parents and
look identical to the parents. This too is very important for a
hatchery, because if half of the juvenile fish are a different or
a weaker colour, they are very difficult to sell.
By crossing in Asian pigeon blood varieties approximately 10
years ago, it was possible to create a number of new colour
varieties that today are an integral part of the company’s
price list. On the internet, you can see which colours
are currently popular. Simply enter the terms “Stendker”
and “discus hatchery” in any search engine. Classic Red
Turquoise discus fish continue to be popular, even though
sales have decreased from the time when they were at
their most popular. The photo on the right shows a group of
superb Blue Pigeon Bloods.
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

One reason for the hatchery’s in building 1 never enter buildings which are truly larger in size.
longstanding success is surely that 2 or 3, for example. Also, visitors Approximately 450 discus pairs
the newest Asian colourations are are not allowed in the hatchery, for breed in the hatchery at any given
immediately bred here too. However, the same, practical reasons. The time. A total of approximately
when discus fish are bought from hatchery breeds fish exclusively 200,000 discus fish populate the
elsewhere for breeding purposes, for specialist (retail) pet shops. The hatchery’s aquariums, of which
they need to be subjected to a very discus fish are sold all over Europe around 15,000 are fully-grown.
rigorous and lengthy quarantine and are even supplied to individual Fish of all sizes are available for
process. It is vital that the risk of retailers all around the world. purchase – starting at 5cm in
introducing disease into such an Retailers can only select and order diameter and going right through
enormous hatchery be reduced to the fish via the company’s price list. to jumbo-sizes of around 20cm.
nil right from the outset, because Shipping is carried out via express To be able to breed such numbers
if a disease were to break out, the delivery and/ or airplane. While at high standards of quality, it is
entire hatchery would be affected. retailers in the region are able to vital to have practical working
This is also one of the reasons collect their orders, they cannot procedures. So, each building is
why the hatchery’s five breeding access the breeding buildings, but equipped with a number of different
buildings (halls for breeding pairs can only collect their packaged water circulation systems. Firstly,
and for raising juvenile fish) are discus fish from the company’s there is one water system with
completely separate from one shipping area. Thanks to these water for the breeding discus pairs.
another. There are absolutely no measures, the hatchery is entirely Then there is a water system for
joint water connections between free of any ill or diseased discus fish. rearing juvenile fish, which has
the five separate buildings. In fact, The sheer enormous number a general hardness of 15° dGH.
even five separate staff crews of discus fish that swim in the
are deployed for these buildings. hatchery’s aquariums is staggering
In practice, this means that and, even in Southern Asia,
staff members who work there are scarcely any hatcheries
Europe’s biggest hatchery

Around twenty years ago, when the Blue Diamond

discus fish arrived in Europe from Hong Kong (and
yes, time flies – it really was that long ago) they
caused a lot of excitement. Finally, solid turquoise
blue coloured discus fish without any stripes
were available – brilliant. Above all, these Blue
Diamonds no longer had the nine dark vertical
stripes – they had simply been bred out. Initially,
attempts to breed these fish outside of Hong Kong
failed. After a while, the Blue Diamond became
available in small numbers in some countries.
Today, all large hatcheries are able to supply Blue
Diamond discus fish. However, there are great
differences in quality. One difficulty is the bright
turquoise colouring – it is especially important that
this colouring is brilliant towards the middle of the
fish’s body. And ideally, these fish should have red-
coloured eyes. However, many of these fish are
still being sold with yellow-coloured eyes, which
looks far less appealing. In the Stendker hatchery,
Blue Diamonds are bred with red eyes and intense
turquoise colouring, as the photos show. Because
Blue Diamonds are often a little smaller than
expected when fully grown, selective breeding is
very important.
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

Once small juvenile fish are Thanks to the staff’s considerable Small nauplii of the Artemia brine
separated from their parents, they experience, this seems to be shrimp are fed additionally, as soon
are slowly acclimatised to harder successful in about 99 per cent as the larvae begin to swim. So that
water and higher pH levels, over a of cases. As a result of numerous the large number of staff members,
period of approximately four weeks. improvements in the hatchery in including temporary staff, are able
Using this harder water with neutral recent years, the number of juvenile to tell which discus pairs are caring
pH values is of great advantage for fish generated per breeding discus for a brood and should be fed with
the eventual customers and owners, pair has nearly doubled. The record brine shrimp, these aquariums are
as their fish will be accustomed to stands at 425 fish larvae, produced fitted with a yellow-coloured clothes
normal tap water. by a breeding pair, however, this peg as a marker. A red clothes peg
As regards the selection of breeding remains a rare exception. is a marker which indicates: “Stop!
pairs, the hatchery says that they do Artificial breeding methods are not Do not clean aquarium panes as the
not have a special mating procedure. used in the hatchery. Brood care, fish have spawned on the glass!”
Two suitable discus fish are simply even for particularly tricky colour A few drops of methylene blue helps
placed in an aquarium together. If varieties like red discuses, goes protect the fish eggs against fungus.
they spawn, then that’s great, if they smoothly. For these varieties it is To prevent the methylene blue from
don’t, they are simply separated important that no dark-coloured ob- spreading throughout the entire
again. Particularly striking discuses jects are present in the aquarium, aquarium, however, a transparent
are given a second chance to breed as otherwise the fish larvae would acrylic tube is first placed over/
with another partner. The hatchery’s confuse these objects with the pa- around the spawning cone.
staff is confident of always being rent fish and attach to these objects
able to correctly combine one male instead. This, then, could result in
and one female discus fish for the loss of the entire fry.
breeding.
Europe’s biggest hatchery
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

One aquarium alongside the next. Endless rows,

with thousands of discus fish. It’s impressive to
see hundreds of small plastic aquariums lining
the shelves. The small aquariums make it easy to
surround the juvenile discus fish with feed. On the
left page you can see that each aquarium is equipped
with an air hose and a water hose, suspended from
above. Filtered water permanently flows into the
aquarium from above, and the same amount of water
flows out via an overflow pipe, into a collective filter.
This creates a closed filter circuit with a constant
water supply, which is ideal for rearing juvenile fish.
The photo on the bottom left give an impression
of a breeding area in the hatchery. Here, breeding
pairs are kept in the upper aquariums and in the
aquariums below, juvenile fish are reared. Only a
single row of breeding aquariums is placed at eye
level in each aisle, so that the breeding discus pairs
are easier to monitor. The lower aquariums are
harder to inspect. Here too, a thin stream of fresh
water flows into the aquariums from above and later
flows out of the aquarium again via the external
outlet pipes. Specially treated water is used for the
breeding aquariums.
Europe’s biggest hatchery

All of the discus fish in the hatchery are given the same feed. The same coarseness and texture of feed (i.e. the size
of the feed particles) is fed to all of the fish. This means, that the self-manufactured feed paste is equally suitable
for red, blue, brown and green discus fish. It is also equally suitable for two week old, two month old or two year old
discus fish. In the hatchery, the fish all eat the same feed. The main ingredient of the self-manufactured feed paste
is desinewed beAef heart. With the hatchery’s large number of discus fish, a total of around 90 beef hearts are fed
daily. This makes the hatchery a bulk purchaser at the local abattoir. Adjacent to the hatchery’s freezer cell is the feed

preparation room, where the fat

and sinew is removed from the
beef hearts. Then, a machine
chops the hearts into pieces of
the required sized. These feed
pieces are quite small and,
accordingly, the feed spreads out
quite strongly in the aquarium
water. The large number of
discus fish that greedily devour
the feed paste manages to find
almost every last scrap of feed,
so that hardly any traces of beef
heart end up in the hatchery’s
filters. Vitamins and special feed
supplements are added to the
feed mix and these supplements
are a “company secret”, so to
speak. Additionally, scalded
Cyclopes are also added.
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

Thanks to this acrylic piping, the

eggs are practically in their own mini-
aquarium, inside of their parent’s larger
aquarium. This is one of the many
“tricks of the trade” that the hatchery
has developed, thanks to many years
of experience. It’s nice that the hatchery
was not “secretive” about such tricks of
the trade, on our visit.
The hatchery has a very specific system
for rearing the juvenile fish, which is
always strictly adhered to. Immediately
after the juvenile fish are separated from
their parents, they are place in small
aquariums, stocking 50 juvenile fish
each. These aquaria stand in shelves
and can easily be moved to a work bench
for maintenance and care tasks, or for
selecting and sorting the fish. Water and
air supply hoses are suspended from
above and these hoses are bendable,
so that the aquariums are easy to
access and move. Each aquarium also
has an overflow pipe, which is affixed to
the back of the aquarium with adhesive.
This overflow pipe only extends slightly
over the aquarium’s edge and the water
simply runs off, down into a large filtration
aquarium. Thanks to this system, the
water in the small aquariums, used
to rear the juvenile fish, is exchanged
approximately once every 20 minutes.
This rapid rate of water renewal is very
advantageous for the little discus fish
and they thrive accordingly and grow
quickly. In fact, filtration is generally a
very important factor for the hatchery. In
this regard, German hatcheries are at
a big disadvantage compared to Asian
hatcheries. For one thing, all of the
hatchery’s water needs to be heated to
tropical temperatures – and that is a vast
amount of water. Also, the water needs
to be reused for as long as possible.
Many Asian hatcheries simply dispose of
up to 90 % of their water, when carrying
out water changes, replacing it with
fresh tap water. This lavish approach
to water usage is no longer sustainable
in Europe. In the hatchery’s various
filtration circuits, only blue filter mats
are used, in the coarsest foam grade
of 30 PPI. In some of the hatchery’s
aquariums, individual foam filters have
been in use for up to 20 years. Thanks
to the coarse porosity and the large
volume, the filters’ performance capacity
(i.e. ability to break down pollutants) and
filter service life are at a maximum.
Europe’s biggest hatchery

Cyclopes are small Copepods, which live in our waterways.

It is possible to catch Cyclopes in lakes, for example. Like all
crustaceans, they are an excellent and nutritious source of
feed for fish. However, as Cyclopes can pass on tapeworm
cysts, they are briefly scalded with boiling water before being
added to the feed-mix. In the hatchery, the discus fish are
fed throughout the day. Juvenile fish are fed more often,
according to their age, and older fish are fed two to three times
daily. This is done by scooping feed directly into the aquarium
with a spoon, using either freshly prepared or defrosted feed
paste. The discus fish immediately begin to greedily devour
the chunks of feed, polishing them off in a matter of seconds.
The discus fish have been accustomed to this feed right from
the start and because they are not familiar with other types of
feed, even very large discus fish are able to manage well with
the fragments of feed, which are sometimes quite tiny, and
they search for these fragments throughout the aquarium. As
all the discus fish, which are selected for sale, have a good
appetite and are “good eaters”, the new owners will have
no difficulties getting their fish to eat new, different sorts of
feed. Generally, these discus fish will eat any type of feed,
the hatchery’s breeding staff says. In particular, experience
has shown that especially flake food is eaten well by these
discus fish. In the hatchery’s breeding aquariums, the parent
fish are given no feed during the first days of brood care. In
the following days, the parent fish are only fed selectively.
Immediately after they first begin swimming, the juvenile fish
are fed live Artemia brine shrimp. This is why these aquariums
are marked with a yellow clothes peg, which means: “Careful!
Only feed with Artemia brine shrimp!” The hatchery has no
problems regarding the production of the nutritious skin
secretion by parent fish, even in difficult breed varieties
of discus fish. As the photos show, there are no additional
objects in the breeding aquariums other than the spawning
cone. Especially for complicated varieties like the Red Discus
or very pale-coloured varieties, it is vital that no dark objects
are placed in the aquarium, which could distract the fry from
the parent fish.
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

The filter basins are simple wooden

basins, which have been lined with
rubber lining – similar to the lining used
for garden ponds. These straightforward
structures are very durable. In large
hatcheries these basins are used
instead of complex glass filters, which
would be very expensive, due to the
thickness of the glass required on such
a large scale. Some of the hatchery’s
large filters are still fitted with plastic
beads as a filter medium, but these are
due to be replaced with blue filter mats
before long. As regards the hatchery’s
heating system, there is not really
much to report, as the filter circuits in
each building are fitted with so-called
continuous-flow water heaters, which
continuously re-heat the water.

Intensive feeding invariably leads to

pollution of the aquarium water. This is
the case in normal home aquariums,
just as it is in large hatcheries with
tens of thousands of discus fish. This is
why it is important that the fish are fed
selectively and systematically. In the
hatchery, the fish are fed several times
a day according to a feeding schedule.
Care is taken that the feed amounts are
calculated so that the fish will quickly eat
the entire amount of feed provided. It is
important that no feed residue remains
in the aquarium water. However, with
the hatchery’s high stocking densities,
it’s hard to imagine any feed being left
over, because groups of thirty or more
adolescent discus fish develop such
strong competitive feeding behaviour
that even the last morsel of feed quickly
finds its way into the mouth of a discus
fish.

The Stendker Discus Hatchery supplies

customers all around the world with its
discus fish and has made a name for
itself. It is good to know that there is
a European counterpart to the large
hatcheries in Asia. This helps to remind
discus fish enthusiasts of Europe’s
former market dominance as regards
discus breeding. It’s great to see that
there are still high-quality discuses
being bred in Europe. This also applies
to the many small commercial and
private breeders and hatcheries, which
breed beautiful discus fish, hence
proving that this great hobby, involving
one of the most interesting fish species
in the world, will never die out.
Europe’s biggest hatchery

Above: A breeding aquarium with

detailed labels, documenting the
offspring that this breeding pair has
produced. The entire data is recorded
here. Daily, discus fish are shipped
to destinations all around the world.
To date, polystyrene boxes are still
the best packaging for transport. The
plastic bags are prepared and labelled
in the hatchery’s offices as soon as an
order is received. Then, the packaging
staff can simply work according to the
information on the bag’s label. For
normal orders within Germany, the
oxygen provided in the packaging is
sufficient for 36 hours. For special
deliveries, the packaging comes with
the guarantee of sufficient oxygen for
up to 72 hours.
 Europe’s biggest hatchery

These photos show the hatchery’s large

freezer cell, where the supply of frozen
feed-mix is stored, which the company
always keeps on-hand as its emergency
reserves. With the large amounts of feed
required in the hatchery each day, frozen
feed offers the advantage of being more
cost-efficient. As in any company which
is a bulk consumer of fish food, the use of
industrial feeds for table fish, such as trout
or salmon, has surely been considered.
However, these specialised feed granulates
are not suitable for aquarium fish, as the
ingredients have been selected for meat
production purposes. These “fattening
feeds” cause the fish to grow very quickly
– far too quickly – and the fish develop a
fatty degeneration of the liver and their
reproductive fertility is significantly reduced.
So, if discus fish are fed with cheap fish
industry fattening feed, they will not live
for long or thrive. The best approach is to
provide discus fish with a varied diet, which
can best offer all the vital nutrients required.
A diet consisting purely of beef heart would
also not be feasible for this hatchery. It’s
the balanced mix of the feed ingredients
that does the trick.