Angelfish & discus origins
Where did the inspiration for All American Angels & Discus originate?
Our founder and adviser of operations says simply it arose from a lifelong, "passion for aquarium fish," a passion that persists after 60 years as an active enthusiast. "A certain excitement has remained particularly when inspired by a beautiful aquarium or an exceptional fish, and with the enduring popularity of aquatic fish keeping as among the most popular of hobbies, I consider myself to be in good company."
What are the core interests in the keeping of tropical fish?
"Angelfish and Discus fish have always been my first passion. I have been at times involved strongly with live bearer, Tetras, Barbs, of course Cichlids remain of interest to me; I often return to Angelfish."
What are the experiences that instigated this long held passion for tropical fish?
"It began really in childhood when by chance my older brother and I stumbled upon a large warehouse where all types of tropical fish were being raised; I have never stopped dreaming I could duplicate this wonderful fish farm. As well as one of a couple of aquarium stores in and around my neighborhood in New Jersey that inspired me with the complex aquarium set-ups, that particularly given the lack of many of the advances since made throughout the hobby now strike me as all the more remarkable. I caught the bug and from a early age began to set up aquariums in my home and raise tropical fish in them."
When did a passion or a hobby turn into something that might be done professionally?
"It is really a natural turn, we often dream of turning our passions into something that we can make a living from, I found myself in that place in 1976, after working as an environmental planner for New York State, I decided it was time to work my hobby something I always dreamed of doing. During the years I lived in Albany, N.Y. I had maintained contact with people in the hobby and importers in New York City, mostly in queens near JFK airport. Many weekends I drove to Queens and picked up fish and sold them to stores in the Albany, NY area. I believed, naively that I could do what they were doing. So I quit my job and moved back to New Jersey and started wholesaling fish from my parent’s home while searching for a location to set-up a facility. There were many snags and failures and real difficulty finding good supplies but by the end of the first year I was profitable and successfully continued selling fish for 10 years under the banner of 'Global Tropicals' unfortunately circumstances forced me to move on to the Real Estate business. I never gave up the hobby, always breeding angels, discus and other fish; always with the dream of opening my own fish hatchery."
"The idea of reemerging in the tropical fish business was something that kind of began to awaken in me when I was reaching the age of at least semi-retirement but the excitement really ignited long before, when the wonderful colored Discus started coming on the market, that was a couple of decades ago now but I looked forward to the day when I would be able to raise fish of such quality. I felt compelled to start raising them. The sheer pleasure of seeing a pair of Discus raising their young is truly one of the greatest joys a hobbyist can experience, in my opinion. It was with this in mind and looking at my eventual retirement that I sought to engage my son in establishing a new tropical fish breeding operation and that is how All American Angels & Discus came into existence."
What was the goal in establishing All American Angels & Discus?
It was really twofold I recently visited a neighborhood pet shop and was surprised to see no angelfish; when I asked the owner; why no angels? He had no reasonable response. My guess is he had been buying cheap Imports and was losing them to disease and so I wanted to build a high quality fish breeding operation where everything I put up for sale would be domestically produced and free of some of the more pernicious and prevalent diseases and afflictions that one sometimes sees in imports. Secondly and more generally I wanted to provide the Hobbyist with years of enjoyment through owning and raising beautiful aquarium fish. We are breeding a large number of exotic Angelfish, Discus and Apistogrammas and more varieties to come. All of our fish are raised by us and are rigidly checked for quality control, no deformities, before shipping.
