Nominee: Chai Koon Seng 

Age:57

Nominated Award : Aquaculture>Ornamental Fish Breed Technology Excellence Award

Reasons:

Mr Chai’s Discus Journey  
 
Mr Chai Koon Seng, currently 57 years old, started keeping and breeding discus as a hobby since 1988. After successfully breeding the then "High-fin, High-body Checkerboard" discus in quantities, he decided to make a living out of his lucrative hobby. In 1992, together with his wife, they decided to rent a small place in Jalan Kayu and started Chai Discus Farm.  
 
Over the years with the continuous research and development efforts to improve the quality of discus, the small and humble farm has transformed into one of Singapore's top discus breeding specialists. Mr Chai introduced many prize-winning, uniquely Singapore varieties such as Super Melon, Millennium Gold, Golden Leopard Snake, Web Leopard Snake and Red Map to Europe through many competitions and had proudly place Singapore on the world map in the discus industry.  
 
In addition, Mr Chai achieved many great awards in many major discus competitions between 1993 - 2002. 
 
Local Awards 
 
1. 1993 Aquarama Third Prize 
 
2. 1995 Aquarama  Second for both Red Form and Wild Form categories 
   
3. 1996 Reptile Show First and Third place for Original Strain Category 
 
4. 1998 Singapore 1st National Discus Competition  Second for Solid Red Category 
 
5. 1999 Aquarama Third for Match Pair Category 
 
6. 1999 Singapore 2nd National Discus Competition Second for Match Pair Category 
 
7. 2000 Singapore 3rd National Discus Competition First for Solid Yellow Category and Second for both Red and Unclassified Category 
 
8. 2001 Singapore 1st International Discus Competition First for Solid Yellow Category and Third for Solid Blue Category 

9. 2001 Singapore 4th National Discus Competition First in Striped Form Thin Line Category 

10. 2001 Aquarama (Singapore) First in Red Category and Second for Red Spotted Category 

11. 2002 5th National Discus Competition (Singapore) First in Pattern Thin Line Category and Second for Red Category 

 
 
 
Overseas Awards 
 
1. 2000 3rd World Discus Championship (Germany - Duisburg) Third in Red Category 
 
2. 2001 1st Japan World Discus Competition Third for both Red Spotted and Red Categories 
 
3. 2001 South-East Asia Discus Competition (Taiwan) Singapore's 1st Crown Grand Champion and Third for Pigeon Category 
 
4. 2002 1st International Discus Championship (France) - Mr Chai was the only Asian contestant in this competition, which drew participants from many countries, mainly France, Germany, Belgium and Austria - Crowned the Grand Champion in the Competition - First and Second in Red Spotted Category and Third in Red Category 
 
5. 2002 4th World Discus Championship (Germany - Duisburg) - Grand Champion, Best Bred Form awarded to his Web Leopard - First for Red Spotted Category, Second for Red Category and Third for both Red Spotted and Pigeon Categories 

Although Mr Chai had retired from participating in discus competitions after the 4th World Discus Championship in 2002, he participated as a judge both in local and international discus shows across many countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. Mr Chai was previously appointed to be the Competition Chairman of the Discus Club, as well as the spokesperson for Discus fish foods from Singapore's Qian Hu Fish Farm. 

 
Below are the competitions that Mr Chai had previously judge both locally and internationally 
 
1. 2001 6th International Discus Competition (Guang Zhou) 
 
2. 2005 Taiwan Discus Competition 
 
3. 2008 10th Singapore Discus Association Competition 
 
4. 2009 Taiwan International Ornamental fish fair Discus Competition 
 
5. 2010 1st Malaysia DSM Discus Competition 

6. 2011 Taiwan International Ornamental fish fair Discus Competition 
 
7. 2011 12th Singapore Discus Association Competition 
 
8. 2014 13th Singapore Discus Association Competition 
 
9. 2014 14th Singapore Discus Association Competition 
 
10. 2014 Singapore Fish Love Discus Competition 
 
11. 2015 Singapore Fish Love Discus Competition 
 
12. 2016 Singapore Fish Love Discus Competition 
 

13. 2016 Korea Discus Competition 

 
 
 
Despite retiring from participating in competitions, he is still actively breeding quality strains and is on a constant look for ways to improve his discus collection. Mr Chai believes that creating new strains and setting new trends are part of the unique experience that breeding discus can offer to hobbyists. During the 2017 to 2018, Mr Chai has been actively improving on Discus Strains and quality of Discus. 
 
During 2017, Mr Chai has managed to improve the Discus Strains of Albino Super Melon and Albino Leopard Snake. 
      
   
 

 During 2018, Mr Chai has also managed to improve the Discus Strains of Blue Ring Red Golden Melon and Full-Face Web Leopard Snake. 

      

 
 Today, after more than 30 years of experience in discus breeding, Mr Chai's discus is well known across the globe. Mr Chai's perseverance and determination to continue improving and sharing his experience of breeding and raising discus has undoubtedly brought recognition to the Chinese in the Discus industry.