is my discus pairing up?!?!!

[rytis]

ok fellas!! this could be it. :shock: :D
i just saw my blue and yellow discus spend some time together that seemed intimate and not fighing. they all have been chasing each other around quite a lot, but this is different: it looked like they were both doing a snake move to each other and neither one looked like it was harassing the other and it lasted for well over a minute. a waving kind of thing....

what could that mean?!!

[mcloughlin2]

How big are they??

Sounds to me like a little fight, peaceful but still a fight..... :wink:

HTH,

Sam :D

[Merrilyn]

Could well be a fight if they were performing a slow body slapping kind of movement.

But on the other hand it could be the start of courtship if they perform a rapid shivering sort of movement involving the dorsal fin.

The fact that they're hanging out together is a good sign. The next thing to watch for is them defending a territory against the other fish, and the shivering and bowing will increase, and then usually the female begins to clean an area in preparation for egg laying.

Good luck. I hope you're well on the way to some discus babies. :P

[rytis]

they (the biggest 4) are about 5-6", not 6-7 as i said earlier..
red and yellow are pretty aggressive towards others, but my tank is big, so it's not causing too much of a problem right now....

i read that males fins should be pointed? well i guess i will have to wait and see.

another question: about a month ago since i introduced 4 more smalled discus to the tank, they seemed to stop swiming in a group (school) but rather do a lot of chasing each other off to corners. wonder why? tank is 265 galons. seems like they want to be in the spotlight (for me) to themselves....

[skoom]

sounds like a really really big tank....

[mcloughlin2]

is it 5-6cm or inches?? coz they look tiny in the photoes..

[endless]

265 gallons :shock:

[rytis]

2 discusred and yellow are getting on my nerves they seem to gang up on a blue one. they're not pairing up, it's just that im taking advice in feeding them more and of course their aggression gets more intense as a result. will have to keep those 2 in a 5g bin for a while if i can catch them, they just hide under decorations now....

if i let those war mongers starve for a few days while the peaceful guy (and other smaller ones) will recover and gain strength, maybe i will be able to continnue feeding them in large amounts.....

[mcloughlin2]

discusred and yellow are getting on my nerves they seem to gang up on a blue one. they're not pairing up, it's just that im taking advice in feeding them more and of course their aggression gets more intense as a result. will have to keep those 2 in a 5g bin for a while if i can catch them, they just hide under decorations now....

if i let those war mongers starve for a few days while the peaceful guy (and other smaller ones) will recover and gain strength, maybe i will be able to continnue feeding them in large amounts.....

Wat r u on about??? Starving ur fish...WTF!!!! :shock: There prolly agressive now because u are feeding them proper amounts of food and they are probably trying to eat as much as they can incase u try to starve them again... :roll:

Dont seperate them leave them together itz a 265g tank...no wonder the fish have stunted growth if u dont feed them enough.... :roll:

Feed them as much as they can eat in about 5mins or so or until they are fat and then if there is leftovers siphon it out...

Ps: Someone Correct me if im wrong....


-Sam

[axelfaz]

rytis discus like all other cichlids form a hiercy someone at the top and some one at the bottom it appears that your blue discus is the one at the bottom theres nothing you can really do to change this it natures way. if you remove someone from the chain he will be replaced by someone else.Ways to minamize this is put food at one end of the tank for bully fish and food at the other end for the rest :wink:

hope this helps
Cameron

[nicholas76]

your fish are juveniles.

no chance they are in spawn mode, fatten them up thats the most important thing.

you need to condition them way before they are even going to think about breeding.

[rytis]

rytis discus like all other cichlids form a hiercy someone at the top and some one at the bottom it appears that your blue discus is the one at the bottom theres nothing you can really do to change this it natures way. if you remove someone from the chain he will be replaced by someone else.Ways to minamize this is put food at one end of the tank for bully fish and food at the other end for the rest :wink:

hope this helps
Cameron
thanx for all replies. good point axel. but you got it all wrong with me not feeding them enough- they stay fat or somewhat fat thruout the day and they NEVER fight during feedings, it's always AFTER feedings when theyre bored.

[mcloughlin2]

Sorry 4 being a bit harsh before but seperating fish and starving them for a few days is such a stupid thing to do...

As Cameron said put food on both sides of the tank so the weaker ones can still get some food......

Sam...

[rytis]

ok... are they pairing up? : my red and yellow discus always seem to be sleeping together when i check in the morning, aggressive towards others but not each other and picking on an ornament in the bottom corner of the tank....
the picking part im not sure if thats "cleaning" coz some other discus are doing the same and it looks like eating, not sure exactly how "cleaning" looks... anyway, no other signs besides what i describe, are they pairing up?

btw, strangely when in the middle of the tank they don't hang together, only when in the corner

the thing i like about these fish is that they dont bother the smaller ones, only their own size!! :D

here they go in the corner again together and picking on that thing

[mcloughlin2]

This might be the one !!

Sleeping together in a corner of the tank is a sign of a pair .. so u may have just got lucky ... !! :D ....

I will have a look through some of the discus sites and forums i go on and i will update my sticky in the breeding section ...

Sam ...

[rytis]

ok red one is shivering sometimes, if this is a pair (red/yellow) does that mean shivering one is female or male?

also, could picking on a concrete post with a mouth be "cleaning"?

[rytis]

another question is: if in a well planted tank out of 10 discus 2 becomes aggressive during spawning, how dangerous is it for other discus to be in that tank? coz im going on vacation nov1 for four months :shock: (sorry) my friend will be changing water/feeding, but theyre not sophisticated enough to catch fish... so im wondering if tey have enough places to hide from aggressive parents?

in this tank:

[nicholas76]

rytis


certain things will work against you if you are trying to breed discus. I'll list some of the more obvious ones for you.

1. having a planted tank
2. keeping more than one pair of discus in a tank.
3. having a very large tank
4. keeping other fish in your tank
5. small water changes / poor cleaning regime.
6. dark surfaces as fry are attracted to darkness.
7. turbulant water

[nicholas76]

ok red one is shivering sometimes, if this is a pair (red/yellow) does that mean shivering one is female or male?

also, could picking on a concrete post with a mouth be "cleaning"?

shivering - males and females do it. this will increase heavily before they get to it.

picking - either eating or you could be on a sure thing. this may take ages and the discus may do this on several locations in the tank before deciding on a spot.

[Ben]

5. small water changes / poor cleaning regime.

VERY Important!

I personally recomend %30, 6 times per week!
Give your self sunday off!

seriously though, this is a must!
regualar, clean water changes every day!

A good varied diet is imporant aswell, feed them a good variety of foods, high in protiens, essentail vitamins and minerals.

cheers,
Ben

[Merrilyn]

Rytis, your tank is huge, and you have lots of hiding places for all the fish, so even if a pair decide to stake out a territory and lay eggs, the others haave plenty of room to get away from them.

Raising fry in a community tank is almost impossible. The parents will certainly try to protect their fry, but I find most of them have been eaten by the other fish within a few days. But, having said that, I do know of people who have been successful and raised a small brood of fry in a large tank like yours, with only a few fish. So, all things are possible.

If you're going away for a couple of months, it will give the pair plenty of time to practice their parenting skills, and when you return, you may decide to move thim into a spawning tank of their own.

I always let mine spawn a few times in the community tank before moving them into breeding tanks. It seems to make better parents of them.

Good luck with you plans.

[rytis]

update on my red and yellow discus: yep, the're a pair!! always stay together....most of the time anyway...

[nicholas76]

hehe rytis

two fish swimming together somtimes isnt necessarily a pair mate.

good luck anyway

[rytis]

they hang together, never fight each other (only with others), sleep together

[rytis]

ok, about how long after they start sticking together/shaking/cleaning do they spawn? coz im leaving in a week, and i noticed today my angels in another tank layd eggs on filter tube without any warning. or maybe i just havent been paying attention.....

also is it normal for adult discus to shake like this if they don't have a partner? coz bigger ones same size sometimes do, but not smaller ones....

looks like its yellow female and red male... to bad not blue male, would probably be green babies then...

[rytis]

ok here's an important question: the blue turq looks like he's trying to steal the yellow female from red male.. i without a doubt would rather see babies with blue turq being father... he looks like he's pretty determined and a little depressed and beat up but does his thing as a male.. so i guess if i would take out red male, blue turq would become her boyfriend?

ah, too bad im going for vacation... anyway, if they just started mating, in 4 months when i get back they should still be in their prime mating season?

[mcloughlin2]

Discus will continue breeding throughout the year once they have formed a pair... :wink:

I have to say but it sounds like u dont have a "Pair" as they wouldnt shake to the other discus and continue swapping parteners like they are ATM... :?

As for the blue turk and the yellow one producing green babies if they breed , i think it would be very unlikely that this would happen in the first generation...u may get a discus with the green genitics but breeding new colours isnt as simple as mixing paint... :D

HTH,

Sam..