Gender question

[nono]

Hi all,

I have a lone female discus which have been laying eggs couple of times at the beginning of this year. So I went to my local discus shop to purchase a male discus hoping to pair them up. I've been a regular at that shop and the shop owner being a nice man has tried his best to identify a male discus for me. The pair has been together now for at least 4 months. She has laid eggs about 5 times since I've added the "male". But the eggs always end up turning white and/ or eaten up. I am really uncertain if the discus is really a male. So i have took some pictures, hope you guys could give me some opinions on the sex.

The genitals on the female is quite large and obvious. On the "male" however, could hardly be seen. But 2 days ago, when the female laid eggs again, the genitals on the "male" has appear to grow larger than normal. Thanks.

[scott bowler]

its a bit hard to tell even from the pics it could be only time will tell good luck sorry i cant help scott

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi,

As Scott said its hard to tell but if I had a guess id say you have two females, the supposed males tube looks quite large and pointing forwards to me.
MAC

[Merrilyn]

A very warm welcome to the forum nono.

Seems we're all scratching our heads over those photos.

Going by the photos alone, I'd say you have one male and one female. However, what's got me puzzled is that you say the "male" showed much larger genitals than normal when the female was laying eggs. That makes me think it may be another female, wanting to join in the egglaying.

Discus are tough to sex at the best of times, but it seems you might just have to wait till they spawn again to get a true indication. :P

[samir]

hard to tell, any chance of some clearer and some full body pics. the tubes are the only way to tell for sure but maybe a picture of the full fish may help.

[nono]

Hi, here are some full body pics of the "male". Sorry it seems the qualit of my camera is quite poor. My female has just laid eggs again. I noticed that the fishes get very aggressive towards each other during this period. They have really nasty fights. Why is this so?

[scott bowler]

nono that is a awesome fish man love it my male and female do that some times to so i dont think that will help with the sexing sorry mate .. scott

[nono]

Hi, thank you for all your feedbacks. I can confirm that it is a male because i saw wrigglers! But unfortunately, they didnt survive pass 2 days. I am now trying hard to get breeding to work! Wish me luck! :D

[samir]

good luck thats a beautiful fish and looks very healthy. if you feed them a lot of different food as many times as you can you will get more eggs and much more wrigglers.

[scott bowler]

mate good luck its good to hear that it is a male and i wish you all the luck to get it up an running let us know if you succed and i would love to see the pics at the end of it all. scott

[nono]

Thanks guys! Will definately post pics of the young if successful!