How do you know if the other four were males? 2 possibilities here: 1. your cobalt blue is female all along 2. At least one of your friends discus is a female.
I have never heard of discus changing sex and as far as I am aware, it doesn't happen.
Amazing Discovery!! Discus Fish Are Capable Of Sex Changing By Itself. I Have Found That Out By Experience. I Have A Pair Of Discus And Confirmed At The Time He Was Paired Up With A Female And Spawned A Few Times With Young Fry Hatching So I Know He Was A Fertile Male Discus. Later On I Traded It With A Friend Of Mine Who Is A Great Discus Fish Hobbyist As Well. He Kept The Supposely Male( Cobalt Blue) In A Tank With 4 Other Males (brilliant Blue/ Cobalt Blue) But The Other Four Male Were Slightly Bigger In Size. After Some Time The Male From Me Paired Up With One Of The Bigger Male In That Tank And They Were Spawning And Very Evidently I Can See Where They Are Spawning That The Supposely Male From Me Was The One Laying The Eggs To The Breeding Cone. I Came To A Conclusion That Discus Can Sex Change When Kept In The Same Tank With Others Of The Same Sex And That Are More Dominant Over It And It Triggers That Weaker One Of The Same Sex To Change It's Sex. - Article published in one of wiki pages
Is it Possible???
How do you know if the other four were males? 2 possibilities here: 1. your cobalt blue is female all along 2. At least one of your friends discus is a female.
I have never heard of discus changing sex and as far as I am aware, it doesn't happen.
I respectfully disagree with your "discovery". While some live bearers such as sword tails appear to do this I really doubt that any discus do it.
-john
None of mine will darn it. Jeff
While some fish do this (seems to be mainly reef fish), like Clownfish, gobies, anthias, some wrasse, etc I've never seen real evidence or heard of a discus doing it. While I can not totally discount it given the fact that there are fish, snakes, and insects that all have these gender altering capabilities I do have my doubts it happens in discus. Someone would of found it before now. I think this case is a case of mistaken identity and your male was actually a female all along.
-Matt
I've never heard of this phenomenon with Discus. However I believe its well documented that this can occur with checkerboard cichlids (Crenicara punctulatum). If I understand it correctly, all fish are born female and the dominant fish becomes the leader of the pack morphing into a male. If that fish dies or is removed from the group then the next most dominant female will assume his role and eventually morph into a male. Pretty interesting stuff!
I have also heard of several fish that can change sex so I suppose anything is possible. I'm a bit skeptical in the validity of an article that capitalizes every word in every sentence. Ugh! Makes it hard to read!
Sounds like a little sexual confusion, not on the fish's part but on the part of the one keeping track of all these blue/cobalt types.
As far as I know Discus don't and cannot do this.
highly unlikely
is it possible?
no
Jester - S0S Crew Texas
I also respectfully disagree...
I was also pretty skeptical but there is actually some, not very strong, evidence of sequential hermaphroditism in cichlids. Of course, this doesn't mean this can be generalized to discus but it does peak my interest.
Article can be found here: doi: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.164...A%5D2.0.CO%3B2
Last edited by aalbina; 05-12-2015 at 12:57 PM.
linky no workie.....
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