Age and breeding?

[brewmaster15]

Hi All,
Was wondering what your experiences are with the following...

How long on the average are you able to keep your discus alive. How old are your current Discus?

If you have bred Discus, how old are the pairs? Do you find your pairs fade out after 2 years? 3 years? Whats the oldest pair you have been successful breeding.

Just trying to get some other members experiences
Al

[Vanman]

This is going to be interesting.

[jeep]

For the most part, I've struggled to acquire a good pair. Too much egg eating, fry eating, infertility or fighting... But I have a pretty small operation too, my fish room has always been limited to a small spare bedroom. I'd say in 20 off and on years of discus keeping, I've had maybe 6 frustrating pairs and 2 dream pairs. By dream pair, I mean naturally nurturing and protective parents that will raise a spawn until I decide to separate them, and will even foster another pairs fry.

The first "dream pair" was a pair of Stendker Santarems. I had them for 3 years until I lost them, and most of the rest of my fish, from an electrical storm. The other is a very high quality pair of eruptions (Ruby Red x Meteor), which I nearly lost last month. So.... it's hard for me to say how long I've had a pair last, but I hope these will survive my streak of bad luck! They do seem to have made a complete recovery so hopefully we'll see soon...

[MichiganDiscusEnthusiast]

As far as size or age goes my smallest female that I’ve seen produce eggs is about 4” and less than a year old. She just produced a decent batch on the stalk of a plant the other night. As for males I cannot attest to anything they do as I have not been successful in breeding… yet. I’m thinking next year will be my year. Maybe the end of this year.

I’m curious to see everyone’s thoughts though; this will be a great thread to follow.

[Iminit]

I’ve had many breed. None not eaten. I had a pair of red tigers I’d gotten from Kenny that bred as soon as the female hit 5”. The male was 6”. Maybe a year and a half old. They bred regularly in a community tank. Even watched them move the wigglers without eating. Moved them into a 50g by themselves for a summer and they ate the wigglers every week. Tried artificially raising them but they all died as fry. Never could get them to eat. Returned to main tank and they bred regularly as before. Had a cc in 21 and they slowly passed by the end of 22. As did all but 4. New group I’ve had many pairs breed. As many as 3 pairs at the same time in main tank. Nothing has ever came of these breedings. Get to wigglers than eaten. A few months ago a bought a pair and have been trying to bred for at least 2 months. But always eaten. Get to wigglers than eaten. Getting them ready for main tank now. Will be moving them in September. They are maybe a little over a year old.

[Willie]

I've had older males (4 - 5 years old) successfully produce large spawns with younger females. Females don't seem to spawn after 3 - 4 years of age. Some discus have lived to ~6 years in my tank, but they do show their age. A number of wild-type discus develop wrinkles on the sides. Older fish also get a stoop-like appearance.

On the other end, when they reach sexual maturity seems to depend on the strain. Pigeon blood types can start to spawn within 12 months. Non-PB types seem to take 6 months longer. Blue Diamonds are particularly late with males not spawning until 24+ months. (Back in the day, I bought lots of BD's from people who gave up trying to spawn them. After 6 - 9 months, they spawn with gusto for me.)

In all cases, males take 3 - 6 months longer to become sexually mature than females. I call those early bowing and spawning behaviors "puppy love".

[brewmaster15]

I've had older males (4 - 5 years old) successfully produce large spawns with younger females. Females don't seem to spawn after 3 - 4 years of age. Some discus have lived to ~6 years in my tank, but they do show their age. A number of wild-type discus develop wrinkles on the sides. Older fish also get a stoop-like appearance.

On the other end, when they reach sexual maturity seems to depend on the strain. Pigeon blood types can start to spawn within 12 months. Non-PB types seem to take 6 months longer. Blue Diamonds are particularly late with males not spawning until 24+ months. (Back in the day, I bought lots of BD's from people who gave up trying to spawn them. After 6 - 9 months, they spawn with gusto for me.)

In all cases, males take 3 - 6 months longer to become sexually mature than females. I call those early bowing and spawning behaviors "puppy love".

Thanks Willie, Interesting observations there. For me right now I am in an interesting spot I haven't been in before. I am currently working with an aged group of fish.. My adult discus are all approaching 6-7 years old nows. Between the pandemic and the last several years of putting the hobby on hold to take care of my parents and brother my discus were in limbo. They do not look bad for their age but breeding them has been a nightmare. ..poor hatchrates, long intervals for laying eggs, disinterested males. .. Im afraid my stock has aged out. I Did manage to get a small group of fry that are doing wonderfully and I have 2 pairs that I still have good potential for small batches of fry but its certainly not like when the fish are between 1-3 years old..

Prior to the last few crazy years here I would cycle my pairs out.I always had young home grown pairs to work with and I was still bringing in various new stock as well. Generally I was over run with fry.

Working with older fish has been a bit frustrating! I know alot of hobbyists do not run into these kinds of longevity issues with their discus. Though some are able to keep them alive for several years, many are not for various reasons.Many also in the hobby rehome or sell their fish to make room for new ones. .. or to take a break for abit from the hobby.

I'm currently keep 30 adults here that are just old by most standards. Alot of go back to the 2018 grow out contest and before. I've always felt that domestic discus kind of peak out breeding wise by 3 years.. that was from isolated observations though. My current stock of aged adults does seem to support that. Unfortunately due to life circumstances I missed out on the window of breeding alot of my stock... Its not a wash out entirely but its a challenge to say the least.

[CliffsDiscus]

I had 55 empty Discus tanks, 13 tanks for grow out and around 42 fry. All this two months after Covid plus family illness. I can't believe this would happen.
Don't know when I will start up again.
Anyway to answer some questions most of my pairs spawn between 9 to 24 months. My oldest pair spawn at 8 years old, after that they didn't spawn again. I had no room for breeding pairs, the pairs would spawn in the grow out tank and I would pull out the slate or cone, that leaves me with more fry space.
As far as spawning less, usually this happen after the first spawn cycle and it seems that the smaller females will spawn longer than large females. Many times the peak spawning cycle ends around 14 to 18 months. Older fish that can't pay the rent are
given away, Male and female to different breeders. Sometimes it's difficult to give away some of the older strains because I will never get those strains back.

[brewmaster15]

Cliff Im sorry to hear that.I understand exactly where you are at.

So heres one of my geriatric pairs.. for close to 7 years old they look really good. .. as for breeding.. well they just wont anymore. They will defend a side of the tank from all others but its more like they are sitting on the frontporch playing checkers and stop to chase away the neighbors

20230829_070035.jpg


And another old pair.. i think she lays eggs every 6months or so..
20230829_071308.jpg


Then theres this boy.. 6 years old

20230829_071141.jpg

Alls he wants to do is fight. I've tried him with every female here and he just wont pair...he is hyper
Aggressive. In a community tank he spends all day chasing everyone... even if he has a harem. He is just a cantankerous old man.
Al