How much damage do breeding pairs cause

[BigWave]

I have 11 fish in a 180 gallon tank. Right smack in the middle, on a nice leaf 2 have decided to lay eggs. This is the third batch in about 2 weeks. No wigglers yet, and I am not really setup to care for babies.

However the real worry I have is that one of the fish is all bitten up. His(or her) side has marks and I watched another fish biting him. Also several fish have dark spots on them (not peppering). Almost like a whole scale has turned black. The spots don't move, but they do seem to disappear and re-appear in other areas on the same fish. Not all fish have the spots. My guess is they are a result of getting to close to the pair.

Now to make things worse a second virgin red is trying to get in on the action and is cleaning another leaf not to far away! The two virgin reds are the combatants, and a nice big PB is the one being chased, however after eggs are laid the PB seems to be doing most of the guarding.

Should I relocate the pair? I do have a 40 breeder, but I wasn't planning on starting a breeding room! On the other hand I don't want to stress everyone out too badly by leaving them all in the tank together.

Any suggestions?

[alcastro]

Got the same problem fights at times when a female is about to spawn every ten days, i am going to pull the pair out, but if you don't want to breed them is going to be toug ?

[BigWave]

Maybe you all can help me guess the sex of these discus. I am thinking the PB is the female, and the VRs are males?

Female?
78908
78909

Male? (All damaged caused by the female I think.)
78910
78911

And the "Third" wheel
78912

[timmy82]

Your sexing looks about right.

[PP_GBR]

I'd say the first two are females and the third is male.

[pastry]

Honestly, I'd just say let'em do what they do. You'll get more pairs and so they won't all be submissive. It'll end up balancing out for most but you're going to always have some submissive ones. My former bully (still the biggest VR) is now the most picked on. He/She still is the biggest (by a little bit now) but out of 10 in a 150 I have 3 pairs. Your choices pretty much are:

1. let them be
2. get rid of one sex (several choose to keep all males... you'll still have bullies but may be better balanced than a pair cornering them all)
3. put more structure in there to segregate the fish
4. take out pairs and put them in own tank
5. divide them (let them breed even if you don't plan on raising)
6. trade with others who may be interested (probably won't find interest with VR & PB pair... most would discourage breeding to distribute the outcome... hate to say it but I'd discourage it too)
7. pour a cocktail, give them weapons, and make wages on them with friends :P

did I miss a choice?

[Allwin]

My guess too,the third pic looks male as per the below pic.Experts,kindly forgive if this logic doesn't works all the time.

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~davidr/discus/articles/images/male.gif

[rickmiles]

The first 2 looks like and might be females and the third could be or might be and looks like maybe a male:confused:

I tell all my customers Discus are like people ...sometimes you guess wrong.:D

The only sure way to tell is when you see wrigglers.

Rick M

[BigWave]

7. pour a cocktail, give them weapons, and make wages on them with friends :P
did I miss a choice?

I suppose this is the one I will choose. Maybe I will see if my third VR turns out to be a female. And you did miss a choice, which is HIGH on my list: "8. Buy more discus to spread the aggression." That may happen in July!

Oh, also the PB and the formerly scorned VR are mating/breeding right now. I am watching them take turns rubbing bellies on the back of a leaf. The VR has much longer 'parts' so I am going with the assumption that the PB is female, and the VRs are male.

Now, what type of cocktail goes best with discus fighting? I am thinking either a nice dark beer, or perhaps a shot of whiskey, with three ice cubes. (I suppose neither of those is a cocktail, but oh well, they are what I drink!)

Also thanks all for the replies. I appreciate them.

Allwin, I like your airplane. I had one that looked just like it, now I have pieces of one that looked just like it. I got many good flights out of it though.

Goodnight!

[CrazyAngels]

I think your assumption is wrong, the one with a blunter part is the female and to me it seems your PB might be the male. I hope you got close enough to see the actual deposit of the egg from the female, if so then you now know which one if the female. Best of luck getting through this.

[GrayLadyPat]

/snip...
Now, what type of cocktail goes best with discus fighting?
../endsnip

I would say a nice single-malt :D