Sexing Discus

[Dff]

Hi guys,

so I made the newbie mistake of just having 3 discus in a 6 foot tank. Needless to say, they didnt fare very well. I have since shifted them into a 30 gal tank for them to heal up and to treat for HITH.

They been doing very well now after the shift, but I'm not comfortable with leaving 3 semi adults in a 30 gal. I do have another four 30gal tanks lying around and was thinking to keep them in pairs in future. Attached is the video of my 3 fish. Would like help getting them sexed so I'll know which 2 to leave in this tank, and which 1 I have to find a (male or female) partner for.


https://youtu.be/eVwt_eXjG4A

Based on the info I've read here, I believe the albino and the Marlboro are male, and the san merah a female, based on the geometry of the dorsal and anal fin to the tail. But due to my inexperience, I would like more input on my observations.

(p.s I know without them spawning, there is no definitive way of knowing for sure. Would just like a educated punt on a higher possibility)

Thanks and much appreciated!

[John_Nicholson]

Unless the 6 foot tank was planted I don;t know why it would have been an issue. The only 100% way to sex discus is to watch them spawn. You can take all of that geometry of the fins mess and throw it out the window. It will be wrong as much as it will be right.

-john

[Dff]

Hi John,

Thanks for the tip!

Your experience really shows on that comment about it being planted. I forgot to mention that it is a planted tank.
here's the link to the tank when the discus were in it.

https://youtu.be/ods6AZ40mjU

Seems like I can only wait for they to pair up and spawn!

Here's my grow out tank as well :)


https://youtu.be/luDuVgjAapc?t=15s

Thanks!

[John_Nicholson]

Good luck. The hardest part with discus is the waiting.

-john

[Dff]

I guess I'll have to kill time by doing more water changes! haha

[Dff]

Seems like my fish have thrown me a bone to keep me occupied while waiting and doing water changes.

I've observed my fish doing this for the past 2 days, and apparently today, they started cleaning a section of the glass.

Am I right to say that they may be in the midst of pairing up?


https://youtu.be/u0C5hDMOxVU
Managed to get them on cam!

[Larry Bugg]

Maybe, but I didn't see anything that couldn't also be called aggression. When you said they were cleaning the glass you weren't talking about in this video were you?

[Dff]

Hi Larry,

I didnt manage to get any footage of them cleaning the glass, but basically both the red and the orange were seen pecking on the glass below the heater, side by side, with occasional shivering from both fish. The pecking is very similar to what I observed with some angelfish I bred in the past.
The two of them chased the albino away from that half of the tank, but were fine with each other in the space. This was not so evident in the video as I happened to be feeding them, so they were more about looking for food. Other times, they would stay quite close together, isolating the albino.

Any further signs I should be looking at?

Thanks!

[Rudustin]

You just need to be patient and if they spawn you have to look for their breeding tubes and determine male from female. Often females with spawn with another female so wait and see and good luck. Rufus

[Dff]

Yup!
Will continue to watch and observe them, but its definitely more exciting when I see them doing stuff that could characterize pairing behavior, which would be some nice new knowledge and experience to gather :)

[Larry Bugg]

If that is indeed a Marlboro and a San Merah then it isn't a pairing worth pursuing. The Marlboro is a pigeon based red and a San Merah is a brown based red the the fry would be heavily peppered and not very desirable.

[Dff]

Hi Larry

The lfs that I got these fish from basically has no idea what they exactly are, apart from them being called discus. I suspect that these were fish that were traded in from another hobbyist.
With that being the case, I classified them as the worst possible pairing, pigeon x brown. This helps to manage expectations if I manage to have fry :)
If they do spawn, this is going to be a learning experience for me to understand more about raising fry, maximising growth etc, before I move on to nicer pairings. Wouldnt want to have to sacrifice too many high quality fry before I learn.
About the fish,
Both fish have no bars, only exhibit some black coloration on anal and tail. Base color is a yellowish orange for both. The supposed "san merah" has no striations at all. Perhaps there is a better classification for them?

Thanks!