Discus ranking order

[JCDS]

i just moved a blue turq and an orange into a tank with another orange who is smaller than the others. the smaller one is female and the blue turq is male. not sure about the large orange. the large orange is constantly pecking at the smaller one, while the blue turq pecks at the larger orange. is this just normal pecking order establishment?100424 can anyone tell me the gender of this fish?

[Second Hand Pat]

Yes jcds, that is normal pecking order and welcome to Simply.
Pat

[JCDS]

Ah, thank you. any idea about the gender of the fish?

[Second Hand Pat]

Nope, the only way to tell is to observe the breeding tubes. The females is thicker that the males with a squared off end and the males is a bit smaller with a pointy end.
Pat

[Larry Bugg]

Are there only three discus in the tank?

[Phillydubs]

I was thinking the same thing as Larry...

[pitdogg2]

Trio's work. I have two males and one female they get along very well. I started out with 6 in the 75 and they pushed all the others to the side except for the three I have now. No quarreling at all. The lone male seems to patrol the outer boundaries while they drop eggs. Sometime he even goes in for a look see and they do not mind.

[Phillydubs]

That is interesting, sounds more like you lucked out than anything because in my experience and from what I have digested from others, trio's usually spell disaster for the low man...

[Larry Bugg]

Trio's work. I have two males and one female they get along very well. I started out with 6 in the 75 and they pushed all the others to the side except for the three I have now. No quarreling at all. The lone male seems to patrol the outer boundaries while they drop eggs. Sometime he even goes in for a look see and they do not mind.

Phil is right. Most of the time trio's do not work out.

[pitdogg2]

I have used trio's for years with other large cichlids. yes sometimes it works sometimes it don't. I had 3 monster Dovii's the breeding pair never grew as fast as the lone male yet he still never destroyed the smaller male even though it would of been no contest. Mo Devlin get the credit for this he and I used to chat all the time on the old ACA site he had some wonderful trio's and had great success with many.

[Phillydubs]

One time at band camp... ;)

Kidding... I mean I get what you are saying... People defy odds daily in every capacity of life... Does it happen? Can it happen? Sure... if you are playing odds and % I would say no every-time if I was a gambling man

[pitdogg2]

:laugh: