Partner switching ??

[SuzieB]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question about some strange behavior. A little back ground as follows:
180 Gallons
16 Discus
planted + Driftwood
Ph 6.5
Temp 85
Set up for about 1 1/2 yrs.

I have never had any of them spawn or really noticed any pairing off until just this last couple of months. Here is what happened. 1 set of eggs dropped but later got eaten, same pair tried again but eggs got eaten again. Than a couple of weeks later one of them paired up with a different partner ? eggs where okay for about 2 days then got eaten, now the same one went back to the other one got eggs this morning still doing okay I'm really not counting on getting any babies I'm just wondering why it appears I have a 3 some, is partner switching normal or could the 3 of them be females? Any advice or comments are greatly appreciated.

[fcdiscus]

Not unusual at all. Just some young fish feeding the wild oats! Frank ;D

[scottwheels]

Frank's right. I have a similar situation to you, 120gal, planted with driftwood, 12 randy discus at about the same age as yours. The paring started with a MR (female) and blue SS (male), and after removing them to raise the spawn, when we put them back into the community the MR split with the SS and paired up with an RSG! The SS then paired up with a BT, and then she switched partners to a white PB, leaving the poor SS without a partner (And very grumpy to boot!) Later he paired up with a fuji red.

We have more males than females in the tank, and currently an alenquer pair, the RSG and MR pair, the blue SS and fuji red pair, an RSG and blue SS pair, and a white PB and BT pair. The others are males, and very unhappy with the situation!! The pairs spawn in the tank, and some pairs will raise the fry to free swimming stage and others eat the eggs after a couple of days. With our tanks, it depends on who is spawning at the same time as to how long the eggs survive. At one stage we had 4 pairs spawning at once during a week of stormy weather, and it was a chaotic time in the tank. Only one pair managed to get wrigglers, and the other spawns were eaten. Even our proven pair ate their eggs, so I'd say a lot depends on how secure the fish is with it's spawning site.

Anyway, congratulations on your spawn! As I have found out, the only way to raise fry is to put the parents in their own BB brood tank. It would be very unusual if you had any babies survive in your community tank. HTH,

Cheers, Scott

[jeep]

I had the same thing happen early on with my discus. It turned out the male was just wanting eggs and it didn't matter where they came from.

I would not move what you think is a pair until you see them display parental instincts. My male is probably ruined as a breeder because of his addiction to eggs. The introduction of another male may create the instinct...

Once you get wigglers is when I'd give them their own tank.