How to differenciate female and male to make a couple

[flyclassic22]

hi, i've 5 discus , how do i differenciate from female and male so that i can start breeding?
thanks
anyone knows useful websites to know more about discus?

[flyclassic22]

okay to elaborate further, out of the 5 discus i had, how do i know to pair which two? Do they behaviour differently shows something?
Sometimes they seems to be fighting, but not sure.. :'(

[ReeferKimberly]

well if your conditions are right and they are mature enough they should pair off naturally. there is soo much i could tell u but its all in the reading of these posts.

whats the size of your tank, what ph, gh, kh, temp, how often do u clean, what do u feed, how old/big are they,?

all these factors will have to do with them pairing off. there is usually a small window of varience with most of these but they all need to be adequete for discus to thrive and breed.

from reading past posts u can recieve tons, loads, lets just say a BUNCH of knowledge.
kim

[flyclassic22]

ohh, thanks for that reply. I appreciated that. I've 5 discus all around 1.5 - 2years old. Still yet to pair. There were given my one of my uncles when they are very very young (small)and not sure if from same family? They feed on tetra bits.

I am very new to it, so i hope i can learn more from you and also from this forum.

My tank is 2ft size and about the ph , gh ,kh, i'm not sure the meaning? what are these and how do i measure?

How it can affect their breeding? Sorry coz i am very new and is a idiot to these. I'm planning to buy a heater/(thermometer) to put it in the tank. (when they are small, we haven't buy a heater till now)

Sometimes, i see them chasing each other , is this a sign of liking or hatred??

Thanks alot

[flyclassic22]

My tank is using a circulating water filter , i heard it isn't good for discus.
?

[flyclassic22]

to add on, i change water about twice a week (90% water change) .
Sometimes add some salts

[ReeferKimberly]

i replied to ure other post below this one i think. i'm a bit new myself and leave my gh/kh alone. but i guess many people do test for them. there are test kits around lfs and u can order off the net as well. gh and kh have to do with the hardness. my general hardness is 33ppm and i don't test for gh and kh. i assume they are alright b/c my hardness and ph are good. but i know, never assume, well u know why.... if there is no heater right now and the room temp is not at least 82 constant this is a very bad situation for your fish. get one as soon as possible. i recomment an ebo-jager. they are submersible, long-lasting, and reliable. how big and how ofton do u do water changes? with a low temps and not-so-often w/cs ur fish are very suseptible to disease and playing russian roulette. lets see.....2ft? i'm not sure what the gallons on that would be. a 4 feet standard tank is a 50 gallon, so if ures is standard it would be somewhere around 25 gallons? with 5 1.5-2 year old discus its pretty overstocked. they may be small b/c the small tank and cold temp has stunted them. if your serious about breeding them i would buy a larger tank or even two and get some heat as soon as possible. learn as much as u can b/c breeding discus is the most rewarding thing i can think of..
good luck
kim

[ReeferKimberly]

we must both be on now...go to chat if u see this
up at the top

[BlueTurquoise]

Ahh the age old question, how do you sex a discus. The only sure fire way to sex a discus is to actually see a female lay eggs and to see a male fertilize eggs. Other than that it is a 50%/50% chance of identifying them apart.

There are other methods such as the fin tangent method but even that is probably onlt 51% / 49%

Chong