Discus couple problem... NEED HELP!

[zeus78]

Hello,

I need some help with my Discus couple. For background info my tank is 70G mixed community tank with the main occupants being my 3 Discus fish. The 2 largest of them are a couple and the third one is just tolerated by the other 2 because he is just too small. I have grown my 2 discus that are a couple since they were babies and they have since young been together always inseparable (over a year now). They lay eggs often but I have never seen them hatch as I am assuming the other fish in the tank are eating the eggs or the couple itself is doing this.

The problem though now is that the couple is no more as the female is chasing and picking the male one constantly to a point that the male is stressed and full of bite marks! He some times fights back but the female is relentless! I have never seen them like this (even though I have seen the male pick on her some times in the past) but they always get back together. My question now is: Do I let this continue and play out (it has been 4 days now) or do I separate them as I have another tank with another couple (Swap males maybe?). Would this make it worst?

Any help would be appreciated.

[zeus78]

Just FYI the first posted picture is a "before" picture and this one is the "current" situation....

The fish on the left (the streesed one) is the male.

[brewmaster15]

Hi,
Is the other pair a confirmed pair? If not You might want to put all 5 fish in the 75 and see if a real pair or better pair forms.

Since you never saw the eggs hatch,its possible the one you think of as a male is not a male. Have you seen it try to fertilize the eggs?

-al

ps.. if not this a divider may be necessary, and I would pull that 3rd one out. No sense in stressing the neighborhood out.

[zeus78]

Thanks for the reply...

Yes the pair is confirmed for a while now. They take care of the eggs and really they go all the way to almost hatching them... really a matter of time before I have some fry! (The cardinals are the culprits I think!)

For sure the male is the male and the female is the female as I have seen them many times lay eggs and the male fertilize them and take care of them. The male most of the times takes care of the eggs chasing the female away.

For the third one I don't see him/her stressed as he is not picked on at all by the other ones. I would consider removing #3 out if he/she is causing the trouble but I don’t see that. I used to have all 6 in the same tank (I have 3 in my 55G tank- again 1 pair and 1 smaller dude) and the reason I had to get a second tank was the fact that I had 2 pairs and 2 missfits and they were all fighting! Order was restored for about a year before this new mess started! (Discus fish are really complicated some times... I think I need a Discus shrink or something).

My take is that she wants to lay eggs and he does not want to participate. The reason I say this is: 1- she looks like she is about to explode and 2- she is always pushing him to their spot where the lay eggs. I have tried water changes with cooler water but he just doesn’t want to cooperate (do they sell Discus Viagra?)...

Any ideas are always appreciated!

John.

John: I think what Al meant by "confirmed" is: do the eggs hatch into wigglers?? If they're not hatching into wigglers you could possibly just have two females-one laying eggs, and the other one doing dry runs on the eggs....or an infertile male...
As far as the aggression, maybe the honeymoon is over ::)

p,s, i like the way your tank looks with the driftwood and plants...interesting, but not overdone like so many planted tanks..

[zeus78]

Actually no! I never had wigglers... I didn't think it was possible to have 2 females so close to each other and acting as a couple. I have never seen the "what I thought male" lay any eggs so I always assumed he is a he! Also when I got them she was larger than my male and now he is much larger so I always assumed the gender was like that!

Now there is a chance he is infertile! If the dude is shooting blanks I'm assuming that this could cause some friction with the female! The question is what can I do? Should I remove him? sell him? wait it out! I have noticed that it is getting worst by the day! Now he is charging the female when provoked and it is turning ugly!

PS: Thanks for the kind comments! Yes I try to keep the foliage sparse in order to make sure that they don't feel crammed up!

[brewmaster15]

How old are they?

-al

[chirohorn]

Do the eggs darken after a couple of days? If so, he's fertile. I think you're right about the cardinals as they will definitely munch on caviar if given the chance.

[zeus78]

I had them since they were a couple of months old and now they are about 16 months I would say.

The eggs don't really darken (like with a black core...) - I see many go white but now that you point it out maybe he is the problem here!

[Ryan]

Hi Zeus,

Your fish at 16 months are definitely old enough to spawn. What is your water like? Maybe your hardness is too much for the eggs. It is possible that you have two females, but maybe not. It's also possible that he's infertile or still a bit young, but that may also not be the case. Sometimes pairs are rough with one another. I've had to separate breeding angelfish because they get too rough with each other.

Ryan