getting a pair to form

[fishkid26]

My discus have had their breedings tubes down for about a month but i do not see any pairing behaviour. The discus should be from about 1-1.5 years old. the temp is 86F the ph is 6.6 the kh is 3 and the gh is 3. Is there anythiong i can do to encourage them to breed?

[RichieE]

Dropping the temperature with a 30-40% water change or adding peat treated water sometimes works for me. My first pair paired off the first time I added Discus Essental to the water. I have not used it recently but its worth a try.
Are you sure the tubes have been extended for a month? I've never noticed them out for any where near that lenghth of time. How many fish are we talking about? It could be they are all the same sex. Rich

[fishkid26]

There are six discus. The breedings tubes have not been down for the whole month but they have raised them and lowered them for about a month.

How would you treat the water with peat?

[shamsoo]

what are the size and shapes of breeding tubes?

[fishkid26]

Two of them are really big and the four others are small.

[McGilly]

Hi
Are your lights on timers? Have you seen any clean a spawn site? Do your do w/c everyday or other or weekly? Do you feed them once, twice or more times a day?

If your lights are on timers its easier to stalk them a few hour before they are used to them going out and see them cleaning house.
Try doing your daily water change in the morning so you don't spoil the mood. Give them consistant water conditions (same temp, ph, hardness) for a week and then hit them with a 50% peat water w/c 10f degrees cooler. As long as your ph is stable skip your next two days water change and watch them to make sure they are not spawning and eating the eggs right away. I almost forgot .... FEED THE CRAP OUT OF THEM FOR A WEEK TWO OR THREE TIMES A DAY

They may be too young but if their tubes are down they should be dropping eggs or tastey treats.

HTH
Jeff

[fishkid26]

no, my lights are not on a timer and i have not seen any of them cleen a spawniong site. I do 20% water changes everyday. I usually feed them 3 or 4 times a day.

I have peat but how do i use it?

[McGilly]

put a few handfulls into a nylon mesh bag, nylons will work and put it in you water storage tank with a air stone or powerhead to circulate the water overnight. If your ph drops too much use less peat.

Jeff

[fishkid26]

This is a picture of one of the fish breeding tubes. Its not very good i dont have a digital camera but can anyone tell if it is male or female?
It was a huge pic so i cropped it the best i could so you can still see the breeding tube

If you have been keeping them in Ph-6.6 for a while with no pairing activities. You should bring it up above 7.5 for a week and bring it down with daily W/C @ room temperature to ph-6.0 max. HTH
Jimmy.

[roger]

Hello Fishkid

Just a couple of questions and a couple of observations.

1. How big is the tank your fish are in.
2. How many fish are in the tank.
3. What type of discus are they (turqs, melons etc...)

Something that I have noticed on my end.

1. To many fish in a tank and the pairs get to nervous/stressed to spawn. I just reduced the # of fish in my 55 from 7 to 4 and had a spawn last night.
2. Your water may be to hard so switching over to using RO will help. The pH may not be a factor since mine spawn in water with 8.4 all the way down to 6.4.
3. A good quality food along with very regular water changes will put your fish in the correct physical condition to spawn. I would probably want to start here for a month then look at other things.

Peace,
Roger

[fishkid26]

the tank is a 55 gallon with 6 discus. 2 are wilds and i am not sure of the types 1 is a pigeon blood 1 is a briliant blue 1 is a red panda and 1 is a red scribble. I have been looking at ro units but right now i cant afford one. I am doing 70% water changes a day and feeding blackworms now.

[fishkid26]

Now my discus have become very aggresive and some of them have even have some injuries. Is this normal when they start to pair off?

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, it could be from pairing. Roger gave you a good idea. Why don't you pull 3 of the discus and see if 2 will form a pair. Odd man out will be on one side of the tank and the pair on the other side (hopefully the side with the breeding cone) ;D

[fishkid26]

My only other tank is a 29 gallon. Is this big enough to use to split them up?

[Carol_Roberts]

Whats in the 29 now? It will probably work.

[fishkid26]

There is some community fish but i can move them to an empty 10 gallon.

[Carol_Roberts]

OK, you can put 3 in the 29 if you move the others to a 10.

[fishkid26]

Thanks for the help everyone i will move the fish this weekend

[fishkid26]

The last couple of days my fish have been fighting a lot and some of them have even lost scales. Does this usually happen when they are trying to pair? When they fight it is not two fish protecting an area it is more of all the discus attacking each other.

[nicholas76]

Aggresive fish aint good.

Not a breeeding sign thats for sure

In my experience the only thing that worked with angry fish was to seperate fish into diffrent tanks, let some time go like a fortnight and try them in a tank again.


nick76

[daninthesand]

I've seen VERY agressive spawning activity in mated discus pairs. So aggressive, I thought surely the male would kill the female. They spawned. ;) Aggrssion is not necessarily a bad thing.