Mates who don't respond receive punishment?

[Ilovediscus]

recently I moved 3 pairs of discus from their community tanks to their own breeding tanks. But after ther were moved, the males would first nudge and move their heads up towards to females, but if the females don't respond back, the males in all 3 tanks would attack her and chase her all over the tanks! After a while the males will start inducing her again and if no responds is received, he will PUNISH her again and this seems to be going on and on...... ???

I actually did moved these pairs back to their community tanks when the attacks from the males were first noticed. But when they are back to the old community tanks, the females don't seem to show much interest to the males anymore.(I should state that prior to moving them to the breeding tanks, both females and males were exhibiting the mating ritual such as shaking, sex dance, etc...)

I wonder if anyone has experienced the above senario so far? And if there's anything I can do to make the females "shake" back to the males.
I also try adding a 3rd male/female to the breeding tanks but to no prevail. :'(

Discus: 1 yr and 2 months old
Temp:84-85
Ph:6.5
Ammonia/nitrite:0

Thanks in advance everyone.

[heckelcrazy]

mate ive been "inducing" and punishing my missus for some time now and I too am getting no interest in response ;)

If you crack the secret let me know

aran

[Barb Newell]

Aran ;D LOL

Ilovediscus; I'd move them all back to the community tank and wait until they actually spawn in there a few times, then try moving them out again. They are still young.



Barb

[hexed]

What kind of discus are they? Bar discus would be too young, they take about 2 years and my marlboros didn't start until they were between 16-18 months.

[Ilovediscus]

I did moved all 3 pairs back to their old community tank. But once they're back there, they don't seem to recognize each other anymore... By the way, they are RTxPB 1.5 years old.

I might be wrong here, but after so many different combination of mixing these males and females (because I substituted mates to see what's going on between them), I have concluded that these females might be suffering from a bit of ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER :D--when they were in their own breeding tanks, all the males are violently shaking and pecking while the females just watch and once in a while shake a little bit......this has been going on for like a month now.

I should add that these incidents happened in all 3 individual breeding tanks, not in the same community tanks. I guess my question is: could male discus mature earlier than females, which is contrary to popular beliefs?

[hexed]

I don't think so but I'm not an expert ::)
I do know that PB mature faster than RT (bar). I would just leave them in the community tank and let the try spawning on their own for a few times before moving them into the "love shack"
That's what I did with mine. This lets them form the bond they need to protect the eggs. Mine have been spawning for about 2 months now in my community tank. Now I'm starting to move them to their own little nests ;D
My bar discus are just starting to pair up and they are 19 months old. They are in a different community tank.

[Ilovediscus]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, hexed.

Yesterday I have moved 1 of the 3 pairs back to the community tank, and today I notice that this pair are starting to clean and shake :D. So here's another question: when you see possible pairing up in the community tank, should you put a FISH DIVIDER into the community tank?

The reason I brought that up is because the community tank is kind of crowded (8 discus in 60 gallon) and this possible pair spent a lot of their energy/attention gaurding their territory against others coming over for food.

By the way, hexed, the strain I have is not RT and PB, they are both the same strain (result of RTxPB). Sorry about the confusion there :-\

[hexed]

I myself would leave them in the tank without a divider. Let them learn how to protect the eggs. My pair laid a few times before I seperated them to the "love shake" (I named the tank) LOL
I still have 3 pairs in my community tank which lay eggs about every 8 days. Now one pair in my community tank actually try their best to guard the eggs. It took them a few times, so I will remove them and give them a honeymoon suite. I do this because I don't want to waste time and money on getting a tank and they just eat the eggs or the male doesn't do his job. Now the pair that I will move, the male has gone over the eggs and the last 2 times he did not eat them. I think they are ready to be moved. The other 2 pairs are not showing any signs of protection as of yet and will remain in there til they do. If they don't then that's fine, they still look great in the tank ;)
Now that's what I would do but I'm not you and you might want to do something different. Other people might have different views as well. But in the end it's your choice ;D
Hope this helps,
Frank