Wild male Discus more striated than females?

[higgybaby]

In reading "Wild Caught Discus" the author, Bernd Degen, indicated that female discus usually do not show any significant pattern of horizontal stripes in fish collected around the Alenquer area and the males have more defined horizontal markings.
In several pictures throughout the book it is very easy to identify the male (and female) of any brown, green and blue pairs based on the markings. The males typically had markings on the head, fins and body but the females had markings limited to the head and fins only.

A couple of questions to those of you that keep or sell wild discus - Have you found that only males have well defined markings on the body? Is that typically true or true every time? I guess it makes sense that the male would be more brightly colored - much like the Apistogramma, for example. What other ways do you like to use to determine the gender (i.e., body shape, body size, disposition, vent shape)? Which have you found to be the most reliable?

Thanks,
Bill

[Northwestcoastdisc]

hi Bill,

The wild cought discus, Males are always bigger than females butthe males doral are drag than females. but many females wild will not spawn in hobby tanks but very few wild female discus can spawn in tanks they are very luckly. Most wild males can ferite any female hybird discus are no problems.

I am sure AL knows about this more.


hth

Duncan

[roger]

I really cant say much about straited discus since I only have a few non RSG fish.

My wild male Alenquer looks almost identical to the female, no extra striations etc.
The heckels, well forget about them since they wont cooperate no matter what I do :)
The wild red is I think a female based on who chases who around the tank. She has almost no striations and is pretty much just solid red.
The wild blue male isnt super striated either, but that I think is based on the strain of wild blue your dealing with.
The RSG males tend to have more green in the body while the females usually have red spots on brown/yellow.

So overall I think what your going to run into is that if your fish are collected from the same region then you might be right. Since very few of us have a chance at fish like that its very difficult to tell with fish coming from different areas.

Peace
Roger

[RyanH]

The most reliable way to determine gender IME is to wait for them to pair off and watch them spawn. When you see a female laying eggs and a male fertilizing them then you know for sure what you've got. Physical characteristics are a poor determination of sex IMO.

[fishfarm]

Bill, Overall, If the discus are collected in the same area, most of the males will be a little more robust, may have a bulge in the forehead and a little more color and striation, but that's not always the case. Plus don't take anything Degan says as truth, he's not a discus person, but a publisher. I spent a week with him in Asia and he doesn't know squat about fish!
Duncan, under proper care wilds are as easy to spawn in captivity as domestics (except heckels)

[higgybaby]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your responses. There seems to be a concensus that a person may be able to identify the males, but only if you were looking at a group of fish that were collected at the same time and in the same area. Clearly there isn't clear sexual dimorphism like with the apistos. Looks like I'll need to pick up 6+ fish and let them sort out who's who!

Interesting comments about Bernd Degen. With the quantity of discus books he's written, you would think he would have to be an authority. I guess the saying is true "Don't believe everything you read."

Bill

[Northwestcoastdisc]

Hi Bill,

Wild discus are F-0 but they are very fussy with water for starter when they are living in aquarium long time it would be okay they will get use live in aquarium, They will friendly. I suggest you should try to pick out some males and some female that you guess it would happend to you have good guess as your luck.

I would like to try to get some wild discus in my hatchery but my location petshops or wholesale or etc, they don't carry the wild discus but they carry 2 to 4 wild discus in their stock, that is not enough for me. I want to see 20 to 30 wild discus in tanks as wild greens, wild blue, wild heckels, etc. I would like to pick out some wild that my guess if that the males or the females. it would be fun.

HTH
Duncan.

Hi fishfarm, I agree with you most wild males do that. I would like try to breed with heckel discus because my water is very LOW come out from tap water. My tap water Ph at 6.8 hardness are very low. probaby the GH would be lower than 0 or 1 As soon i will get TDS montior from Randal I will test and find out about my tap water. Can u please give me more information and tip how i can breed with heckel discus. thanks. Duncan