ideas?

[merk175]

I have 8 adult discus. Six are pigeon bloods and 2 the breeder called high fin reds. So far, I have no fish pairing off and I've never seen any eggs in the tank. I understand the difficulty in identifying sex but I would guess I have both male and females in the tank....rounded fins, pointed fins etc. Two of the fish are about a year old, 5 are about 3 years old and 1 is about 5 years old. Is it possible that they won't pair off because there are so many in the tank? Should I try to pick "potentials" and put them in a breeder tank? Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

[KDodds]

What are the tank parameters? Temp, pH, KH, nitrogen levels? Maintenance schedule and what is done during that time? Fish do what they do when they're kept in situations "to their liking". My BH tetras spawn nightly, GBRs once per week or so (though they're <1" and haven't quite got the hang of rearing the fry yet), etc. Even my marine fish have spawned (where there's more than one of a species). It would be exceedingly rare that all of your fish are males, and if they're all females, chances are they'd "pair off" and spawn anyway. So... point being, it's probably more the tank conditions than the sex of the fish. Keep in mind that when an organism is stressed, one of the first biological systems to shut down is the reproductive system (some animals are different, like sea slugs that will divert all energy into reproducing if conditions are really bad), followed by the immune system. So, remove all stressors (within reason) and voila, fish breed.

[merk175]

here are my conditions:

temp 84.5 deg
ph 6.2
bare bottom tank
ammonia 0
nitrates vary from 10-15

these fish are never sick and I haven't lost a fish in this tank in 4 years. They seem perfectly healthy, eat like cannibals (mixture of beefheart, frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms. Feces always looks normal. not sure about nitorgen as I don't have a test kit for that. Also my batteries are dead in my hardness tester so not sure about that but will repost when I measure it. I change water daily...about 15% every day.

[mench]

what is the size of the tank? any spawning cones in there..In my tanks a dose of colder water will trigger fish to show signs of spawning

Mench

[merk175]

tank is 60 gallon. I had a spawning cone in for a while and also a PVC pipe for a while but NADA. just checked hardness and it is 220. One other thing. I have 2 sponge filters and a power filter in the tank. Could it be too much water flowing in the tank?

[DaveZ.]

I have in the past would try to get your water softer try dimming the light and fluctuate the water temp a little bit try to simulate a rain storm by adding warter with a slight lower ph and and a cooler tempeture not ice cold and not real low ph.play around with it also adjust the lighting could be to bright and they might be modest who know just a few things that helped me in the past.
DAve

[DaveZ.]

Oh and one more thing try to slow down the current in the tank.
Dave

[merk175]

I actually had a typo in my last post. hardness is actually 120, not 220. I've read many times about some folks trying a "colder" water change. How much water should I change and what temp should the water be (60 gallon tank at 84.5 deg)? I don't want to "shock" them with water that's too cold...

Also, I've been thinking about separating a couple fish to try and "create" a pair but I would be guessing as to which is a male/female. I also have been considering taking 3 fish and putting them in a 20 gallon to try and help create a pair but again, I'd be guessing about sex of the fish. Any thoughts on that?