Is it possible to 'force' a pair?

[K22]

Hi all,

I currently have a pair consisting of a snow white and a blue turq, but they're not the pair I'd like! I have a lovely silver pigeon and the sw would go a treat with her. The sw and bt are raising fry as we speak, but I wonder if the sw would change his mind if i gave him just the silver pigeon to play with in the breeding tank.

The pigeon has spawned for him before but he seems much more interested in the bt. Do you think the bond with the bt would already be too strong for him to have an affair...

Regards, K22

[Eddie]

I am sure you could do it. Not that I know anything about breeding but I do know that discus monogamy is not too common. The female will spawn and eventually the male will partake. Its all instinct so aside from the looks, he'll do what he has got to do.

Also, on a side note...crossing a snow white and blue turq might not give you an unsightly fish. I have seen some interesting crosses come from white crosses. You never know until you do it right. I'd do it just to find out what they would throw. :o

Eddie

[kodiak]

You can "force" a pair as you are describing and more often than not they will lay eggs. It has however been my experience that forced pairs are much more likely to have problems as in fighting with each other, eattings eggs or fry and so on as opposed to a pair that has selected each other. All you can do is try and you might get lucky.

[Eugene1]

I think you can do it. My big checkerboard pigeon male would accept any female i put in with him, he would lay eggs with any of them. Its just sometimes he cares about certain females eggs more than others. Also when you first introduce the female the male probably would bully the female a bit, but its not a big deal they will get over it.

[K22]

I think I'll give the current batch of fry a little longer to see if they're worth keeping, before giving the 'arranged' pair a go to see how they get on. I did read here somewhere that it might be best to leave the Silver Pigeon in the breeding tank on her own for a week before introducing him. She may well be a little more eager, not that she's been shy with him in the past.

TBH, I'm more concerned about him than her, as he seems so attached to the BT, but I also read that the males tend not to be too fussy, so it could work...

EDIT: Thanks for your replies BTW ;-)

[DonB]

I think you can do it. My big checkerboard pigeon male would accept any female i put in with him, he would lay eggs with any of them. Its just sometimes he cares about certain females eggs more than others. Also when you first introduce the female the male probably would bully the female a bit, but its not a big deal they will get over it.

That's very unusual ;)
Need footage of that ... lol

[scottthomas]

The only pair I have forced fights a lot. They were previously paired with others but I wanted a better match. They will lay eggs and when they get to free swimming they fight nonstop. They really do injure each other. However, I bet this can happen with any pair that forms on its own. I just have to remove either parent once the fry go free swimming. I have also noted that when I put them all back in the big tank together, they always go back to their original partners and start spawning. Just my personal experience, I have only been breeding for a couple of years now.