Sexing Discus

[Jen]

Hi all :) Just wanted to pass along some really helpful info i found on the web the other day....I have recently had discus start spawning for me , and there has been much confusion....so for all of you out there that are as new to this as i am i hope you find this as helpful as i did :)

http://www.discusnews.com/article/cat-02/sexdiscus.shtml

[William Palumbo]

It's always a toss-up when picking M & F Discus. Even after 20+ years I still can find no sure way to do it. I can guess and most times I am right, but lately, especially with the German strains, I have been picking wrong!...Bill

[Jen]

Recently i thought i had a pair...i set them up in a breeding tank, and found out they were both female's after i watched them spawn two days apart lol....i had been told about the differences in the breeding tubes, but i thought a picture speaks a thousand words :)

[William Palumbo]

LOL...I had that happen to me recently. And even after I replaced the other female with a proven male, I was able to watch them spawn, and he had a big tube, and I wondered if another female. But I did notice it was at a different angle, and he was a male, as the eggs went wriggling. He had me worried for a minute. Most of my other males have smaller pointier tubes, but this German guy was "porno" big!...LOL...Bill

[mmorris]

It's not much use to post a pic of a fish representing the females when she is spawning and her tube is down for all to see! Then it's easy to tell the female, if only by the eggs she is laying! It would be more useful to show what the female looks like when she is NOT spawning. There isn't much difference then.

[Jen]

My only intention in posting this picture is that there was much confusion for me....like i said i had two spawning females and i didn't know it....i didn't know what i was looking for, especially if you have never seen it before...I had been told what to look for, but being told and seeing are two different things...I am very new to the hobby, and was just passing along information that i found helpful, no offense intended

[William Palumbo]

Yea, until you actually see both male and female tubes in person, it's hard to pick which is which. It seems some of the "tricks" or "tips" can generally be pretty accurate for certain strains and blood-lines. Others is a complete guess! There are sponsors on here who have a hard time telling males and females apart when not spawning...and they make their living off these guys!...Bill

[mmorris]

no offense intended

Oh heavens no offense taken! Sorry if I seemed harsh. I have some pics of male and female 'bits' somewhere on this forum. I'll post a link as soon as I get a chance. Sorry!
Martha

[mmorris]

Here it is:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=77236

[Jen]

Thank You so much for the info....i'm about ready to pull my hair out lol....I have two females spawning for me and i'm not sure about a male.....I had put two of my discus in a breeding tank a couple of weeks ago and they both spawned :( ...... so i took out one that took a beating and put it back into my community tank, and put in one that i thought was a male....well today my female spawned again....the other one shimmied at her and circled while she was spawning, but has done nothing...i have tried to see the bits on that one, but it's shy so ...... either i have yet another female, or maybe this one is just not mature enough to figure it out....they are only 9 months old so....Ugggg maybe i should try and gets some pics up and see what you guys think......
Thanks again ,
Jen

[mmorris]

They drive us nuts sometimes, don't they? They are still really young. How many discus do you have? If you have at least 5 or 6, you're bound to have a male but it may take him some months to get his act together.

[Jen]

The one i thought was a male.....ended up laying eggs last night about 3 hours after my female did.....
I have 6 discus....4 of them i got as babies and they grew up together.....when they were about 7 months old i picked up one about the same age that was deathly ill.....that one recovered....then i picked up a 3 month old about a month ago.....so 5 of them are roughly 9 months old and i have a 4 month old.....3 of them are confirmed females....one of them i have seen the breeding tube on and im pretty sure is also a female....so my Pearl Dragon (9 mo) and my BSS (4 mo) are my only hopes for a male

[mmorris]

Hmmmm Perhaps it's time to buy a confirmed, or at least known, male that matches the type of female you would like to raise fry from.

[Jen]

I have a nice Turq female i would be willing to trade.....i didn't want to have all the same kind of discus ....i have 1 Turk...1 Cobalt....1 Red Leopard...1 Pearl Dragon.... 1 Blue Snake Skin & 1 Blue Leopard Snakeskin

[Jen]

Here's a pic of my Turq