Female Discus Wants Paired Male!

pinkertd

pinkertd

Moderator
May 29, 2007
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New Jersey
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Debbi
Was just able to do a normal 60% water change on the tank since there isn't a spawn being fanned on the filters! The past few weeks every time it was water change day there were eggs on the filters and I could only siphon a couple of inches at a time, refill, and siphon a couple more inches. The larger water change gets the pairs in the spawning mood so both pairs are shimmying at each other and cleaning the filter intakes, again. Something I've been watching for the past couple of weeks has me a little stumped though. Maybe another discus owner has seen this behavior? I have a female white leopard that's not paired with anyone yet. She's really not a full grown adult yet. But....she has decided SHE likes Mr. White Pigeon so she stays over in their spawning area of the tank, shimmying at him. He's still shimmying at Mrs. White Pigeon, but he doesn't chase her away and neither does Mrs. Pigeon. Why would she select a paired male? I'm wondering if her amorous advances towards him would possibly split the white pigeon pair up? She just cracks me up the way she's determined to try to interest him. I know that I have at least one other male in the tank, but he's sub-adult as well and he and my sub-adult electric dream female seem to be headed to a real pair in the future....it's just puppy love play right now. I don't know the sexes of any of the others just yet, they're still young and only interested in eating....not love!

Debbi:)
 
With fish it's not about love..it's more about sustaining the speices or carrying the line.

the female is trying to find a more suitable male.
 
star_rider - I know with the fish it's not about love:grinno: :grinno: It's just something I haven't encountered before with fish-keeping. So I'm just trying to understand it. I've only ever had pairs of cichlid fish breeding. Never had another female try to interest a paired male into also pairing with her. So.....not sure if she keeps this up if the paired male will eventually spawn with both females, or will the single female finally give up on him and go find another mate. It's behavior I didn't expect. I know if you have two females in with a male bristlenose, he'll spawn with both. But for example I haven't seen angels, or convicts, or rams, or severums do this. Maybe they do and I just didn't notice it.

Debbi
 
Your discus will put their eggs on a breeding cone or inverted flower pot if you put one in the tank.

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Hi Two Tank,
I actually have one, brand new in the box.....in my basement. One of the simply sponsors sent it to me. It doesn't go with the aquascape of my show tank:grinyes: :grinyes: . I know i'm really strange about this......I've always just wanted a show tank full of adult discus. But I don't want to raise discus babies. They are extremely time-consuming and its tough to raise them up right. I'm up at 4:00 AM and out of the house at 5:40 AM for my 50 mile trek towards new york with 720 million other commuters on I80, not back home again until 5 ish, am a single parent with teenagers in school, two cocker spaniels and a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home to care for along with my tanks. Don't want to give them a breeding cone.:shakehead: :shakehead: :shakehead: They can spawn on the intakes their entire long lifetime and they'll be okay.....frustrated maybe, but ok. Now don't even ask me what i'm going to do if I get a third pair up in there.....might have to reduce my discus family:cry: . I'm not worried till I need to worry. I was hoping to teach these fish about birth control, but they paired up before I could give them my speech!:grinyes:

Debbi:)
 
Debbi,
I was joking about the 'Love' thiing.

but it is not uncommon for the female to seek a more appropriate male.

lip locking is believed to be one of the courtship 'tests' the belief is it is done to try to see if the male is 'worthy' by being strong enough to push the female back.

I have several breeding pairs of angels..i found that the male in my 55 that is very successful at spawns can be approached by the female that is not his mate..to simply be shoo'd away by the mopre dominant female who is his mate.
discus can exhibit the same behavior.

typically the pairs are removed so this ritual is not seen that much.
I am like you ..get up at 4 out the door by 4:50 to deal with the commuters.

I also drive 50 miles to work...LOL
you can just leave things the way they are..I have not seen my discus pairs get nearly as aggressive as my angel pairs

ed
 
Thanks Ed. Good to know I can leave things as they are. I wish you could see this young female though, she cracks me up out loud. She's a very prissy looking discus and she hangs out over in the pairs corner. The moment he looks at her she's all fluffed up and shaking like a rock n'roll star!
Such a little temptress!! She can't be more than maybe 8 months old.

Happy commuting. Pretty soon it'll be dark when we leave and dark when we come home!:thud:

Debbi:)
 
pinkertd said:
Thanks Ed. Good to know I can leave things as they are. I wish you could see this young female though, she cracks me up out loud. She's a very prissy looking discus and she hangs out over in the pairs corner. The moment he looks at her she's all fluffed up and shaking like a rock n'roll star!
Such a little temptress!! She can't be more than maybe 8 months old.

Happy commuting. Pretty soon it'll be dark when we leave and dark when we come home!:thud:

Debbi:)
Click to expand...

now you see wh Discus are one of my favorite fish to keep. they are so animated..
they do the Happy dance whenever I come in the room..... little pigs:lipssealedsmilie:
 
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