Can you sex discus by behavior??

[cardinal]

Hello,

This is my situation. I have a 150g tank and I started out with 1 blue discus, then added two pigeon blood. They all were good togethor for a couple of months, but I did not have any idea which was a male or female. Then I added a nice marlboro red that a friend needed to move out. Now he bred the m-red before and knew for a fact that the one I was getting was the male.

When I added him to my tank, immediately the m-red and blue started to be aggressive with each other. The m-red appeared to be the dominate fish. It took a week or so but they eventually settled down and now are cool with each other. The blue one is actually holding his own.

Niether the blue or red one are bothering or being aggressive with the pigeon bloods and the p-bloods will peck at each other, but only a little bit. Am I correct in assuming the pg-bloods are females and the other 2 are the males???

The red & blue are both about 5-6in and the pigeon-bloods are about 4-5in.

If someone can confirm that I have males & females, what is my next move??They are all in a community tank so I can move a pair into a 30g and see what happens.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Dan

 

[hillbilly]

This is normal behavior. Being male or female is irrelevant. Discus have a social hierarchy. Your fish seem to to be spatting for social status in the group. This behavior is often more pronounced in small groups such as yours. It seems to happen less in larger groups. It's nothing to worry about unless one fish is "outcast" from the group completely, then you may want to move the outcast fish. This is important especially if the fish is still growing, or else stunting may occur. Sometimes the fish will simply waste away and die over a period of weeks or months. Often these outcast fish can function perfectly fine when placed in a different group of fish, sometimes becoming the matriarch themselves.

 

[cardinal]

Thanks HillBilly,

Makes sense to me, the blue was more dominate when I added the m-red so what you said does apply, I was just hoping that maybe I had 2 males & 2 females.

All the discus are doing great and there are not outcasts.

Thanks

 

[fishyjoe26]

This is normal behavior. Being male or female is irrelevant. Discus have a social hierarchy. Your fish seem to to be spatting for social status in the group. This behavior is often more pronounced in small groups such as yours. It seems to happen less in larger groups. It's nothing to worry about unless one fish is "outcast" from the group completely, then you may want to move the outcast fish. This is important especially if the fish is still growing, or else stunting may occur. Sometimes the fish will simply waste away and die over a period of weeks or months. Often these outcast fish can function perfectly fine when placed in a different group of fish, sometimes becoming the matriarch themselves.

X2. the blue also could be trying to claim and keep his "spot" "territory" in the tank. also with a 150 gallon and only 4 discus in there I'd add a few more. 1 adult discus for every 10 gallons. so you could still add like 10 and be fine. just remember to quarintie new fish, and only ad 2-3 at a time.