Need advice trying to Pair dovii

[Freshwaterpredators]

I have three males and one female dovii. two of the males are turquois the biggest obe is 5-6" the smallest is 4-5". the other male is a blue and gold gene and he's 3.5" My Female is a blue and gols as well and she's 4-5". as of right now i have her and the smaller turquois male together in a 75 they are about the same size. I went with this guy first because he has the best color. so far they have the tank divided and dont go on eachothers side. they meet in the middle and fish face and lip lock throughout the day. i have done water changes every other day for a week, the temp is at 83 and i have been feeding brine shrimp, beef heart, and krill. how long should i keep trying with this male before i try another. and is there a better or faster way to pair? thank you.

 

[cchhcc]

You're doing fine, but there's no need for so much heat. I don't know why everyone seems to believe that we should keep our fish so warm, but only a handful of species really need water in the 80s (discus, ramirezi, etc.).

Just keep feeding them well. The female has to produce eggs before she'll get serious, and she needs extra nutrition to do so.

 

[uncwnells]

Water temps in the 80s usually keeps ick at bay

 

[cchhcc]

Water temps in the 80s usually keeps ick at bay

I will agree only to a degree.....

Ick cannot spontaneously create itself. A tank without ich is a tank without ich....at any temperature.

A warm tank WITH ich is a tank with a fast ich life cycle, but not the elimination of ich.

Many people raise temps to speed up the life cycle of ich so that it can be killed more quickly (with meds, salt, etc.) as the various stages of the ich life cycle are shorter in duration than in a cold tank.


IMO, we should be targeting "natural" water temperatures, and that includes varying the temperatures as needed for some species (Gymnogeos and some other species need cooling off periods every year for instance).