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So you have a mature pair of discus fish that have shown an interest in each other but there not laying any eggs.

The most important factor in discus breeding in the water quality, make sure it is soft, acidic and clean. If you have this water, your most likely stressing over why there isn’t hundreds of eggs in the tank. If you have discus ready to lay eggs there are a few ways in which you can give them a helping hand.

The first way you can tempt them to lay is to feed a rich diet of frozen bloodworms for about a week. Feed it everyday as well as their other meal. This should condition the female and get her ready to breed. Other foods that are good for breeding discus are white worm, adult brine shrimp and chopped up crab sticks or prawns. Make sure you buy frozen food as there is less chance of disease.

Another way to encourage your discus to breed is by doing a 25% water change but drop the temperature by a couple of degrees of the water going in. This imitates there natural habitat and can trigger spawning. This is a little trick I use on all my young pairs when trying to get them to spawn. Make sure all the pH and hardness is the same making only the temperature different.

The third trick in getting your discus to breed is by separating them for a couple of days before reintroducing them. To do this you can add a tank divider or move the male to another aquarium. Make sure the female gets plenty to eat when the male is away. When you reintroduce the discus just keep a close watch over the next 24 hours as males have known to be aggressive towards the female. They should start the courtship over the next couple of days and hopefully lay eggs after.

There are more ways to encourage your discus to breed as well as many more tips on breeding and caring for discus fish on my site www.discus-fish-secrets.com

Rob owns Discus Fish Secrets website helping begginners and advanced fishkeepers with discus problems including keeping and breeding them. Please visit the site for more information on breeding discus.

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Are you thinking about getting some discus then and want to know a little about them. Have you been to the aquatics and seen some lovely colourful discus in there show tanks.
A lot of people will tell you that discus are only for advanced fish keepers but in my experience they are easy to keep as long as you follow some basic rules.

First of all, discus require clean water free of chlorine and heavy metals. You may be best to invest in a water purifying unit. Make sure the water is on the soft and acidic side. pH between 6.0 and 7.5 with a general hardness between 5 and 15. Now is you want to been them these will have to be lower.

The water should be well filtered but slow moving and be heated at around 82 - 86F.

Another point to cover is that discus are best suited to large deep aquariums as they commonly grow to around 6 or 7 inch. They prefer to be in shoals of no less than 6 when they are growing up.

They can be kept in bare tanks but benefit from bog wood and plants as these help the discus feel safe knowing they have some where to hide. If they get stressed and scared in a bare tank they can dash around and damage there selves.

Ideal tank mates for discus include small tetras from South America i.e. neon tetras. They are also ok with various cat fish and plecs but please make sure the discus is the largest fish in the aquarium.

Discus can be fed on most aquarium foods and practically like sinking pellets. They also like frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. Young discus should be fed 3 times a day and adults just once.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and learned a little bit more about discus fish. If you would like more information on discus fish please visit my site http://www.discus-fish-secrets.com

Rob Clarke owns Discus Fish Secrets website helping begginners and advanced fishkeepers with discus problems inluding keeping and breeding them. Please visit the site for more discus information

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Do you have some adult discus fish and want to know whether they are male or female. In this article I’m going to share with you some of the tips and techniques you can use to determine the gender of your discus or those you wish to buy.

First of all, know that these are only guides and they are not always 100% correct as in some circumstances females have male characteristics and males have female ones.

Here are ways to determine the sex of your discus

1, The dorsal and anal fins

Take a good look at the dorsal and anal fins of your discus. Are they rounded or are they pointed. Males tend to have pointed dorsal and anal fins or sometimes have extended growth on the end rear of the dorsal fin. Females tend to have rounds rear fins.

2, The colour and pattern of your discus

Please look at the colour and pattern of your discus fish, compare them to one another in the tank. Some fish will hopefully have more intense colour and some discus will have more pattern. Male discus fish tend to have less intense colour but have more pattern while the female tends to be more colourful but with lesser pattern.

3, Size of the discus

Compare the size of your discus. Male discus tend to be bigger than the females but the size can also depend on whether the fish was stunted or are just small in genetic make up.

I hope these three tips have helped you to sex your discus and will help you when selecting adult discus fish from a shop or dealer.

If you liked this information and want to learn more about discus fish care and breeding discus please check out my website discus-fish-secrets.com

Rob owns Discus Fish Secrets website helping begginners and advanced fishkeepers with discus problems including keeping and breeding them. Please visit the site for more information on breeding discus.

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