Do discus only lay eggs wen they have paired off?

[Alex Cheng]

Hi,

Do discus only lay eggs wen they have paired off?

Thanks,
Alex

[ILLUSN]

no 2 females will lay if they are in the mood, i had 1 girl that would lay eggs for no reason at all.

[Alex Cheng]

Thanks,

I had 2 discus that seemed to be gaurding some eggs together. So would they be male and female or could they be 2 females?

Also do they mate for life?

[Merrilyn]

They definately don't mate for live Alex, although they do seem to like to choose their own mates.

If your fish are guarding the eggs, then it's likely they are a mated pair, but really the only way to definately determine the sex of discus is to see the breeding tubes during spawning.