Sex Em

[tank]

Can someone tell me what sex these are and what type of
discus are they please

[Merrilyn]

What sex - no idea. At this early stage, I don't think even they know themselves :? But as far as the colours, I'll have a go. Top right, White butterfly, centre young blue diamond and on the left, young turquoise.

[tank]

I think u may be right but the white butterfly may be a snakeskin
here is another pic sorry i am using a phone for pics

[kevkoi]

:lol: Merrilyn, White butterfly don't look like that when young. Besides, white butterfly are a derivitive of pigeon strain. No bars, even over the eye. White butterfly juveniles look quite different from the adult fish. These are no white butterfly.

The fish in the foreground are young cobalt blues. They'll lose much of the striation on the body as they get older.

The one in the middle is without a doubt a blue diamond.

[kevkoi]

2nd pic confirms it. It's a Cobalt blue juvenile..... No snakeskin. Snakeskin juveniles at that size (From the pic my guess would be about 1.5" fish, not inclusive of tail), have hardly much colour and have 12-14 prominent bars on the body (as opposed to this fish which if stressed would have one prominent eye bar and 8 faint black bars on the body)

:? Eye looks rather BIG on that fish.

[Merrilyn]

Good call Kev. I couldn't make out that first one from the pic. So there ya go tank, all identified. Now let's ask Kev if they should be wearing pink or blue booties :lol:

[kevkoi]

:lol: DNA testing? :lol:

Can't tell at that sort of size....

[Ben]

What about an ultra sound??

lol :wink:

[Merrilyn]

Nah, throw in a car magazine and see who comes over to read it.

[tank]

tell me what about size does it matter

[kevkoi]

:?: Sorry, don't get the question. What'd ya mean?

If you mean a size to be able to sex them, I'd say about the 3.5"-4" (and that's standard length, no inclusive of tail!) mark to have a stab at guessing sexes. Even so, not easy to do from a photo.

Best bet is to get a group of 4-6 small fish and grow them up. They will pair up with ready.

To choose small fish, pick for the LARGEST fish, with the SMALLEST eye. Runty fish have LARGE eyes and small bodies. These won't grow big.

My advice is to buy the LARGEST fish you can afford. Small 1.5"-2" fish need to be fed often and if you do not feed enough and often, you run the risk of stunting their growth.

Good luck

kev

[leanne31]

Hi Kev you say that you need to feed small fish enough and often I have 8 juveniles and new to discus how often and how many cubes per feed (as I feed blood worms, bs, discus dinner) would you recommend so my fish can grow to the best that they can thanks Leanne

[Merrilyn]

Hi Leanne, small fish have small tummies, so can only eaat a small amount at any onetime. The idea is to keep filling that little tummy as often as you can. So for babies, I feed 5 or 6 times a day, sometimes 10 times a day if I am home. As for quantity, only feed as much as they will clean up in about ten minutes, and syphon off the rest.

Keeping babies growing means lots of small meals and lots of clean water (daily water changes).

[leanne31]

thanks for that merrilyn I think I must be feeding them enough then as I feed them 2 cubes of discus dinner morning and night and in between they have two cubes of blood worm then 2 cubes of bs plus 2 feeds a day of discus flake and one of the granules thats 7 feeds a day but no matter when I walk in they always come looking for food do they ever fill up. Leanne

[tank]

how big is this bloke