Pheromones

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi all,

A couple of mates and I have been debating whether pheromones of one species will affect another. If we have a system with say Angel fish breeding on a regular basis will the pheromones produced by the Angels affect breeding pairs of Discus in any way? In your experience have pheromones from one species induced spawing or spawing behaviour in another species?

Thanks MAC

[Fishpimpin73]

It has been "rumored" that this IS in fact the case.

What we DO know.......

Fish do release pheromones and other chem off into their water.
Just like people and our body odor :wink:

What we can surmise from the above known info......

Some fish may produce a larger amount of chem than other fish.
Some fish may produce stronger concentrations of chem than other fish.

With that said......

There are certain types of gobies that are said to excrete toxic levels of chem that only affects others of thier type.

Other fish ( Cichlids in particular ) are "suspected" to over-produce certain hormones and chem that restrict the breeding instincts in others of the same species.
The inverse is also "rumored".
And entirely possible.

But since very little is known about the chem that fishies produce, there is relatively little "factual" evidence to support the above "rumor".

It is very hard to gauge what "may" happen when certain species are kept together in a closed system.

I have kept Australian Peacock Gudgeons and found that if kept in too large a number they suffer greatly and thier growth becomes stunted.
And I was growing out 20 1" fish in a 40 gallon long that was fully planted.
After religiously checking EVERY possible factor.
And going through everything that I could find that had been written on these fish.........
There were several references that pointed to some sort of odd chem thing going on with them.

There is still lots of research that needs to be done in the hobby.
And since no one is really interested in the "science" of fishkeeping........

We have to keep trying different things, and sharing that knowledge.

[mistakes r crucial]

Fishpimpin,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I have been reseaching this subject over the last couple of weeks and agree there is very little known about it. There's a heap of general information on pheromones and allomones but nothing I could find specifically relating to my question. I suppose we have to be the scientists in our fish rooms and come up with some sort of answers ourselves.

The main reason for the question was that I introduced 3 new pairs of Discus (ready agewise but never bred before) in to a system where Angels had been breeding regularly and within 24 hours all 3 pairs were "showing" and one of them was doing dummy runs up and down the cone. Maybe a coincidence but there again it might not be either.
MAC