So, you’ve been keeping Discus for a while now, and they are acting quite strange. Making odd gestures to each other, such as bowing, fin shaking and what could be described as genuine affection. Some fish are out and out flirts and will do the above with a few different fish, if there are others in the tank with them. I have a Red Turquoise male, who will bow and cavort with a female Snakeskin and will then be seen doing the same with his “regular” partner, a Red Rose.

You have probably heard a few different tips on how to induce your fish to spawn for you. Such as, feeding “conditioning” foods (I’m not quite sure what these are supposed to be, I just feed the normal – beef heart, frozen bloodworm, sinking pellets and the odd earthworm), making water changes, making water changes with cooler water, making water changes at certain times of the day with cooler water, increasing the water level. But, have you ever tried to find out if barometric pressure plays a part in Discus spawning, and if you can use it to your advantage?

Think about it, in the wild – Amazonia – they have two seasons, wet and dry. Discus as we know, or should, spawn when the waters rise, the waters rise in the wet season, surprisingly. I’m not sure if you know, or want to, but when the weather changes, it is due to barometric pressure. The less millibars registered on a barometer the wetter it is likely to be, or even stormy and visa versa. Sometimes you can tell if it’s going to be stormy because you can feel as though you have a headache, which is due to the pressure in the atmosphere. As I’m writing this, I can feel it as it’s absolutely tipping it down. So, with that in mind, and being slightly inquisitive, you’d think that I might have hit onto something. Or maybe you think I’d be better of rethinking my life. I’m not bothered it has been said before.

Now we have the little science bit out of the way, I get on with sharing what I’ve found. Because I don’t have any money, I didn’t have available equipment that would enable me to simulate atmospheric pressure, so I just relied on a simple barometer and the weather. The tank is a 50 Gallon tank with 7 Discus. Out of these fish I know that five of them would spawn. (Yes five, one of the females is a tart!) The eggs came to nothing as the Ancistrus would eat them. It is just as well as I don’t have rearing facilities. So when I noticed the Discus spawning, I would mark down the number of millibars reading on the barometer. I did this for two months to see if there was a pattern. I should point out that the fish where on a 5 day spawning cycle or there about. I was expecting to find that the fish would spawn at the lower end of the barometer scale, at the wet end. What I did find however, is that is not the case. That said, we can still use barometric pressure in an attempt to get our fish to spawn, as mine spawned when the pressure changed. The pressure did not have to change much and the fish would spawn.

Do you have fish that are being a pain for you when it comes to spawning? Get a barometer, and in the early evening when the pressure has changed by a few millibars, effect a water change with slightly cooler water. You don’t know until you have tried it. It might just work. Happy Discus.