Breeding issue

[Orandalife8890]

Long story short: I have a mature male oranda(just found out he's male). And I have a young female(just found out she's female). My issue is, he's now trying to breed. He's gotten terbucles all over his face. I know that apparently the more they have, the more of an aggressive breeder they are?
He's tiring himself to death. She obviously isn't shooting out eggs. How long will this go on? Is there any way to cool down the water besides water changes? The tank is only 4 months old. It's cycled but I don't want to have to do 25% water changes every single day until the temp goes down. And I would hate to have to keep a divider up 24/7. They're only in a 40 gallon right now. My 75 gallon sprung a leak and I just can't afford one right now.

 

[Colin_T]

The number of tubercles on the gill cover and pectoral fins has nothing to do with aggressive breeding. The males will continue to drive the females until the breeding season ends. It might be weeks or months depending on what the weather is like. They breed in warm weather and stop when it cools down.

Doing daily water changes can stimulate fish because it's like rainfall and lots of fish breed when it rains. Trying to cool the tank down with water changes probably won't make any difference. If you have an air-conditioner in the room you might be able to drop the temperature that way but it will need to be on every day for a few months.

Most people just let them breed or separate them.

 

[Orandalife8890]

My concern is that the tank is upstairs so it's just naturally warmer. I live in Missouri so it's 50's at night and high 70's to low 80's during the day. The problem is I don't believe the female is mature enough to breed. I'd say she's MAYBE a year and a half old. Will it stop if no breeding happens?

 

[Colin_T]

My concern is that the tank is upstairs so it's just naturally warmer. I live in Missouri so it's 50's at night and high 70's to low 80's during the day. The problem is I don't believe the female is mature enough to breed. I'd say she's MAYBE a year and a half old. Will it stop if no breeding happens?

probably not, think randy teenage boys chasing the girls.

 

[Orandalife8890]

So basically I need to keep them separated during the day

 

[Colin_T]

Day and night for a few months until the breeding season is over.

Fish can see in much lower light than humans and what we see as dark, fish say, we can see quite well. And first thing in the morning is when the fish are most likely to breed (just after sunrise) so ideally if you don't want them breeding, separate them.

 

[Orandalife8890]

Yeah I can tell because he's perfectly fine at 6 am but when noon rolls around he's lethargic. I'll make a divider tomorrow.