angry discus?

[Trongpai]

I have two discus in a 40g tank with a few small cat fish, some Gouramis, Cardals and shrimp. One has allways been the boss but they seem to have come to an agreement and there was not a lot of fighting until now.

I left for a 4 day holiday and put an automatic feeder on the tank, I have done this several times before. I came home to find the smaler discus, a blue diamound, hidding in the corner. He (she, no idea) was whiteish, fins retracted and breathing show. The blue diamond had what looked like whitish buiuse on it's side. The dominant discus would not let the blue diamond get up or swim. The dominant discus displayed the most agressive behavior that I have ever seen. The attacks were from the side, head on and even at the eyes of the smaler fish. I suspected the dominent discus just beat the blue diamond silly.

The dominent fish is eating well. I tried to hand feed the blue and kept the dominent one at bay but he seem reluctant to feed. He used to take food from my hand with gusto.

I first suspected some illness and did all the water tests. PH 7, all the nasties at 0. The kh was a little higher at 5, usually it's stable at 3.5. I treated for parasites at first but no real signs that was the problem. I did a 50% water change and I am working on getting the KH back to 3.5.

So, after getting along fine for over a year, I leave for 4 days and the dominent discus gets so mad at me he takes it out on the smaler fish? How do I get things back to normal?

[dwilder]

the older they get the more aggresive they get.just two in a tank unless there a pair things will stay bad

[Merrilyn]

Two fish in a tank is always a bad idea, unless they are a breeding pair.

Your 40 gallon tank is large enough to house another 2 discus, and you'll find that adding more fish to the tank will share the aggression around, and your smaller fish will have a better chance.

If things keep going the way they are, I'm afraid your small discus will eventually sicken and die. So, either separate them by putting a divider in the tank, or add more fish to the tank.

Good luck.

[Trongpai]

Thanks everyone. I did read that 2 is not a good idea but it has worked for more than a year and 1/2 with no problems. The smaller one is staying between two rocks and the dominant one keeps him there.

I'll try adding a few more and see what happens. If I buy juveniles, won't the big agressive one just have a smaller victims to attack? Or, what if I buy some full growns bigger than the bully?

[ILLUSN]

go bigger ones if you can, they'll put the bully in his place

[godprint]

sorry to add another question to this thread,

but i have about 14discus(2-3") in 1 70gal tank.

currently there is a very dominate discus...too fierce for my likig...simply bullies anyone who gets in it's way ... how can i solve that problem??

he is deifintely not the biggest thou...

[ILLUSN]

Theres not much you can do except take him out or put in a bigger fish.
With that many it shouldn't be a problem, there should be enough fish to share the aggro arround.