Naughty Discus

[oscar]

I have a trouble child. It's a red-turq about 3 inch (inc tail). It swims around all day with both dorsal & anal fins at max extension and pesters everything that is in a tank with it.

I had a tank of discus of similar size, but it hounded them one by one until they all died. Before the last of the similar sized fish died ( a beutiful specimen) i got a handful of newies in from SLS. They are all larger fish 3.5 to almost 4.5inch, but the little bugger rounded them up constatntly so they were too frightened to come out. :?

Now this fish is in a community tank of cardinals, BNs, clown loached etc. It's the only discus in the tank and still gets around with fins all out.

I's really like to have other discus in the tank with it but i'm almost at an end...can anybody please offer some assistance.

I don't want to have to put it down, but it just keeps costing me money. I might have to trade it for something else at LFS. :cry:

[nicholas76]

put it in with bigger discus oscar.

take it out of the tank ( if its your only one ), change the surroundings, put the other fish in first and after a little while put him in.

[oscar]

Thanks for the reply nicholas.

That was my thoughts about 4 weeks ago. Unfortunately i did have it in with bigger discus. I introduced them into it's tank but did change the surroundings as you said...no avail.

now it's in a tank with cardinals etc. I'll have another shot at re-introducing it so society in a while.

[nicholas76]

Hi Oscar,

i had the same problem, put him in my community tank with about 4 other much larger yet peaceful fish. He got the hint but still had the agro in him when i tried to re introduce to tank mates his size!

you get that however.

would love to see a pic of this agro fish ! sounds like its got a colourful personality.

[oscar]

Will see if i remember to take a couple this weekend.

[rytis]

I have a trouble child. It's a red-turq about 3 inch (inc tail). It swims around all day with both dorsal & anal fins at max extension and pesters everything that is in a tank with it.

i solved similar problem. how big is your tank? you need a lot of hiding places, over feeding them other then flake/dried food makes them aggressive clearly without a doubt i noticed.

basicaly make life difficult for the aggressive guy just a little but dont overdo it, like catch it, keep it in a 5 galon container for 1/2 day at a time, let it back. usually the aggressive is healthy enough so i wouldnt worry about it's health, just make sure container isnt too cold thats all. in and out, till it's behavior imroves, this will solve the problem.

[Stuart]

I know it goes against the grain - but you might consider getting rid of it. You have said it's already responsible for the death of several others.

[nicholas76]

Stuart your opinion is a valid one.!

getting rid of it is a quick and easy solution!

[oscar]

I've come pretty close to getting rid of it. It doesn't go against the grain because i'd take it to LFS as opposed to terminating it.

Well that particular fish has spent some fairly considerable time as the only discus it's tank. Last week i put 3 BD's and 2 Yellow Melons in with it.

It's still showing a bit of aggression but not as much as it used to. The other hand i played here was to get multiple fish of the same colour in order to impede it's abiltiy to single out a particular fish.

We'll see how it goes.

[rytis]

oscar. read my lips: feed them less. overfeeding is what causes this aggression, i only kept discus for abut 4 months, but nothing is clearer then this.
had sameproble today with my red discus. luckily my tank is big, but i know if i feed less as i did by the end of the day, they calm down. water changes and less feeding will solve the problem. try it

[nicholas76]

oscar. read my lips: feed them less. overfeeding is what causes this aggression, i only kept discus for abut 4 months, but nothing is clearer then this.
had sameproble today with my red discus. luckily my tank is big, but i know if i feed less as i did by the end of the day, they calm down. water changes and less feeding will solve the problem. try it


absolutely and totally disagree.

there is no proven correlation that proves your point.

[Merrilyn]

[quote="rytis". overfeeding is what causes this aggression, i only kept discus for abut 4 months, but nothing is clearer then this.[/quote]

Hi rytis, interesting theory. I guess in the natural world, if food is scarce, starving fish are not going to waste their energy on aggression, so I guess underfeeding could reduce the aggression in your tank.

We need to remember that our discus are cichlids, and as such, it's quite normal for them to show some aggression towards each other.

Now, I've kept discus for around thirty years, and underfeeding is not a method I could recommend to reduce aggression. I would rather feed my fish well, and make sure that all of them are getting plenty to eat, and being given the chance to reach their full potential. In a situation where there is chronic underfeeding, only the most dominant fish will get anything to eat, and the others will eventually die of starvation. Probably not an ideal situation.

A starving discus is very obvious. When viewed head on, it has a pinched appearance above the eyes instead of a nice plump look. As the fish continues to waste away, the skeleton becomes obvious, and the eye bigins to appear too large for the size of the body. It may take months for a discus to starve to death.

You may like to review your feeding arrangements. Discus need a high protein diet, and I like to feed mine five or six times a day, just as much as they will consume in about 15 minutes. That's the ideal way to grow happy, healthy discus.

:P

[Merrilyn]

Oscar, that was a very good move.

As this fish has been the only one in the tank for a long time, he obviously regards the whole tank as his territory. Naturally he is going to attack any fish that enters his territory.

Ny getting several fish, and introducing them all at once, you will diffuse the situation.

Give it a bit of time, I think once a pecking order has been established, things should settle down dramatically. :P

[rytis]

Discus need a high protein diet, and I like to feed mine five or six times a day, just as much as they will consume in about 15 minutes. That's the ideal way to grow happy, healthy discus.

:P
i didnt mean to starve, and sometimes i feed even 10 times a day, just not for 15 minutes, only what they will eat in like 40 seconds without sinking to the bottom. but i hear what you're saying and have to think about it myself.

[Merrilyn]

We encourage good lively discussion here rytis. :D

We may not agree with your ideas, but we still encourage you to share them.

Keep up the good work. :P

We all learn from each other. Some of us have just been learning longer than others :wink: