Discus starting to fight again...

gatotsu77

gatotsu77

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May 17, 2006
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Argh... just when I thought they got things sorted out and they were all playing nice, the pigeon bloods are back at it, and this time they're serious. They're chasing the red turq and blue diamond quite a bit... frequently nipping at them and chasing them away from any potential food source. I know discus can survive a few days without food if they need to, but I don't want to have too much aggression in the tank. What can I do to disperse the aggression more, witout adding a huge hit to the bio load? I'll be doing 10-15 gallon daily water changes, so bio load isn't a HUGE deal, but I don't want to just add a ton of fish if there are other things I can do to help. I know I have both read and been told that 5 discus is considered the minimum to keep together, but I have heard many controversial arguments regarding keeping 5 discus in a 55g tank. Some sources say 3-4 max, others say 6 would be fine... can I get some opinions from the discus keepers on this forum? If any of you have discus in a 55g tank, would you please let me know how many you have, how big they are, and what the other tank inhabitants are? I'll consider getting another discus if I need to so as to disperse the aggression more, as the 2 pigeon bloods are REALLY laying into the other two... I feel so bad for the poor little guys. I have not noticed any physical damage caused, but I don't want to risk it escalating to that stage. To those of you who have already suggested that I would likely encounter issues with low numbers of discus, I apologize if I did not seem to take your concerns to heart as much as I should have, and I am open to suggestions. I don't want to have to return them all... I know discus can be kept in a 55g tank successfully... (depending on temperament of the fish in the tank) and I don't have the advantage of a local breeder... but I want to do what I can to both keep them and make them happy/health. Any suggestions? Am I just being too paranoid about my fish? I've never owned fish that cost $40 each... so I'm both worried because I like them and I'm trying to protect my investment.
 
bump....
 
I have 6 in a 55. They do fight and 2 seem to have a bitter rivalry. I'm guessing the are the 2 biggest males. Your fish's social structure will change. Other fish will become more aggressive with time or they will end up as runts. I have 2 runts I'm going to get rid of and probably get 1 more Discus. The runts will probably go into an Angel tank.

If you want good fish I suggest you buy like 10 Discus from a breeder at 1-2" and give excellent care for the first 6 months. Then cull out the ugly ones.
 
I have 7 in a 72G, 6 are full grown, 1 is almost full grown. Much like RedScare, my experience has been to buy more than what you really want to end up with in the tank. There always seems to be a runt or two. And you may lose a fish while growing them out. I lost a beautiful almost adult recently who was fat and healthy one minute and suddenly developed a major swim bladder failure and had to euthanize. From this batch I also had one that did the ping-pong thing into the side of the tank shortly after I added it and it hit the end of the tank so hard it died. I had 3 runts that I took out as well. So I started out with 12 juvies pretty much knowing that's not what I'd wind up with as adults. I have other fish in the tank so 7 is perfect for me. I find the larger the group the more peaceful the tank. I have a bit of aggresion from time to time since everyone has paired up and spawned in the tank, I turn the lights off and once the eggs have been laid....all is calm.
 
RedScare said:
I have 6 in a 55. They do fight and 2 seem to have a bitter rivalry. I'm guessing the are the 2 biggest males. Your fish's social structure will change. Other fish will become more aggressive with time or they will end up as runts. I have 2 runts I'm going to get rid of and probably get 1 more Discus. The runts will probably go into an Angel tank.

If you want good fish I suggest you buy like 10 Discus from a breeder at 1-2" and give excellent care for the first 6 months. Then cull out the ugly ones.
Click to expand...

Do you have any other inhabitants in the tank? Or is it just the 6 discus?



pinkertd said:
I have 7 in a 72G, 6 are full grown, 1 is almost full grown. Much like RedScare, my experience has been to buy more than what you really want to end up with in the tank. There always seems to be a runt or two. And you may lose a fish while growing them out. I lost a beautiful almost adult recently who was fat and healthy one minute and suddenly developed a major swim bladder failure and had to euthanize. From this batch I also had one that did the ping-pong thing into the side of the tank shortly after I added it and it hit the end of the tank so hard it died. I had 3 runts that I took out as well. So I started out with 12 juvies pretty much knowing that's not what I'd wind up with as adults. I have other fish in the tank so 7 is perfect for me. I find the larger the group the more peaceful the tank. I have a bit of aggresion from time to time since everyone has paired up and spawned in the tank, I turn the lights off and once the eggs have been laid....all is calm.
Click to expand...


Haha... but discus are so darn expensive! Dang it... I had no idea how much I'd end up spending since my gf finally convinced me to go to discus...



jm1212 said:
are the two aggressors a breeding pair?
Click to expand...

I don't believe so? There's a chance... but I think they're too young to hit sexual maturity. The aggressors are perhaps 3.5" body length, and the ones getting picked on are 3" body length.
 
RedScare said:
In my Discus tank I have 6 Discus, 6 Corydoras Aneus, and 1 Rupperlip Pleco.
Click to expand...

I just got 3 more discus today, all displaying similar coloring to the red turquoise I had with the initial 3. I'm officially up to 7 juvie discus, 5 young cories, 4 harlequins, 1 cardinal, 1 golden killiefish, and 1 bamboo shrimp. I'm likely going to get a few more cardinals, as I've been trying to for several months now, but beyond that my tank is officially full. Oh, and regarding the 2 bigger fish bullying the smaller ones, I'm going to do some more reading on how to sex discus and try to determine that. One of the 3 I got today is larger than any of the others, and the other 2 I got today are just a tad smaller than the other discus. Here's hoping all goes well...
 
It will be impossible to sex your discus until they are adults, and even then it is difficult until they actually spawn and you can see their breeding tubes. Discus aren't sexually mature enough to spawn until around 1 year of ago or longer and the females often mature before the males. Occasionally you get a discus that is just a plain pain in the you know what! I had a red marlboro like that, she just would not stop chasing after everyone especially at feeding time. I even threw her in a tank with some new additions in a QT tank hoping the different surroundings with different fish would mellow her out a bit, but it did not. She was just plain nasty to everyone. I was stressed out every time I observed the tank. Needless to say, I found her a good home.
 
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