Aggressive Discus

[Hungriee]

Is there a way to make my discus less aggressive? They killed 23 cardinals in a 4 day span =(. Once the light goes out and I head to bed, the next morning I find dead cardinal bodies laying on the substrate with the heads bit off.

 

[pinkertd]

When I added small tetras, this is what I notice happens......the tetras are scared witless upon sight of the discus. I'm sure it's their first encounter with a very large fish in the same space as them. So they do the fright and flight thing. This is what triggers the discus interest in them as food, it's really not an aggression issue. The faster the small fish darts in terror, the more the discus wants the wriggley live food. When small fish have been placed in the discus tank and not exhibited the fright and flight response, they are totally ignored. I once put some of molly fry in the tank for the discus to eat and the tiny babies were totally not frightened of the discus, so much to my dismay, several weeks later I had to chase and catch mollies and get them out of that tank. I've seen the same thing with adding shrimp. The one shrimp that was afraid got chased a bit since it was sending "food signals" to the discus watching it. The others were totally ignored by the discus cause they just kinda mozied around like they had always lived there.

The tetras are going to get frightened during lights out and dart wildly attracting attention to themselves as food. I would suggest leaving a light on near the discus tank every night for several weeks. This gives the tetras a chance to learn not to flee from the discus.

 

[Hungriee]

i only have 5 left, lost about 20+ these few days, but noticed last night w/ 2 LED moonlights on, the tetras did survive.

GOOD adivce pinker!

 

[msjinkzd]

hmmm,i wonder if that would help with my cory issues (the discus are eating their eyes). Going to give it a try, great advice Deb!

 

[pinkertd]

Glad for you Hungriee, it does work! Hope it works for you as well Rach. My discus tank is about 3 feet away from my TV cabinet and I bought a decorative room light that takes 3 small 15 watt bulbs and the glass around them is fluted toward the ceiling and a dark marbled design. I leave it on every night just for the discus tank, but it is also my downstairs night light for us. It will also eliminate some night moving little fish from scaring the discus in a totally dark tank and keeping them from darting into the glass hard. The discus all sleep at the end of the tank where the room night light is.