Help needed with my Discuss!!

[Spiros]

I recently purchased a blue discuss at my LFS (last week), at first he was very shy but eventually came out to do his thing. Yesterday I Bought another because I read that they are best kept in pairs or groups (this one is orange). The problem is, is that the blue one (first one in the 30g tank) is bullying the new orange one?!? I don't understand why since they have a rep of being peacefull fish. Any comments would be greatly apreciated!

 

[anonapersona]

He figures he was there first, all that space was his, the other guy is in his territory. You can try rearranging the tank, and be sure to do lots of water changes for they are very sensitive to pollution and the water is now half as good as it way. I hope you have 10 to 15 gallons per fish, they need a lot of space.

 

[PumaWard]

Are these young discus? There is always a bully among a group of juvenile discus, IME. No matter how many you have, one will always throw his weight around. Adults, from what I've read and seen with my one adult, calm down.

First, we need your tank specs...

-size of your discus
-Temp...should be at least 84F
-Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings... they should be: ammonia- oppm, nitrite-0 ppm, nitrate- 10ppm or under.
-size
-other fish besides discus
-Is your tank non-planted, planted, or bare-bottom?

Discus should only be kept in pairs, for the most part, if they have actually formed a bond with each other... and your discus, if young, aren't old enough to do so.

Young discus should also be kept in groups of 6-8 fish; this keeps the bully from over stressing one or two fish.

It also sounds like you didn't quarentine the new fish; around 6 weeks for new discus that will be going into an established tank that already has discus in it. It is very important to do so... and sadly, many overlook it. I once overlooked it and almost lost all my fish because of it; now I wouldn't even think about skipping the process.

HTH