Group Cohesion

[rrokie8131]

Hello all,

I have been reading through the threads about bullying and it seems that the general consensus is rather varied. The major camps of thought are ride it out and it will dissipate with time or swap the bully out for a different discus.

My situation: 75 gallon with six discus. Two smaller 3 inch stunted/runts were there originally in the tank by themselves. I added four new 4 inch discus one week ago. The problem I have been having is that one of the original stunted discus is a tyrant, as he is cashing pecking and causing splits in fins of the bigger new fish. He pretty much keeps three of the new four pinned in the corners. He doesn't seem to mind the new dark angel and leaves it alone. I have pulled the bully out for a few hours and rearranged the tank (drift wood) to no avail of coarse. He is eventually right back at it in no time.

Of the two suggested options described above what do you think is best? Should I give the bully more time? Or swap him? Or maybe add more? I mean on average how long does aggression like this typically or normative you last?

I should mention other occupants of the tank are four coreys and a honey gourami so Im not sure how much more over six I can have in there. I would like to add some kind of tetra eventually.

Thanks for the help!

[MKD]

For me, if you take 1 out, someone will take that place. I would leave him back, let them sort things out. 1 weeek is too soon , sometimes it takes longer to sort things out.


Ps: did you qt new group?

[rrokie8131]

I thought that a week might be too soon to take any action. Do you have any idea of how long chasing and spearing aggression lasts before it calms down to a normal poke or nudge? Or is it really a fish by fish basis lol.

Yes a quarantined for a week. I know not long enough. I only had a 20 long, so four were packed pretty tight at 4 inches, plus the shop I picked them up from orders from Hans so I was banking on them being ok as well.

[MKD]

Normally I see them getting along in 2nd week or little longer.

[Ryan]

If it becomes an issue, take them all out, rearrange the tank, and re-add them all at the same time.

Any time you break up the hierarchy of a group by adding or removing fish you're going to see this behavior. They have to sort out a new pecking order.

[rrokie8131]

Yeah I thought that taking out the aggressor and rearranging would help, but after about 15 mins to 30mins he is right back at it. It is quite stirring to watch. It is comical though that a little runt barely three inches causes so much strife with 4 inch fish!

Also another question if you guys don't mind. Would fish that are pecking each other pretty hard be leaving white marks on each others body? One of the fire reds has quite a few of them on his body mostly, one or two on a fin, and he always has one pectoral fin clamped while the other drops down normally. He eats fine when he is not being pinned in the corner, but does hang there a lot. I attribute most of this to being bullied.

However, I thought that it may have been ich initially and so I treated with API super ich cure and had the temp at 86-88 f. After 3 days of treatment though the dots are still there. So now I'm thinking encrusted bacterial issue or peck marks. Not 100% sure.What do you guys think is the best route. Just wait and observe or should I treat with something else? Just to note, I have been doing at minimum 50% WC a day right now. My normal schedule would be 50% every other day.

Here is a pic of the set up if you are all interested.

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