Ok This is really weird!

[aloosh]

Alright everyone need some serious thoughts on this one because I have never seen any thing like this.

I have 2 BDs in a community tank with other discus. They been fine together all this time. The bigger one is more aggressive towards the little one which looked all harmless. I noticed the larger BD spending alot of time with an equally sized Pearl White so I took them out and put them in a tank of their own. After some time, I established there was no pairing behaviour between the two so I put them back in with the community. Immediately, the large BD "noticed" the smaller BD and they started bowing to one another and doing a few dances. Now this was ok, no weird behaviour here. After 1 week came the weird bit. What seems to happen now is they both meet up as if they are getting ready to bow to one another but instead the smaller one goes all dark almost black and sort of drifts. The larger one comes closer to the smaller one almost as if to, ok this may sound weird, kiss the smaller one. They stay there for maybe 2 seconds or so and then the larger one pecks the smaller one and it swims off with restored colours.

Any ideas on this behaviour would be very helpful as this is just plainly weird to me.

Cheers
Ali

[Cosmo]

Ali,

Never seen that one before.
Jim

[Liz_Streithorst]

Yep, it's weird, but my guess it it just their very own version of mating behavior. For one thing, Discus often turn darker at spawning. I have a small female who pecks on hubby before they spawn. He's big and fat and lazy and doesn't always fertilize. But her pecking on him really seems to turn him on and he does the job.

[Carol_Roberts]

I've seen this. One fish will turn dark and float while one or more other discus will peck at it'sbody. I wondered if it was a grooming behavior?

[Anonapersona]

OK, so my young discus that chase others around and peck at them are really just stealing kisses?? How juvenile!

[Robin764]

I have a turq doing this with a BD. My turq is 3 1/2 inches tho (my stunt) but still probably only about 9 months old. BD chase everyone in tank...but goes up to turq, who immediately turns almost black, bars double in width, turns sideways and BD gently nips....Turq doesn't run, and BD doesn't chase......started about 3 days ago, now the two are always together on one side of the tank, and the poor black ghost I was hoping would pair up with her, delegated to the other side.

Robin

Ps, BD and Black ghost 5+ inches

[aloosh]

Hi all,

Hmmm, ok maybe this was not so weird after all.
This behaviour has ceased in my tank and the large BD now starts to chase away the smaller BD.

Thanks for everyone's help in providing a clearer picture for me ;D

Cheers

Ali