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Thread: Drama in the QT Tank

  1. #1
    Registered Member
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    Nov 2008
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    Default Drama in the QT Tank

    There is drama in my QT tanks.

    I got 8 3" fish a month ago from a SD sponsor. At first, 3 of the 8 ate immediately and started to grow big fast, while 5 refused to eat and started to wither. I feed cobalt flakes and freeze dried black worms. Anyway, I put the 5 non-eaters into the hospital tank and gave them a dose of API General Cure because I think the shipping stressed them and that is why they were not eating. After the treatment and about two weeks 4 of the 5 started to eat and were back to normal. The 5th one never ate and withered away and died.

    Of the 4 remaining in the hospital tank, 1 still had scars from the hole in the head he got during shipping, so I kept him in the hospital tank and transferred the other 3 back to the big 75 gallon tank with the 3 fish that ate from the beginning.

    Of those 3 that ate from the beginning and did not go into the hospital tank, the smallest one was bullied by the bigger 2 and eventually stopped eating. The bigger 2 got huge fast are at least 4+" by now. To save the little one that got bullied, I put a divider in the 75 gallon tank and that kept him safe from the 2 bullies...that saved him...he came back to life and started eating again.

    Right around the time the bullied fish was eating and happy again, I put the 3 healthy survivors from the hospital tank into the 75 gallon tank, on the side of the divider of the once bullied fish. I did not want the 2 big fish to bully them. These 4 became friends and ate, but due to their ordeal they hardly grew in the past month, so they are still about 3". The 2 big ones on the other side of the divider continue to grow huge and seem to get along, they are equal size. For the 1 left behind in the hospital tank, I put some salt in the water to help heal his wounds and kept him in there for the past week - it is working, his wounds are healing fast and he is happy and eating.

    Today I noticed that the 4 3" fish all together in the 75 gallon tank now have a bully problem...the one that almost died from bullying is now bullying the other 3! He does not let them eat. I was hesitant to remove the divider and mix the 4 3" with the 2 really big ones...but I did it anyway today as the 4 were not going to survive with the bully problem. I am waiting to see how removing the divider changes things, and I hope that once I add the abandoned 1 in the hospital tank after he fully heals that will give me 7 fish in the 75 gallon tank - bare minimum for mitigating bully issues. Trouble is, I now have 2 giant fish and 5 kinda smallish and stunted ones.

    Death, dramatically different growth rates, sickness, recovery, hunger strikes, and bullying - DRAMA IN THE QT TANK.

    Is this normal???

    What could I have done differently?

    Is there any hope for the 5 smaller ones to get bigger?

    How do you deal with bullying when fish die off and you go below the required quantity for peace?

    How do you deal with a situation where 2 of the fish get huge fast and the rest are kinda small?

  2. #2
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Sep 2015
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    Filip

    Default Re: Drama in the QT Tank

    It seems that you have gone through a lot with your first batch of discus Cammie.
    In this complicated situatuon i would just put them all together and treat them all together for whatever necessary . That way the pecking order will be spread among more fish than to keep them separated in multiple tanks .
    The size difference and bulling will be less of an issue if there are many discus for the bully to chase around.
    You can also buy some more similar sized discus from the same place you bought this first batch .
    Cheers and good luck .

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