Aggressive Breeding Pairs

[chris_1973]

So in my 75 Gallon i have a:

4.5 inch discus (unknown sex)
2.5 inch stunted runt
2 x 4.5 inch bleeding pair (Blue Diamond F and Green Pigeon Blood M)
2 x 5.5 inch Marlboro Red Females who appear to have paired up and laid eggs when in Quarantine.

The Marlboro Reds are just continually attacking the other breeding pair. At first they just went after the male but it seem now they are going after both. My Blue Diamond has all kinds of marks on her body. Both have been fin nipped a bit as well.
I just added the Marlboro Reds 2 weeks ago. Things seemed fine at first, in fact it was them that was getting attacked, but now my smaller breeding pair are getting really picked on and look very unhappy

What are my options? The tank has plenty of places to hide so i have that covered.
Get 2 more discus to spread out the aggression?
I'm not looking to breed the fish, my water is too hard anyway.
Should i move the Blue Diamond and her mate to a separate tank? All i have is my 10G quarantine. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a nice display tank

I love all my fish and really don't want to get rid of them.

Thanks

[peewee1]

So in my 75 Gallon i have a:

4.5 inch discus (unknown sex)
2.5 inch stunted runt
2 x 4.5 inch bleeding pair (Blue Diamond F and Green Pigeon Blood M)
2 x 5.5 inch Marlboro Red Females who appear to have paired up and laid eggs when in Quarantine.

The Marlboro Reds are just continually attacking the other breeding pair. At first they just went after the male but it seem now they are going after both. My Blue Diamond has all kinds of marks on her body. Both have been fin nipped a bit as well.
I just added the Marlboro Reds 2 weeks ago. Things seemed fine at first, in fact it was them that was getting attacked, but now my smaller breeding pair are getting really picked on and look very unhappy

What are my options? The tank has plenty of places to hide so i have that covered.
Get 2 more discus to spread out the aggression?
I'm not looking to breed the fish, my water is too hard anyway.
Should i move the Blue Diamond and her mate to a separate tank? All i have is my 10G quarantine. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a nice display tank

I love all my fish and really don't want to get rid of them.

Thanks

It seems that when discus hobbyist commit to keeping them they are also almost obliged to having two or more tanks. One for display and one for quarantine or segregation or breeding. I think too the fish themselves, like people, have different temperaments which in turn causes conflicts. I am at the extreme when it comes to crowidng fish into a space. I keep 1 fish to 5 gallons rather than the suggested 1 per 10 gallons. All get along, with an occasional chase if one ventures to close to the side where two have paired and are trying to spawn. I see a lot of soft nudging where one will push another out of the way, rather then chasing a nipping. I don't know if adding 2 would change anything so you might have to experiment with moving spawning pair out. If they do produce fry then you would have tank space for the them in the 75.

[chris_1973]

Thanks for the reply. I know I’m a little under stocked. Had a couple die on me. Over the summer I’ll buy a few more for sure.
I kind of went about this the wrong way and I regret not buying 8-9 all at the same time instead of piecing it together, but live and learn and trust advice of simply discus.

Anyway, I moved the breeding pair at my quarantine tank tonight. They looked so beat up.
The Marlboro’s seem to have calmed down now.

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks for the reply. I know I’m a little under stocked. Had a couple die on me. Over the summer I’ll buy a few more for sure.
I kind of went about this the wrong way and I regret not buying 8-9 all at the same time instead of piecing it together, but live and learn and trust advice of simply discus.

Anyway, I moved the breeding pair at my quarantine tank tonight. They looked so beat up.
The Marlboro’s seem to have calmed down now.

Hi Chris, a 10 gallon is really small for a pair of discus so please stay on top of the water changes. Another consideration would be to move one of the Marlboro to the 10 gallon and see if that settles things down a bit.
Pat

[chris_1973]

Hi Chris, a 10 gallon is really small for a pair of discus so please stay on top of the water changes. Another consideration would be to move one of the Marlboro to the 10 gallon and see if that settles things down a bit.
Pat

Yes i agree, the 10 Gallon is pretty small. they will get 75% WC a day so it should be fine. I used it to hold me Marlboro's for 5 weeks while in quarantine.