Calming down spazzing out Discus

[Just Bob]

So I recently moved my breeding pair from the community tank to a breeding tank.

Since moving them - which was relatively uneventful, the 4 discus remaining in the community tank spaz out anytime I go near the tank - they never did that before.

Any thoughts on calming them down? It's like they miss the pair that got moved and feel like they're "next" to go to the big fishing net in the sky!!

[LizStreithorst]

That's strange. Have you tried putting some plants in pots or driftwood in their tank. It might just work like a happiness and security blanket.

[CliffsDiscus]

Any other changes can trigger them to hide or skittish.

[Just Bob]

That's something I can try... maybe break up the tank a little bit.

I've not seen this behaviour before, it's almost like they miss their tankmates. :/

Thanks

[4eye gold fish]

This is from my own observation and experience. On one of my water changes I splashed water to clean the sides of the tank, two discus freaked out and started jumping and darting all over. After that incident, one of the two is always jumpy and soon turned to whirling and died.

[CliffsDiscus]

Sansom of Universal Discus opened his garage door some of those Angel Diamond were flying out of his tank as he was catching them with his net.

Cliff

[Just Bob]

They're still freaking out a bit - it's almost like the pair were a safety/calming influence.

Trying to limit the amount of dark colours and sudden movement around the tank and hoping that they settle back down.

Jeesh... 7 second memories... I don't think so!! :O

[Vinni Smith]

These discus are strange creatures indeed.
The first few months that we kept them confused me terribly.
Months!
I communicated with Liz more than once about it. ( She is in the know for sure!)
All I had to do was put the python tube in and they FREAKED and would stay freaked until the next day when it was time for a WC again.
That was a long time ago.
Now I put the tube in and they get mad and attack it the whole time.
I even bump them out of the way to get to the poop areas.
The only time they spook now is with a very unexpected surprise.
What ever that may be. A light in the middle of the night or a great dane nosing the front of the tank.

[Just Bob]

UPDATE:

Spazzing out has stopped - about a week after removing the pair, now long forgotten

One other thing I did was up the tank temp by a couple of degrees... it was at 82 and I upped it to 84-85... that seems to have made a difference, maybe it's a metabolism thing. All feeding well, stress bars gone and no spazzing out! Phew!