bullying to the limit!

[alxjss]

Happy Saturday to Everyone. Everyone but me!!! I am totally not happy w/my discus. There r 2 of them that r dominating the tank. I have a 75gal and one took over one half of the tank, and the other took over the other half. The 4 remaining can hardly swim around w/o getting pecked at. I was wondering about the egg crate divider. I could move the sponge to the other side where the one dominates. Wonder what that will do. I will try that, but if that doesn't work, then i must divide the tank up. No other choice
Can someone tell me what they did? I don't have much to move around, just the sponge. HELP!!!!

[Ryan]

How old are they? Is it possible you have a pair forming?

If not, you can isolate the problem fish, move all the decorations/sponges/filters/etc. around, then add the fish back. That usually works pretty well.

[accessj]

I have a BD that was dominating all other 7 discus in my 75 gallon. He (or she) didn’t want to let anyone else eat. He was always charging and pecking. I was thinking about putting a divider in my tank to keep him away from everyone else. About 5 days ago, my son called me at work to say that everyone was ganging up on him and fighting him. When I came home that day, he was hiding behind the filter intake tubes. Since then he slowly came out of hiding. I looked him over when he was hiding – no sign of illness. Good color and erect fins. Now he is back out in the open. He appears to be much more willing to let the others eat now. I don’t know if this will last, but he’s been like this since the “mutiny”. It seems that when he became too much of a bully – the other banded together to put him in his place. But maybe I’m reading too much into this event. Has anyone else ever seen this happen?

[Elcid]

I would not put divider. Why not do a light PP treat of ur tank and see if it helps....Usually, agression is returned with agression unless all ur other fish are much weaker than the agressor? If this is the case maybe you should sell that fish or get another tank

take care,
Sandeep

[alxjss]

I would not put divider. Why not do a light PP treat of ur tank and see if it helps....Usually, agression is returned with agression unless all ur other fish are much weaker than the agressor? If this is the case maybe you should sell that fish or get another tank

take care,
Sandeep

ok, what would pp do, and what is it? I have heard of pp, but i have never used it. Also, i don't want to sell them yet. I have only had them for 9wks now. they r about 5 - 6mo old right now. I do have alot of twitching going on. Maybe there is something in this tank that is making them this way. A parasite or something i can't see. Wow, what a trip this is...

Ryan, i only have a sponge. When i do this, would i have to take them out of the tank completely? Wouldn't that be too much stress?

[Elcid]

PP is potassium permanganate.....you can do a search on the forum and find out everything you need to know and how to use it as there are plenty of posts about it....My friend Andrew Soh's advise seems to ring a bell and he does cover the use of PP very well...

HTH
Sandeep

[kaceyo]

What Ryan meant was for you to remove the problem fish only, then move everything in the tank to different areas, then return the problem fish. You can rearrange just the filter and heater if thats all thats in the tank.
Sounds like your fish may have solved the problem on their own tho.

Kacey

[alxjss]

Sounds like your fish may have solved the problem on their own tho.

Kacey

Hi Kacey, what do u mean by that?

[alxjss]

okay, did the rearrange thing in the tank. Moved everything xcept the intake. Even moved that to the other side. Changed the flow also. Will see if it helps. I had the 2 bully's out and took advantage and measured them. 4.5". I can't belive that. I get them when they were 2.5-3". They grew that much in 9 wks!!!

[kaceyo]

OOPS!!! Actually I wasn't looking close enough and got your name mixed with accessj, so it was not your fish that ganged up on the bully and solved their own problem. Sorry!

Kacey

[mmorris]

I would not put divider. Why not do a light PP treat of ur tank and see if it helps....Sandeep

Sandeep, why do you recommend medication? Martha

[Kindredspirit]

Sandeep, why do you recommend medication? Martha

Ya know Martha Dear...you beat me to it Really though, San...this was not wise esp for someone getting into the hobby...

PP kills ~ if not used with caution I have never used it alone, only with the help of Kenny via phone ~ I know a few that has knocked out their entire tank with this

....and you nonchalantely suggested it ~ and I know that you probably did not really mean any harm....

oops!

[dragon]

[QUOTE=mmorris;401773]Sandeep, why do you recommend medication? Martha[/

[Elcid]

Hi Guyz:

Okay here's how I broke down what Eileen said:

In her 1st post:

(1) She has a 75 gallon tank with 6 discus, 2 dominating and 4 being picked at.
(2) One fish controls the left side of the tank the other the right side.
(3) The remainder of the 4 fish cannot move around the tank and get pecked at.

In her 2nd post:

(1) She has a BD that dominates all other 7 discus (bringing the total to 8).
(2) The BD has not been letting the other 7 feed for some time.
(3) Then the 7 discus were pecking at the BD and he stopped eating and was hiding/not eating.
(4) In a few days the BD came out of hiding, no sign of illness
(5) Bullying has reduced

Okay I have faced this situation before. Whenever this happens I tend to overfeed with the hope that the weaker fish will get some food. The dominant fish gobbles up a lot of food, more than he really aught to eat and eventually he gets constipated and goes into hiding from the discomfort. The other fish get a chance to peck at him because he's really not feeling well. The biggest problem in this situation comes from the overfeeding and "bacterial bloom" in the tank as a result of it. A light PP treat will really clean up the tank and kill the excess bacteria that make all the fish unhappy.

It is not difficult to do light PP treat. I recommended reading what others have posted about PP to Eileen is so that she can educate herself before doing it. What I do is sprinkle PP powder like salt and stir the water with my hand until it turns a light purple color. Then I watch the tank to make sure that the light purple color remains for atleast 1 hr. I never hurry and add too much, just a little at a time to establish the light purple with the light on. It's really not difficult at all. You will be surprised how all you fish will respond positively to this treatment. I don't know what I woud do if I didn't use it sometimes because it is the best way to really clean up the tank.

As the saying goes, an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

HTH,
Sandeep

[alxjss]

Hi Guyz:

Okay here's how I broke down what Eileen said:

In her 1st post:

(1) She has a 75 gallon tank with 6 discus, 2 dominating and 4 being picked at.
(2) One fish controls the left side of the tank the other the right side.
(3) The remainder of the 4 fish cannot move around the tank and get pecked at.

In her 2nd post:

(1) She has a BD that dominates all other 7 discus (bringing the total to 8).
(2) The BD has not been letting the other 7 feed for some time.
(3) Then the 7 discus were pecking at the BD and he stopped eating and was hiding/not eating.
(4) In a few days the BD came out of hiding, no sign of illness
(5) Bullying has reduced

Okay I have faced this situation before. Whenever this happens I tend to overfeed with the hope that the weaker fish will get some food. The dominant fish gobbles up a lot of food, more than he really aught to eat and eventually he gets constipated and goes into hiding from the discomfort. The other fish get a chance to peck at him because he's really not feeling well. The biggest problem in this situation comes from the overfeeding and "bacterial bloom" in the tank as a result of it. A light PP treat will really clean up the tank and kill the excess bacteria that make all the fish unhappy.

It is not difficult to do light PP treat. I recommended reading what others have posted about PP to Eileen is so that she can educate herself before doing it. What I do is sprinkle PP powder like salt and stir the water with my hand until it turns a light purple color. Then I watch the tank to make sure that the light purple color remains for atleast 1 hr. I never hurry and add too much, just a little at a time to establish the light purple with the light on. It's really not difficult at all. You will be surprised how all you fish will respond positively to this treatment. I don't know what I woud do if I didn't use it sometimes because it is the best way to really clean up the tank.

As the saying goes, an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

HTH,
Sandeep

ok sandeep, u have gotten me confused. I only have the 1 situation not number 2. I only have 6 discus. I rearranged the tank, helped a litttle, but not much. I have read the posting about pp and it kinda scares me alittle. I definately wouldn't use this w/o supervision. Is there anything else that is not so scary?