discus behavior?

[trong]

so pretty much all of us here love to watch and take care of our fish. i am new and was just thinking it would be interesting to have a section in this forum dedicated to the observed behavior of these amazing fish, as subjective as it may be i think a great deal of info can be pooled and the fish itself may become better understood. for example the color changes they exhibit when interacting. mine be they only together for less than a week seem to be doing this pecking order thing. lots of color changing. blues, reds, violets. whats that all about? just thinking and blissfully observing!

[trong]

so i take it know one thinks this is a good idea, maybe it is to subjective? or maybe i've gotten to crazy, could be either says my wife. still enjoying!

[Teshi]

I've had my fish about a month now. And have been worried that they just hang around at the bottom of the tank behind the DW or under it. Until last night. I couldn't sleep and had turned off the lights and instead of turning the tank lights off totally I put them on the blue night light. OMG they were so much fun to watch.... Swimming and what looked like to be enjoying the tank. No picking and bullying but almost like they were playing tag. Now this morning they are back under the DW or behind it. I guess they do so much swimming at night that they are just tired out.

[trong]

my six 4 and 5 " discus really scuffed it up last night. i have 2 discus that are pretty banged up only on one side. im not sure what to make of this as they all appear to be fine today minus flesh wounds to the two. ive only had discus for a total of 2 weeks. they really get at each other. i know they do this pecking order thing b ut this is more than i thought. it seems continuous and im worried about tonight. tomorrow is water change day. i hope they figure it out or settle down.

[strawberryblonde]

Pecking order is totally normal. If they do manage to hurt one another it's best to do large water changes daily until the scuff marks and flesh wounds heal up so if I were you I'd do a wc today.

There may be something else going on in the tank that's causing the high aggression at night when the lights are out. Do you have a small light that you can leave on near the tank? Mine are usually fine in the dark, but there are times when they really need a little bit of light in order to stay calm. I usually know those times by how fiesty they are during the last feeding of the day and during the evening before lights out. If they're chasing each other all over the place, then I leave a nightlight on for them. Even a silly cordora bumping into one of them can send them all into high alert.

[trong]

i did a 50 % change today and i do have moonlight leds. they sure are funny fish! ive been keeping fish both salt and fresh for 20+ years and i must say i feel the least confident with these as opposed to any other fish ive kept. ive even had seahorse for 2 yrs, they were a cake walk in comparison. things seem much calmer today