Discus Bullying??? Does it occur?

[SoCalDiscus.com]

I started up a nice tank in my living room which I don't intend to obviously use for breeding purposes, just decore' where I want a community of Discus. The first set of Discus I bought for it are beautiful and a good 8" full size. Right off the bat they are breeding like every 4 days. My question is that I want to still add more Discus in the tank but now I'm worried the mated pair will bully or stress out the other Discus to be added. Does a mated pair like most cichlids get rough with tank mates when breeding or are Discus more community fish and not really a concern?

[Skip]

Who did u buy 8" discus from?

[Chicago Discus]

well I hate to tell you this but if they are spawning every four days you have two girls..so yes you should probably look for some male discus........josie

[sandy]

But what is your plan bare bottom or planted if u go with bb then there will be chances of some fights but in planted will be ok because have seen discus breeding in planted tank along with other discus and fish

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

[Brent1972]

well I hate to tell you this but if they are spawning every four days you have two girls..so yes you should probably look for some male discus........josie

Not always the case Josie , I have a pair of blue diamonds who Spawn every 4 days . I have to split them up to have a break.

[leo1234]

I would like to see your fishes any pics??
8" inches wow!!! It that with the tail or not?

[John_Nicholson]

I typed bully in the little search box on the top left of the screen and got 11 pages of results....Search is your friend.

On the size...they maybe 8 inches but I fine most people overstate the size of their adult discus by about 2 inches.....seems I am one of the few discus people that owns a tape measure.

Good luck.

-john

[Chicago Discus]

Not always the case Josie , I have a pair of blue diamonds who Spawn every 4 days . I have to split them up to have a break.

Just stated from my experience with forming pairs......Josie

[John_Nicholson]

That should have been top right.....Hey give me a break its Friday....LOL.

-john

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Chicago Discus: Nope, they are dropping a good hundred eggs every 4-7 days and some hatch, some don't. I'm pretty sure it would be a 100% no hatch if I had two girls...lol

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Warlock: About 7-8" Big Boys - picked them up from Craigslist from a local guy who's had them some time now breeding them. I'll post a picture when I can.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Sandy: Barebottom for now with Swahala wood in tank only. I want to put gravel or sand substrate just on the community tank in the house but all my breeder tanks in the garage are your typical empty BB tanks.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Brent: Exactly Brent! I've actually tried to find ways to get them to stop breeding. I'm new here but actually an Ichthyologist with most all my years in breeding marine fish. I even own several big stores but I'm not going to mention them here as I don't want to get blasted off the forum. In short, I've bred marine fish for over two decades which are some of the most difficult to do but I recently got the "Discus Bug".

What I'm getting at is I like to "fatten and nourish" my breeder fish up first before letting them breed. I'm actually worried they are wearing each other down and the male's boys are coming up short...lol

I really think it's my hard water here that's preventing the sperm from fertilizing the majority of the eggs but yes, I do get several wigglers, just not enough to say it was a success.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

John: Nope, got a tape measure and it's not a rubber one...lol. They are simply as big as they will ever get though. I have no idea their age?

Johns right though, I should have used the search box first :p . I'll do that John, thanks.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Looks like a lot of great questions and glad to see this is an active forum but so far nobody that has indicated seeing bullying of other discus in a community tank by a pair of breeders. Well keep those comments coming in, it's nice talking fish anyway.... Thanks, it allows me a break from my daily work to talk with others who have the same interest.

Michael

[Orange Crush]

On the size...they maybe 8 inches but I fine most people overstate the size of their adult discus by about 2 inches.....
Especially if it's a man....lol ;)

[Orange Crush]

Looks like a lot of great questions and glad to see this is an active forum but so far nobody that has indicated seeing bullying of other discus in a community tank by a pair of breeders. Well keep those comments coming in, it's nice talking fish anyway.... Thanks, it allows me a break from my daily work to talk with others who have the same interest.

Michael
I have 2 confirmed pairs and I cannot keep them in the same tank (community w/apistos, shrimp and a pleco) because one of the males constantly picks on the other one. It is a bare bottom with plants attatched to wood or in pots; there are several hiding places but the one male will seek out the other no matter where he is.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

that was pretty funny above Orange Crush (exageration by 2" inches)....

Anyway, for good or bad I scored big time today and added a mixed company of Discus of all sizes. The pair is still the Grand Daddy's of them all with their size but I added a dozen new Discus ranging from as small as 3" to as much as 6" (no exageration on the size...lol).

From experience I know that if you only added one more, all aggression would be positioned on the one but if there is any aggretion to be had and you want to add fish, if you add more than 3 of any species, then the aggression is typically dispersed across to all and calms everyone down (basically stops). I've been sitting in front of the tank nearly all day as I am now while I type this and the big pair hasn't picked or even chased any way not even from their spawning cone. The only chassing has been done with the smaller 4-5" fish against the smaller 2.5-3" probably just creating a pecking order.

Hey, thanks everyone for the tips and help.

Michael

[SoCalDiscus.com]

Okay I've been keeping an eye on them to make sure nobody get's beat down or tattered and noticed territory bullying now. My big mated pair have found an area where I have a PVC pipe in the corner used for filteration and as of this morning they are cleaning it as if to prep it for spawning despite a dozen other discus in the tank (can't stop these rabbits) but the most aggression has been very very light. They basically keep all other discus at bay to the left half of the tank where as they keep to the right (just some space). When a discus wonders too close they simply approach them and they scram without any actual nipping so it seems territorial rights have been established.

I'll be rushing to setup my other breeder tanks and will sepperate them so they have their own tank again shortly.

[SoCalDiscus.com]

There they go!!!! Another big clutch of eggs again. Hmmmmm, okay so I put a metal mesh guard around them this time and makes sense why the larger discus were keeping the others away from that area. It was in a spot I didnt' see the eggs. I just noticed them doing my daily water change right now. I got to get my breeding system finished soon. :(

[Chicago Discus]

Chicago Discus: Nope, they are dropping a good hundred eggs every 4-7 days and some hatch, some don't. I'm pretty sure it would be a 100% no hatch if I had two girls...lol


Thanks you learn something new everyday, from my experience if Im trying a new pair if they spawn every four days usually tells me it two females but maybe I'm wrong.......Josie

[SoCalDiscus.com]

I know what you mean. I've got a seahorse and clownfish farm here in california and some breed weekly where as others I wait monthly. I've either got a really frisky set or a pair of rabbits here...lol

I did breed discus some 15-20 years ago and this is the first run at it again since then and no, I never had a pair that bred this often back then. Nice to have a Discus specific forum to chat with here though and learn from so many well experienced hobbyists. :)

Alot has changed since then!

[Ginger]

I have a pair laying eggs every four days (7 times in 28 days) who have become so aggressive to my two other discus that I've had to put a divider in the tank to keep them from the other two. They are four 4" - 4 1/2" Blue Diamonds that I got from Discus Hans four weeks ago. At first the egg layers went from just "rushing" the other two discus away, to seeking them out where they were huddled in a corner far from their favorite egg-laying spot, behind a stump, among tubing and leaves, and ramming one, repeatedly. Then the first victim, would pass it on to the one it had just been huddling with.

I'm not sure that the first 5 layings were from the same two fish, but layings #6 and #7 happened since I separated the pairs with the tank divider. The first 5 layings disappeared within 24 hours, but #6 lasted into Day 3. The eggs went from clear yellow beige to the same color with dark dots in them. They vanished in the middle of a morning feeding when I went to feed the rams in my quarantine tank. I was surprised because it was broad daylight and only 10 minutes before the pair had been tending the eggs. I do have all kinds of catfish and a betta in there.

It's a 90 gallon planted tank.

I put in a tank divider separating the pairs while I decide what to do. I'm not interested in raising discus. I'm afraid to invest in more discus because I'm new to discus, my husband might kill me if I spend more (just kidding) and what if I still have serious aggression anyway? I'm thinking I should sell the spawning pair. Or maybe they could stand up to any angels that turned out to be aggressive, so I should keep the feisty spawners, sell the two harrassed discus and I indulge myself in some angels.

Or do you suppose I could keep all four discuss and fill up the tank with 5 rams plus say 6 angels and maybe aggression would stay down at acceptable levels?

I'd love any opinions on what to do... if anyone sees this, given that the last post was 2 1/2 years ago!

Ginger