Discus Behaviour

[tvoydan]

I was watching some discus at the LFS and they had just been fed live blood worms.

2 in the group seemed to dominate a little pile of the worms on each end of the tank and when another discus approached to eat, they chased them away.

Is this normal feeding behavior for discus. Are these considered the dominant fish in the tank and will they just work out a pecking order?

[discuspaul]

How many discus were in that tank and were they significantly different-sized ?
Was it a single discus at each end of the tank hoarding the worms ?
The establishment of a pecking order displays itself in several different ways, at various times, and is dependent on timing, circumstances, numbers of fish, sizes, newness within the group, and other factors.

[Rudustin]

How many discus were in that tank and were they significantly different-sized ?
Was it a single discus at each end of the tank hoarding the worms ?
The establishment of a pecking order displays itself in several different ways, at various times, and is dependent on timing, circumstances, numbers of fish, sizes, newness within the group, and other factors.
Perfect answer! Rufus

[tvoydan]

- How many discus were in that tank and were they significantly different-sized ?
7 or 8 discus in the tank. Approximately same size. Not sure how long they've been together.

- Was it a single discus at each end of the tank hoarding the worms ?
Yes. One discus on each end. It looked like the current flow aggregated the worms at 2 location on opposite ends.

[discuspaul]

I would suspect that group of discus was placed in that LFS tank just a short time ago.
Seems like it was the pecking order newly establishing itself. It'll work itself out in time, with that many discus of approx. the same size. Perhaps the LFS employee feeding the fish will consider spreading the worms out within the tank rather than just dropping in a cube of them.

[shijoong]

That looks like quite normal to me.

[DISCUS STU]

There's usually a hierarchy with Discus. If there's established fish they often dominate if they're the same size or larger. If they're smaller, this often disappears and sometimes reverses.

It's usually a good idea to disperse the food or put it into more than one feeding cone when feeding worms, which I don't any longer. The larger, more well established fish like to dominate the food, often when they're not even eating.