Odd behavior

[brett72586]

I have had my discus for over a year and I believe some are trying to maybe pair off. Not entirely sure. I have 6 discus in a 90 gallon. Lightly planted. 4 of the discus are obsessed with each other. i believe my red melon is the female in the mix. The other three are constantly locking lips, thrashing, chasing, biting, etc. no damage though to any fish even though its been going on for a week. The red melon and my checker board are the only two that are civil with each other. Where the check board goes the red melon is close behind...along with the other two. The snakeskin is constantly dark now as well.

My question is this. What should i do now? I don't mind if they breed if thats what is even going on here. I am confident my water is way too hard for them to make anything of the eggs. Should i add maybe 2 more like sized discus to try and shake things up? I am ready to buy either a 125 gallon or 150 gallon tank. Was trying to hold off until july so I can set it up in a new house and just move the fish VS tearing everything down and setting it back up in one day. I have tried to move the decor around and they don't care. They usually hide during water changes but lately its been no holds bar. Water changes do not bother them any more. They just want to chase each other. On that note i change 80% of water every other day. Started doing that about 2/3 weeks ago. Keep the temp at 86.

[Second Hand Pat]

Drop the temp to 82 and see if that helps.

[brett72586]

Cant say it made things any better. Today the 3 big ones have been splashing out of the water from time to time. And the red melon is still just following the checker board.

[brett72586]

and i have eggs

[John_Nicholson]

The most natural thing for healthy animals to do is to try and reproduce. Not much you can really do. They will have to figure out who is the most dominate. At that point it will settle down some but it will not ever completely go away. Adding more fish will often help but will elminate it completely.

-john

[Alight]

I use penplax dividers to screen off aggressive fish from the others. If you see the aggressive fish is pairing up with another, but both of those behind the divider. This will not permanently help of course, because if you put them back together fish will still be injured. You will need to give away the aggressive fish to solve the problem.

[brett72586]

i think I'm going to just buy a 20/30 gallon and separate the pair. Not for breeding purposes but until I am ready to set up my 125 gallon. hopefully more room and not adding fish will give every one enough room to live together. The male is really putting some of the other discus in their place this morning. All the eggs disappeared over night (which i thought was going to happen) but that seems to really anger him. he has been chasing fish straight into glass, filter tubes, etc etc. won't even let them out during feeding.

[John_Nicholson]

I use penplax dividers to screen off aggressive fish from the others. If you see the aggressive fish is pairing up with another, but both of those behind the divider. This will not permanently help of course, because if you put them back together fish will still be injured. You will need to give away the aggressive fish to solve the problem.

And then the next most dominate fish wll take over and you have the same situation. {eople need to learn that this is not odd behavior....With a tank full of healthy fish this is the norm.

-john

[brett72586]

its just odd from lets say a month ago. there was no aggression issues at all until one day i woke up and every thing has changed. ill let it sit as is for a few more weeks and see what happens.

[John_Nicholson]

I hear ya. When they start the spawning deal it will continue until the female goes off cycle.

-john

[brett72586]

well I switched them into a 120. Took a few hours to move everything over but they seems to enjoy the extra room and hiding spaces. the pair are already doing the dance and it hasn't even been 12 hours.