One Discus is a freaking the hell out of seven others! What should I do ?

[kaobang]

Hi!

I think I have a problem with my Discus tank!

I have 8 juvenile discus (2 1/2 - 3 inches) in a heavily planted 80 gallons tank. My parameters are : Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 2 (or less). Ph is 7,2. Water temperature is 82F or 28C. All these parameters are really stable and do not change. Doing 15 gallons water change (10 gallons R/O + 5 gallons tap). They are fed 3 times a day. Cardinals tetras and otocinclus are also in the tank, but with no interaction with the Discus.

I have those Discus since one month ago. All was going fine, fish were eating, even eating in my hand 2 weeks after being introduced in the tank. Some occasionnal bickering, but not too much.

One day, the pecking order seem to have changed and one Discus became the master of the tank. As soon as he is seeing another Discus, wherever he is in the tank, he chase it until it disappears behind plants. The result is that the 7 other discus are always hiding and do not really eat, fearing the chase of the master. Moreover, he is not the biggest fish: some are bigger than him!

To put it simply: one Discus is a freaking the hell out of the seven others! I saw that this behavior is more intense when I'm visibly around the tank, like if I was to get them food.

I really don't know what to do, and even if this behavior is normal.

Do you have advices for me ?

Thanks!

[Chicago Discus]

Good Morning Jocelyn and welcome to Simply Discus. Sounds like you have some juveniles in a planted tank which sounds beautiful but not the ideal conditions for growing out discus IMO. don't pay to much attention to your water parameters Just start doing larger water changes with what ever water you feel conformable using. Juv discus need lots of water changes to reach there full potential in growth and to maintain good health.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8pxlqtcPo

[kaobang]

Thanks for your answer.

So If I understand your advice, doing large water changes will stop this agressive behavior from one of my Discus toward the seven others ?

[rickztahone]

While Josie gives some good overall advice, I do not believe it covered the OP's initial inquiry. You are correct in assuming that there is a pecking order going on. This is a dynamic thing in that it can change for a multitude of reasons. Changing the layout of a tank is typically one of them. Have you changed anything around lately? If not, they may be re-establishing their pecking order. At this time, you want to spread out the aggression by feeding light portions of food, spread around in different parts of the tank. This should help allieviate some of the bully bahaviour.

[John_Nicholson]

While I am sure there is some pecking order stuff going on I also agree with Josie in that you are not changing near enough water. When your water is not quite right the fish do tend do be more of a pain. When your water is not quite right the fish are more likely to act irritated and just like people when irritated they tend to pick on each other a little more.

-john

[Chicago Discus]

While Josie gives some good overall advice, I do not believe it covered the OP's initial inquiry.

From the little information given the issue I see with the tank is not enough water changes. The issue with the "Pecking order" Has nothing to do with the water quality going on the tank. FIX THE WATER AND CREATE A GOOD ENVIRONMENT FOR THE DISCUS AND THEY WILL WORK OUT THERE OWN ISSUES. I understood very clearly what the OP was saying but there were other issues that need attention. Changing the landscape is a good idea but first lets work on the water.....My humble opinion....Josie

[haile161]

was that tap or RO water?

[haile161]

Good Morning Jocelyn and welcome to Simply Discus. Sounds like you have some juveniles in a planted tank which sounds beautiful but not the ideal conditions for growing out discus IMO. don't pay to much attention to your water parameters Just start doing larger water changes with what ever water you feel conformable using. Juv discus need lots of water changes to reach there full potential in growth and to maintain good health.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8pxlqtcPo

was that tap or RO water?

[Chicago Discus]

Tap water

[Reesj]

Hi man I had this problem also and depends on the fish as well!
But main thing!
Increase the food you put in the tank for two days and observe! One of my current dominant juvis chase all others in to plants when ever I put frozen blood worms or my new chicken hart mix. They only eat in peace together when i feed dried blood worms! This is because I put a lot of them and they come by slowly floating in tank from current!

IF this does not work and the eretic behaviour contiunes for over a week best thing is to get rid of the bully and get a new one :D

[John_Nicholson]

LOL.....Discus are cichlids. they establish a pecking order. Just get your water right and let them work it out.

-john


Hi man I had this problem also and depends on the fish as well!
But main thing!
Increase the food you put in the tank for two days and observe! One of my current dominant juvis chase all others in to plants when ever I put frozen blood worms or my new chicken hart mix. They only eat in peace together when i feed dried blood worms! This is because I put a lot of them and they come by slowly floating in tank from current!

IF this does not work and the eretic behaviour contiunes for over a week best thing is to get rid of the bully and get a new one :D

[Chicago Discus]

LOL.....Discus are cichlids. they establish a pecking order. Just get your water right and let them work it out.

-john

+1

[kaobang]

Ok thanks for your answers, I will try to change water more often, even if this is a bit of a pain for me. It is not as easy as the bare bottom tank shown in the video.

[boonseong]

Jocelyn, you do not need to use RO water when doing water changes. Regular aged tap water will do. Infact, it's more preferable to use tap water because it has more nutrients.
Also, you can spread the food in 2 sections of the tank. The final thing is that even if you get rid of this aggressive fish, another one will emerge.

[kaobang]

Hi!

Yes, I know it can be done with tap water only, but I mix tap and R/O water to get the nutrients. My problems are these ones:

- I live in a appartement and I dont have the space to have too much water in a aging process (5 gallons max). So when I dod water changes, I do 5 gallons R/O, 5 gallons tap (treated with Seachem Prime) and another 5 gallons R/O. It usually removes a lot of dissolved substance in the water so my conductivity reading goes down quite a bit. My tank is officially 80 gallons, but there are probably 70 real gallons in it.

- Also, removing the amount of water shown in the video in a planted show tank is not really possible.

Finally, I'm just learning here that a pecking order can be tough. The master discus is always chasing any discus that he sees, even if there is no food involved. The other 7 are so scared that even if I put food in 4 corners, they do not really come to eat....

[donnacona]

Try the mirror trick. Put a mirror up against the front of the tank for a few days and maybe after chasing itself it might learn to get along, it worked for me with a bully blue diamond female which I named Lucy from Peanuts cartoon.
Stu