Very aggressive discus

[Jpoirier70]

so i bought 2 knew discus and added it to my 55 g wide and everythin was fine at first they were schooling everything was great then a few days go by and its a mad house the biggest one picks on my marlboro and then my marlboro picks on my dark angel and everything is constently in hiding if something swims by they attack them ive tried putting them in a bucket and then rearrange the decoration to scare them but that did nothing it actually made it worst they all have there own corners and do not leave them unless there being chased

[RogueDiscus]

This sounds like pretty normal fighting for pecking order. How many fish total? Are they all similar sizes? If so, and you give them good water conditions so they're not otherwise stressed, there's a good chance they'll sort it out eventually. That being said, did you quarantine the new fish? If not, you should keep a close eye on them to make sure you haven't introduced something harmful.

[Ryan925]

This sounds like pretty normal fighting for pecking order. How many fish total? Are they all similar sizes? If so, and you give them good water conditions so they're not otherwise stressed, there's a good chance they'll sort it out eventually. That being said, did you quarantine the new fish? If not, you should keep a close eye on them to make sure you haven't introduced something harmful.

+1

New additions means reestablishing pecking order. The pecking order in my tank often changes as the fish are growing. My runt that was always bullied has caught up and now is giving it back to all the rest

[woopaul5]

If the beating gets really bad try re-arranging any decorations if you have them in the aquarium. When I moved my wilds to the 125 it started as a blood bath so I kept re-arranging the driftwood till I was able to introduce the whole group.

[DiscusRob]

Just got to say, as others have, rearrange, give it a few days, and Cichlids will be Cichlids, that's what they do

[Donethur]

The more individuals, the better. Thats normal anyway, they start claiming a place in the shoal, just hierarchy logic. The real problem occurs when you have not enough individuals. My theory is the following:

-I saw a scientific study where they concluded some specific cichlids can recognize faces. I think the discus also can because of what I have seen. The logic to me is that they need to know who belongs to their shoal and who doesnt. That way they can expulse to the invaders.

-If you dont have enough fish, they may think they do not belong to a shoal or the same shoal, then it may result in a lot of harassment. That would explain the harassment, with a discus pair in reproduction, or without the pair. In both cases the affected is an invader.

Not sure if this is 100% correct, but thats my temporary theory and conclusions.

Rgds,

[adrian31@outlook.com]

How many fish total and how big are they? Hopefully they are all similar size.

The more Discus the better, but you shouldn't have more than six large adults in that tank. I had alot of aggression problems when I had eight 2.5" - 3" Discus in a 55gal. I knew the issue was partly the younger ones can be more aggressive, and partly the tank size limitation.

I now have six 4" - 5" discus in a 180gal and there's barely any issue. Am receiving five more 4.5"-6" Discus today, so will have 11 in the tank. I'm hoping they'll get along well with that large number together and the tank is also adequate size.