Purchased two new 7 inch Stenkder discus, and one is being picked on badly

[Candydiscus]

I purchased two 7 inch stendker discus from a guy locally who was moving. He was selling all 15 of them including his breeding pair. I have 7 discus in my 135g they are ones i have had for a long time that i raised when i first started in a 44g tank. So they arent very big only 5 inches or so. The dominant one is my snow white always has been, but the aggression is a little absurd. The two stenders i have are 7 inch monster bigger then my hand i bought both for $100 each, one is a fire red which was the male of the breeding pair (i didnt want the pair) the other a blue diamond. The fire red never had an issue adjusting he got picked on for maybe an hour and it stopped.

The blue diamond though is hiding in the corner behind an amazon sword and wont come out. He looks rough too, the snow white discus wont stop attacking him. If he comes out the snow white litterally darts attacks him all over his body until litterally my blue diamond almost jumps out of the tank. I have 9 discus now so it isnt a low numbers thing, and they are in a 135g tank so it isnt a small tank thing. I've seen established discus do this if you add new discus to them but not at this extent. How do i stop this so i dont get my 7 inch blue diamond sick. Im afraid this will get him so stressed he would get sick and die. Its been two days now, should i wait a little more ? Or do something about it

[nc0gnet0]

They should have never went in to your display tank to begin with, remove them and put them in your QT tank.

[Candydiscus]

Dont have a QT tank, i removed all my tanks in my house to downsize the amount of tanks i had. It was getting excessive and the wife was getting ticked. This isnt my question anyway.


Stay on the topic please. Not to be rude but that really irks me when people do that on any forum. Im not asking how to QT fish, or if i should QT my fish, im asking about aggression ok ?

[adrian31@outlook.com]

Hi CandyDiscus,

I had six 4"-5.5" in my 180gal for ~2.5 months before my second group of five 5"-6" arrived. The new ones were getting picked on as soon as they went in, it was pretty bad and showed no signs of letting up, so after about 30 minutes I put in salt (~1.5 Tablespoons per 10gal) and turned lights off. By the next morning things had calmed down.

I think the new fish can get picked on because they're new but also because they're stressed and the other fish can see this.

[Candydiscus]

maybe the original discus are worried these new guys will worsen the nitrate issue



I had fixed the issue a couple days ago. It was my canister filter which needed cleaning again. After i cleaned it the nitrates are fine.

Thanks adrian for being the only one who actually stays on topic. I heard this forum specifically had a lot of jerks on it but didn't realize it was this bad.

[nc0gnet0]

Dont have a QT tank, i removed all my tanks in my house to downsize the amount of tanks i had. It was getting excessive and the wife was getting ticked. This isnt my question anyway.


Stay on the topic please. Not to be rude but that really irks me when people do that on any forum. Im not asking how to QT fish, or if i should QT my fish, im asking about aggression ok ?

With all due respect, you asked this:


How do i stop this so i dont get my 7 inch blue diamond sick.

If your concern is to not get your discus sick, there is only one right answer to your question. Put them in a QT tank and follow proper QT procedures. There is no "other" answer. This IS on topic, whether you choose to believe it or not.

-Rick

[relliott]

I've encountered the same thing primarily with the Malaysian stock.
The Stendker's are by their very nature passive fish and were raised in an environment unlike the "big" breeders who have unknowingly created a more aggressive gene stock. I have it on good sound advice that how you raise fish will ultimately affect their temperament as well. Many generations in we are now seeing the effects. With my Fire Reds I separated them from the various other tank mates depending on how I observed them interacting. They do well with my Mercury's and Red Mellons but become stressed with any Blue Diamonds and hybrid reds. There is always a more aggressive individual in the bunch. Separate him as it's likely a dominant male that is in puberty or the fish world equivalent..:). Also try sizing your stock appropriately. I've found that be placing a smaller aggressive fish in a tank with larger adult fish it keeps things a bit more balanced. They eventually settle in but it's not worth loosing a nice fish over and it will, as you mention, lead to that eventually.
Try a divider if your tank allows for it and put the aggressor in with a formidable opponent and they should work it out in time.

[adrian31@outlook.com]

I've encountered the same thing primarily with the Malaysian stock.
The Stendker's are by their very nature passive fish and were raised in an environment unlike the "big" breeders who have unknowingly created a more aggressive gene stock. I have it on good sound advice that how you raise fish will ultimately affect their temperament as well. Many generations in we are now seeing the effects. With my Fire Reds I separated them from the various other tank mates depending on how I observed them interacting. They do well with my Mercury's and Red Mellons but become stressed with any Blue Diamonds and hybrid reds.

I've wondered about this myself; I don't have much experience yet but noticed of the 23 fish I've had so far my Red Melons/Rubies/San Merah & Mercury Blues are less agressive while Blue Scorpions/Diamonds are more agressive. But my Altum Floras are the most aggressive by far and these are the smallest at ~ 4.25".

[Phillydubs]

Check out my recent disaster and you will know why you were told to qt as a remedy. Doesn't sound good for you

[Hart24601]

Speaking of off topic I can't believe no one has asked how many WC you do!


I have not had this issue with discus, but I have run into this in salt water before and with tangs in particular. I don't know if your discus is aggressive enough to attack a mirror, but I have taped a mirror on the outside of tanks to get the dominate fish fixated on that while new tankmates are able to explore. After a few days I remove the mirror and the aggressive fish has become accustom to seeing the new fish swimming and leaves it alone. I have done this maybe 6 or 7 times over the years and has always worked for me. Maybe worth a shot?

[pitdogg2]

Cichlids are cichlids are cichlids, after an established pecking order was in order you tossed in new pecking order wannabes, they either will fight back or perish since they can't move on down/up stream.

[atlantadiscus]

Speaking of off topic I can't believe no one has asked how many WC you do!



LOL.....that does sometimes seem to be the suggested solution to every problem encountered!

[relliott]

I've wondered about this myself; I don't have much experience yet but noticed of the 23 fish I've had so far my Red Melons/Rubies/San Merah & Mercury Blues are less agressive while Blue Scorpions/Diamonds are more agressive. But my Altum Floras are the most aggressive by far and these are the smallest at ~ 4.25".

I call it the mean gene..the Diamonds are perhaps the worse though Scorpions settle in eventually I have found. If you mix your fish and move them around it helps to keep them off guard and less territorial. Suggestion is to get more tanks and use the show tank as your display.

[relliott]

I've also heard that because most breeders are breeding artificially, or hand raising, that the adults parenting skills are less developed. Perhaps that's why young pairs take so long to settle into parenthood.. eating their fry. I've had six spawns from a pair now that have not seen it past the egg stage.. eaten everything!

[Second Hand Pat]

Or perhaps they are just young. In my experience wild pairs form when the fish are late in their second year or early in their third year. I doubt that domestic discus are lacking in parental skills but more likely lacking in maturity.
Pat

[Lido]

I am going to assume that you Snow White is a male and the blue diamond is a male. You have an alpha/omega issue going on. As stated before you're only choice is to remove the one fish. Nature doesn't "learn to play nice" in my experience with cichlids

[relliott]

Pat I agree with your assessments as well regarding age. I am however looking at the various posts from Canadian breeders in specific that refer to breeding and raising conditions that effect certain behavioral issues. I found it interesting that a local experienced facility confirmed this also independent of my earlier research..?
I guess the proof will be in the pudding and personal experience will enhance the broader understanding.

Here's an earlier post from 2012 that addresses the same questions:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?92992-Mixing-German-and-Asian-Discus