Saving Tortured Discus Runt by putting him with 3” fry?

[Donley6377]

What are my chances of relocating (Gainer) my picked on 4” runt into a tank with 2 1/2-3” fry?
As my original 6 Discus get bigger and bigger (6 inches at 2 years old) the runt is having a rough time defending himself from the main bully. He has 2 other Discus who have helped him out by sharing thier territory with him and occasionally going to battle for him. Problem is that these 2 are breeding, and I have been able to rear 6 or so of the fry from each of thier last 2 “batches” that they have had in the community tank. They are in breeding mode again and I want to move them to a breeding tank, but I know that Gainer will really suffer for it,…….so….What about putting Gainer in the Fry/juvi tank? Any thoughts or past tries at this? Thanks

[Sabrina]

Hi there,

In the past I have put larger discus in with baby discus for one reason or another, and as I recall I did not have any problems with this. You can always trial this and see if it works out. I don't think you will have a issue with this approach.
Other approaches are, placing the runt in a hospital style tank & feeding him up to make him strong and fit enough to defend himself & returning him to the adult discus tank later on.
There is an option to change your adult tank around, moving ornaments, wood and plants to different areas to mess with their territory issues, in this case I would remove the Bully temporarily while your doing this, and then once rearranged pop it back in the tank. The new surroundings should help with the aggression.
lastly, you can remove the bully to a hospital tank for some time out, this worked for me in the past too. It needs to be for at least 3 days or so.

Let us know how you get on, and someone else here might have better/other ideas too

Sabrina :)

[Donley6377]

I will try rearranging more drastically. Now I have only several large pieces of driftwood that I rearrange. I am not a fan of fake plants, but that may be what needs to be done. A few silk plants will mix it up a bit.
Plan 2 will be to move Gainer in with the babies. I was really nervous about that idea, but you are right, I can always pull him back out. Thanks for your input!

[Sabrina]

Hi Don,

Okay, sounds like a plan for now. Your welcome, and do keep us updated if you can..

All the best for little Gainer :)

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Donley, I can think of one consideration for not doing this. Has Gainer and the fry been exposed to each other (shared the same tank etc)? My thought is the risk of cross contamination. I would personally suggest the hospital tank as Sabrina suggested. Too much work goes into raising fry to expose them to something plus Gainer may have something which is causing it to be the runt.
Pat

[CliffsDiscus]

I believe Pat raises some good points. Another would be that the larger Discus would take away some growth from the smaller Discus.

Cliffl

[Donley6377]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. This little guy has a history and I am very attached to him.
Squeamish …stop reading here
! I was new to aquariums and unfortunately met up with a Discus breeder who was “advising” me on how to set up the perfect Discus tank. We had an appointment set for me to come pick out and buy 6 Discus. The night before, I tested my water and wasn’t happy with my ph. I called to let him know that I needed a little more time to prepare my tank. He assured me that he would give me a “miracle” additive that would have my water perfect after adding a little at a time and testing. Long story short… I had buckets full of Discus and water that wouldn’t budge. They were going into water with a ph difference of 4. He was in constant contact with me through text message… add another tsp….add another tsp etc.. last message I sent was “ I’ve added 5 times the amount that you said this would require, and there’s no change in Ph… the fish are struggling in the buckets …what now? I was at a point where they had to go in the tank or die in a 5 gallon pail. The chemical he gave me was some sort of citric acid and it turns out that the KH was so high that ph wouldn’t budge! He wouldn’t answer me!!!! I put the 6 beautiful 4” Discus in the tank and within 15 minutes they were all rolling around like tumbleweed. 5 were dead within an hour…. I’m crying like a baby!!! Gainer was still hanging in there and I netted him out and kept him in an unused betta tank with tap water until I could get a grip. After a rough 2 weeks he pulled through and earned the name Gaynor “after Gloria Gaynor of the song I will Survive, “�� I then met the awesome woman who owns Chicago Discus who helped me get a proper home setup for him and restock with new tank mates. She was a compassionate Discus lover who cares about fish instead of $ ….So 2 years later The fry were born and raised for 5 weeks in the tank with Gainer. So he’s been exposed to the fry and is stunted because I trusted a very dishonorable breeder �� So I now am a little over protective�� But have very happy breeding Discus����

[Second Hand Pat]

We know Miranda of Chicago Discus. She is an awesome lady and their discus are super nice. Sorry about the super rough early beginning and hope you will feel at home here. We are here to help at anytime.
Pat

[Sabrina]

Yes, I did read that the fry were born in the community tank in the original post, hence my suggestion to house the runt with them...

I just read your latest reply Don! I am so sorry that happened to you, my heart goes out to you, that must of been awful :(

Pat & Cliff raise good points though, because it was a fry/baby discus tank I assumed it would have lots of water changes, so I didn't worry about the runt stopping them growing with his hormone release for that reason.. Guess I should elaborate more in my posts for this reason..

I can see how important & sentimental Gainer is to you, I would be protective too! But you have some advice here now, let us know how you get on :)

[Donley6377]

After moving my breeders to the breeding tank and adding a few fake plants, and rearranging things, the remaining 4 are a little confused and are very contented for now. Maybe the breeding in the tank was making them more aggressive. We’ll see how long this lasts. The plan is to move my remaining 4 to the new 125, and use the current tank as a quarantine for the newcomers. Thanks to all

[Sabrina]

Sounds promising Don, good luck :)

I just moved my discus into a bigger tank due to aggression & so far so good..