Fighting Discus

[Genyosha]

Hello All,

I've had a pair of Discus for about a month now. They are about 3.5" big. Since day one they have been great. Swimming happily together, eating and eating more. The last few days the two fish have been very aggresive towards each other. They have been head shaking, staring each other down, aggresively chasing the other one away and I've seen them once head butt each other. This is getting me worried as I don't have another tank available to seperate them.

Tank is 29gallon, moderatley planted. PH of 6.5. Other tankmates are 3 Cories, 1 Otto and 1 Bristlenose Pleco. Water change of 40% done pretty much every day.

Any suggestions to what could be wrong? I'm gonna try to put a divider between them, but that might be a bit hard to do in my tank. Is it possible to put another discus about the same size in to shake things up a bit? I know I probably need a bigger tank at some point, but at this time that isn't possible.

Any help would be great.

The discus pair:

[Ryan]

Discus are shoaling fish who establish pecking orders, much like wolf packs (for comparison). The fish have a rank. It's usually suggested that folks get 6 - 8 discus starting out so that the pecking order is evenly distributed and no one fish is taking all the abuse.

When you have two young discus in a tank alone, there is going to be a dominant and a submissive fish. The submissive fish will most likely be harassed and picked on until it stresses out, at which point it could fall victim to disease and possible death.

If you keep discus alone, they normally do not do well as they are best kept in groups. It is not impossible to keep discus alone but I've done it and I didn't like the results. Also, if you keep the discus alone it establishes the tank as his own territory, and will probably never allow for the addition of other discus into the tank.

It's a tough situation and I don't know what to recommend. I doubt that you are seeing pairing behavior because the fish are small. All I can suggest is to maybe keep plenty of hiding spots available and see if that helps break up the fighting and allow the stressed fish to relax.

Ryan

[April]

hi. ryan is right..
by the way....welcome fellow vancouverite...
where did you get your fish?
they may be getting breeding age..but small for their age.
were they sold to you as a pair?

[Genyosha]

Hi,

I got them at a LFS, and they got them from a local breeder. They weren't sold as a pair, but they were two good looking and health discus. It could be that they are reaching breeding age, but I think they are still a bit young for that.

I think I'm gonna go with a divider if the fighting doesn't calm down soon.

The weird thing is that both pick on each other at different times...one will chase the other one or shake its head at the other fish, a bit later the other one will do the same thing.

Would adding some Esprom salt be any usefull?

[April]

No...epsom salt will do nothing . thats a laxative.
sounds like their maturing to me. shaking head is a breeding behaviour. they may be either both male..or both female...or one of each.
as long as its not the same one being chased all the time...its better....

[paulmat]

Genyosha

If the are not physically beating each other up, you should just let them huff and puff. I have many fish that go at it all the time ,but do not actually beat each other up,just puttin on a show, playin chicken, messing with each other.
A common behavior in Chiclids.
IMO
Paul :guitarist:

[Genyosha]

Thanks for all the help. Seems April was right and they were close to breeding age. I found they had layed eggs on one of the leaves this morning (about 40 eggs).

Some of the eggs have turned white. I'm not sure what to do at this point, except if the eggs turn to fry I'll have to get another tank. Right now the larger discus is protecting and fanning the eggs and has chased the smaller discus into a corner of the tank. Of course I may have two females, then the search would be on for a nice single male discus.

I don't have room any large tank at this time (or money), but have room for a tank around 33 gallons. Will this be enough ?

Thanks for the help

[Carol_Roberts]

Lots of us use 29 gallon for breeder tanks, BUT you will need at least a 55 gallon to put the babies in once they reach 3 weeks or so.
Carol :heart1:

[discusfish]

Oh no.... :( I just did the same thing. I have had two wild greens in my 55 gallon tank for about two months. I bought two more wild greens and put them in the tank. One of my old fish (female) went crazy and started to attack the new fish. I left them in the tank overnight and now all of them are happy and swimming together and NOT fighting. I hope she will get along with the new ones and not go crazy! Maybe if I keep adding some new friends it will tame them out some.

Best of luck to you genyosha!! Try adding more fish

[Smokey]

Welcome to SimplyDiscus Genyosha;
How is Lulu Island. lol. I lived there for 4 years, back in the early "70's. Beautiful place. Ah, and the pub in Stevesten, never a dull moment !! lol. Congradulations on the discus spawn.
Let the parents do their normal thing. Some of the fry may survive, great expierence for them.
And observe!!!! Being in a community tank, the discus will learn to adapt, as best as possible. If and when you deceide to move up to a larger tank, then the disco-alich-bug has bitten.
Good luck and keep us updated on the family.

Smokey