Overly Aggresive Fish

[Hugh]

I had a question, I bought some new Discus from a lfs last week and one of them is extremely aggresive towards the other. Mind you he knows his place in the tank and will not come near my adults but he will not leave the others alone that are the same size. Constantly chasing around , even when i feed them he wont eat if he sees the others eating he starts in on them. I am temped to put him in a paper bag and smack him into the side of the wall. :-X j/k i would just put him in the creek near my house and let him go. Is there any fix for this?

[Carol_Roberts]

Some discus are little Hitlers. I'd take him back if he doesn't settle down real quick. Sometimes one of the adults will put him in his place. No need for him to terrorize all the rest of the juveniles in the tank.

[Rod]

Yeah carols right, some discus are just plain mean. i have this one male at home who is very large, he never breeds but if a female tries to pair with another male he will batter the male and steal the girl then won't breed with her anyway. he just sits there and stands watch over her so noone else can breed in HIS tank....lol.

[April]

I have one too...who is not a very nice fish. Hes been plunked in with the wilds.. but causes havoc in there also. hes a big male also. I presume.... who wants him? ::)

[Fish_Fin-atic]

I had a similar situation a while back. I had a young Marlboro Red who would terrorize the others even at feeding time. I cured him of it (I think?).

I'd watch the tank (especially at feeding time) and when he tried to do it, I'd hold up my open hand to him through the glass. My hand was bigger than he was, and I guess he thought it must be the dominant fish in the tank, and every time I did this, he'd back away from the other fish. Mind you, every time my back was turned, he was back at it again. It got worse, and soon, even my hand wouldn't deter him from harrassing the others. So, the next step was to give him a good chase around the tank with the net whenever he acted up. He still got worse, and finally I netted him, and put him in a 10 gallon "jail tank" ;) for a day, then returned him. He seemed to have learned his lesson. For about a week he seemed to be just 'one of the guys' then, slowly but surely, he started again with some very aggressive chasing, and the first time I saw this, back to jail for him! This time he stayed in for 5 days (of course I still did WCs, etc) After that, when he went back to the big tank, he has been "normal" ever since. Still swims after some of the fish, but not overly aggressive. Sometimes one of the other fish will swim after him for a bit, but that's just a day in the life of a Discus. I'm not sure if it was my method that stopped him, or if it was just a phase or something, but whatever the case may be, he's fine now.

Another option may be to use a tank divider. After a few weeks of hitting his nose on the divider, your fish might un-learn his habbit of attacking the others every time he sees them.

[Hugh]

Thanks for the Advice and info.. i swear i heard this guy refer to himself as the Furor.. anyhow ill give him a week or so before he gets the paper bag treatment..
Hugh

[BanMeNot]

I like the "jail". lol
Fish_Fin-atic Correction Center
:spank: :whip:

Keith

[bristoldiscus]

The"re cichlids!! ::) ::) ::)

[Fish_Fin-atic]

Yes, but sometimes even Cichlids go overboard. :-\ The one I had was not just biting the others once, he was coming in like a machine gun firing!

BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE!!!!

The other fish would be cowering in the corners breathing fast, and he'd come in and tail whip them until they swam into the opposite wall of the tank at full speed, and while they were still stunned from the impact, he'd come in again and
BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE BITE!!!!

Sometimes, he'd take on two fish at the same time!!

BITE BITE CHEW
BITE BITE CHEW
BITE CHEW BITE NIP BITE :drummer: CHEW CHEW CHEW

He was a real BAD :bandana: Discus!!! And I was getting pretty :flame: ticked with him shredding everyone else's fins to bits.... so off to the "Fish Fin-atic's Correction Centre for Troubled Cichlids" he went! And it worked!

(Hey Keith....what exactly is going on in your post? I don't run THAT kind of a jail here! :o ;D ;D )

Oh yeah, I should also mention, that sometimes in the case of overly aggressive fish, it could be that they're suffering from a Fluke outbreak, and taking out their anger on each other. A good Fluke bath will help in that case. In my case, it didn't help.

[sumptnfshy]

I have a red turq who thinks she is the only fish allowed in the tank. She would bully any fish smaller than her. She would especially bully fish the same size as her. I diddn't try the jailing technique I just moved her I was tired of other fish getting sick because of her. And suprisingly she seems happier by herself. Should I try to re introducing her?

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, you can attempt to reintroduce her. Sometimes they do just fine.