aggresive discus??

[EAWiley]

I've got a question for anyone who may have experience with aggresive discus. I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with a penguin 330 filter. In the tank I have 5 cory cats, six von rio tetras, a clown pleco, and an african butterflyfish. My temp is at about 85 degrees and I recently put in one tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons to see if it would help to destress them. I have one large discus, five inches, one medium at about 3.5 inches, and then four at 2.25 inches. They all seem to be aggresive with each other. Even the little ones seem to chase each other around, but especially the large one, he can be viscious, especially around feeding time. I wonder if I'm not feeding him enough, but when I try to feed some of the colorbits he doesn't touch them, but he might be picking them out of the gravel, but I'm not sure if its the discus or the cories that are eating them out of the gravel.
I was hoping for peaceful shy beautiful fish, and I can't seem to keep them from chasing each other.
Please help
-frustrated

[Ryan]

Discus are cichlids and as such they will quarrel and argue with one another over food, mates, etc.

Different factors can affect the amount of aggression you see. There is a considerable size difference between your fish and the tank is relatively small for the number of fish you have in it.

Discus establish a pecking order which you probably know, because you bought 6 fish. That is a good start because the more discus you have in a tank, the more the aggression is spread around. However, there will always be a pecking order. In this case, it sounds like your large discus has put himself at the top of the hierarchy.

A couple ways to break up the aggression would be to get a larger tank, add some clay pots or decorations in to break up the tank a little, or feed on separate ends of the tank to see if you can distract the discus from one another.

Were all your fish introduced at the same time, or in different stages? It also seems to help when you introduce all your discus at once. If you introduce new ones, the established ones have already worked out a pecking order and things might get crazy again as the new fish try to work their way in.

Ryan

[bernie82]

The very fact that your Discus are interacting with each other tells you that they are comfortable in their aquarium. When you see your Discus standing around and not interacting, it's time to start checking the vital signs. (temperature, PH, Ammonia, Nitrite etc.

[mugen920]

i have the same problem w/ 5 of my 3" discus too ...
and i duno what to do w/ them. they ar just chasing aroudn the whole day. ???

[Mak]

Frustrated,

If you put five fish taken from the wild into a 150 gal tank, you would see how Discus behave normaly. They will have a pecking order and bump each other, but you will not see "Mad Dog Aggression". The aggressive behavior that I have seen in some tanks is a product of selective breeding. The tank raised fish that we can buy today are bred for appearance, not temprament.

I have a 46 gal bow front tank with seven Discus, four Cory's, twenty six Neon's and a Pleco. My tank is almost choked with plants and has lots of structure. I have two large canister filters sucking on a under gravel plate. Filter circulation is about 600 gal/hr. I made up my own rain bars out of PVC that gives the tank a nice gentle top to bottom current.

My fish are getting along great. They have an ever changing pecking order and they chase each other, but the way they do it is almost comical. One fish will be hanging out in a cave until another swims by, then he will dart out and ambush him. They act like a bunch of Boy Scouts on a canoe trip.

I studied these fish for a month B4 I brought them home. Stood in front of their tank for hours. They behave in my tank the same way they did in the store. Not the best looking of tank raised fish, but the best behaved. The woman also had a tank full of fancy looking fish acting like a bunch of jerks, " They have not settled down yet".

If you have a relentless tyrant that bullies his tank mates into a corner, what you have, is a genetic problem. If you remove him, another will take his place. If what you are looking at is just Horse play and aggressive feeding, thats normal, enjoy the show.

Mak