Pecking Order, too much fighting!

[Abercrombie6202]

I have 8 discus in my 75 gallon tank. 3 are runts. Well one of my Blue Diamonds has become more of an outcast, seems like he is lower than the runts because i never see him eat and most of the time he's hiding from the other discus. I really don't want him to become a runt, is there anyway to make it so he is more assertive? Also it seems that 2 discus, my pair have decided to take over the tank, and it seems as though they want all the food and peck any fish who tries to eat, they are also the biggest fish in the tank. I thought by having the runts in there it would give the passive Blue Diamond discus a better chance, but most of the discus don't get a chance to eat, except for the pair. I also put food across the tank, even when he's on one side of the tank and all the fish are on the otherside, i put food near him and he still doesn't eat. By the way i feed CBW.
Thanks

[engiskhan]

It sounds like that fish might be sick. I know that discus are more susceptible to disease when they are getting picked on, which leads to being picked on more. Discus are not very altruistic creatures!

[discus_nw]

Did you start with all the same sized discus or were they different sizes?

Hi Adam:

You can try gently interrupting the fight by going after the larger one and netting him for a few moments (out of the tank for a few minutes) and then returning him into the tank.

I hear this is usually what a lot of folks do with other fish species (like Bettas and Flowerhorns which are fighting fish).

Once in a while I have to do it for my blue diamonds as well. They pick on eachother since they are about the same size and I guess the same age. 8)

hth -- angie--

[M0oN]

I wouldn't do what Fry Girl's recommending, it's just going to stress out the discus in question and if your "runt" is really sick then guess what'll happen...

I had the same problem with one blue diamond and ended up selling him off to an LFS...it's just inevitable from what I understand that certain discus will be runts.

If they accept flake food you could try sprinkling ocean nutrition formula 1 in the tank, this makes it so no matter what everyone gets somthing to eat and is how I got some of my other discus' esteem bolstered up, they're now willing to stand their ground when being chased at for food...

You want to watch out for them turning black or very dark in color if they aren't eating at all as it could be a good sign of hexamita...