Brought my first pair of Disucus - They dont seem too happy.

[Aussie_De]

Hey guys,

Like to start out by giving you a big hi, and letting you konw im still a beginner aquariest :D

I started out with a DIY tank project to kill some time, and im learning as i go, with keeping fish. Bassically i started out with a pair of albino corydoras to help keep me interested while my tank cycled. That was about a month ago. All is good and pH is around 6.6. The other day, i recently added another 10 mini neons, 3 guppys, and 2 (fairly small) discus.

Everyone has been happy for about 2 days, however, the pair of discus' are not having much fun. One of them insits on charging the other, around the tank, and bumping it/biting it on the underside of the other discus. However, ive noticed, that the one doing the charging and harassing, is the one with notable bite marks on its rear back tail.

Why are these kids not getting on?. There are no other discus in the tank. These two discus were kept together at the aquarium store, and are the same type and nearly identicle in size. Are the establishing a hirarchy? I dont want to loose one of them, as they cost a fair bit of money. Im not sure if they are male/female - but im not getting the impression that they're friends ;)

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. . . Ill also keep active on this site, great resources, and ive really taken to this fish-keeping thing ;) The tank is about.. say.. 40-50 liters... the discus are about 3-4 inc long.

[Howie_W]

Hi Aussie De and welcome to Simply! :)

A couple of basic things to consider;

1. Discus are schooling fish. The bigger the group, the better they do. In small numbers the pecking order will result in someone getting harrassed, with the potential for poor development and sickness.

2. Your set-up. Your tank is much too small. Discus are large fish, and require room to move and grow. It's best to start with a bare bottom tank of no smaller than 55 gallons, and a minimum of 6-8 juveniles. As you will need to feed regularly, and perform large daily water changes, this should be done with Discus only in your tank.

3. Quarantine. Anytime you bring new fish home, each species should be quarantined for 6 weeks before introducing to other fish; This allows time to make sure the fish are healthy, and avoid intoducing possible disease into your existing set-up.

HTH

Howie

[Carol_Roberts]

Yep, what you are seeing is typical juvenile discus behavior. With only 2 or 3 discus one will harass the others to death. Juvenile discus are very insecure in small groups. As Howie said it's best to start with 6 (or more). You can sucessfully keep an adult pair by themselves in a 29 gallon tank.

Most all of us started with 2 or 3 discus in a too small tank. Read through this site - you'll find lots of good beginner information and lots of Aussies too!