Problem with fighting males.

[ecrew]

Hi everyone!!

I have a 75 gal community tank with 5 adult Discus and 1 juv. I have one female who has picked a mate. She has layed eggs 2 or 3 times now, but the male has eaten them everytime. It's really ok because we're not ready for breeding right now anyway. We recently added a new adult Discus. He has settled in just fine except he has noticed the female and her mate and has decided to fight the male. I don't know if the new Discus is a male or not, but he sure is fighting the other male a lot. They really go at each other sometimes. The other fish in the tank don't seem to care about what's going on. Sometimes the juv tries to get involved which is quite funny because he's so small compared to the other guys.

Anyway, my question is will the fighting calm down? It hasn't effected their eating etc... The fighting is just causing some tension right now. I'm concerned that the female and her mate are going to get stressed out and get sick if this other male(?) doesn't back off.

Thanks for the advice!
Liz

[Kenny's Discus]

Hi Ecrew - I think it'll be the new male who get stressed out if "he" doesn't back off soon lol. I see this kind of situations all the time but when the pair is about to spawn they will usually team up(as in the female giving a hand to her male) and fight everybody off. Just my experience.

Kenny

[ecrew]

Kenny,

The female does get involved in helping her mate fight off any of the Discus who get too close. The mate and the new male (?) are doing a lot of "lip-lock" fighting. It's really weird. I'm worried they're going to tear each other's lips off. LOL! I know it's not funny, but it's really weird. Why do they fight like that?

Thanks,
Liz

[Kenny's Discus]

I would think they are fighting to be the "alpha" male of the tank. In other words, they both want to mate with the female. If it's "lip-locking" pay attention to see if their mouth are swollen. If they are or the fighting gets too intense use an egg-crate divider.

Good Luck!
Kenny

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=45944

[ecrew]

Thanks!

[Kenny's Discus]

Anytime Liz!

Kenny