Fighting - a lot

[anne]

ANOTHER question!
I've 4 discus in a 70 gal tank. The first in (Boris) is about 3" or so. He was in the tank for 5 days, I then added 3 others, 2 same size as him, 1 slightly larger (Arthur). despite the names, I've no idea what sex any of them are.
I expected some fighting at first, but whilst all squabbled a little, the smaller original inmate is pretty aggressive toward the biggest one.
The bigger has some small black marks on his sides which i think are from the little one nudging/ biting him; they also lock lips and slug it out fairly often.
The littler one goes really dark then picks a fight with the large one, typically just after they've eaten. The big one generally fights back.
The new ones were introduced on Saturday, so they've not been together for long.
If I separate them, will I not just have the same problems when i do reintroduce them? How long should it take to settle?
Does anyone have any adivce?

[RyanH]

Hi Anne,

I hope you quarantined before putting all of these fish together.:(

As far as the fighting goes, it will usually settle down after the pecking order has been established. This can take a little time but usually won't be a permanent problem. If you find that one fish is taking the majority of the aggression, watch it closely as the constant stress can result in sickness.... usually hex.

You can alleviate the aggression a bit by moving things around in the tank. This messes up their territories and tends to "level the playing field" a bit.

hth
-Ryan

[White Worm]

Get 3 more, quarantine first, then introduce. I have 4 in a 85g and 2 males constantly go at it. This is because they are fighting over the pretty little female. This may be the case with yours also. Pecking order, territory and breeding are reasons they go at it. Mine were doing damage to each other so i had to put seperator in the tank and now i have 2 42.5g tanks with a pair on one side and 2 discus on the other side. 7 more are on the way for friends. 7 discus will disperse the aggression better than 4. I tried moving things around and the two males didnt care, they went right for each other when i put them back together. So....permanent seperation right now until i get the new ones. Then I will see what happens.

[anne]

They do actually seem to be settling down a bit today, so I was probablly just flapping about nothing. I'm planning on getting 2 or 3 more in the near future, and will quarantine them!
Hopefully this will help.