love or hate?

[ItsGeoff]

so this is a recent discovery i made. and im not sure if the discus doing this hate each other or they are trying to pair. this all started too after i did a pretty big re-arrangment of the tank as far as driftwood and plants. so there is a piece of driftwood in the middle of that tank and the twig cat usually sits on it. however, when its not there, and rarely even when it is still there, one of my turqs will hang out around it. it doesnt bother any of the other discus if they come around it but when the one pigeon blood of similar size comes by, its color washes out, turns very brown and dark, and flares its fins at it. the pigeon gets bright yellow, flares as well then they like taunt each other with head shakes, side ways body flareing and then they will bite each other lips and thrash for a bit. they do this couple times a day every now and then. and they only do this when theyare close to this piece of driftwood. so are they trying to pair or do they just hate each other?

[sleonard]

They hate each other. The lip biting and "thrashing" are aggressive behavior.

Scott

[Marinemom]

I think that they hate each other too. The lip biting and thrashing around does not sound good. It sounds like they both want to be boss of the tank and that piece of driftwood in particular and they haven't sorted out thier differences yet.

Diane

[Marinemom]

P.S. You may want to seperate them so no one gets hurt.

Diane

[ItsGeoff]

well neither of them are bosses of the tank. the biggest heckel owns it all. nothing even challanges it. then is the next size down heckel, they all get alone fine, its just these two and im not sure if they are both male or what..they look to be both male.

[Marinemom]

If they are both males that may be the problem. I have a simuliar problem going on in my 125 with the two smallest fish in the tank and they are not actually that small. Both are south american cichlids and one is a firemouth and one is a sinspylim. They constantly flair at each other and I think it is the firemouth that is causing the problem. I have seen him do this before with some other occupants in that tank and they ended up dead. He(the firemouth) may be the smallest but I think that he is also the feistiest. Right now the sinspylim is holding his own with the firemouth but I am watching them closely and I will sererate them if necessary. This may be happening with the two discus that you are talking about. Everyone else in the tank is fine and could care less but these two may have it in for each other. I still think you may want t consider seperating them.

Diane