Clash of the Titans

[Camden]

One of my 4.5 inch Discus is showing stress bars real bad lately. He is in a tank with 2 other discus around the same size in a 55 gal. I have seen him fighting with another newer discus which is a little bit larger for some time now. I was hoping that they would establish dominance and leave each other alone. But the newcomer to the tank is still chasing him pretty badly. Is there anything I can do? Should I move him to his own 20 gal tank? I don't want any damage or weakness to disease from the fighting and I'm not sure if they are fighting over the other 3rd discus or whatnot.

[White Worm]

3 is not a good number. You will not fix it by moving one unless the other 2 happen to be a pair. You need 5-6 discus to dispurse their normal cichlid behavior. With 3, most times you will have a dominant one that badgers the other 2 to sickness or death. Some say they have done fine with 1,2,3, etc but chances are, it is only a matter of time. They especially get more cichlidish as they get into young adulthood which at that size, they are. Best bet would be to have 55g tank with your 3, buy 3 more, qt the new guys for 4 weeks while keeping an eye on the old 3 for any real damage, add new to old after qt. Best scenario IMO.

[poconogal]

Ditto what Mike said, above.

[Camden]

Dumb Question, but should the 3 new guys be around the same size correct?

[poconogal]

Camden, I know there are people who mix different sizes, but personally, I've purchased Discus of equal size. If there's too great a difference in size, you can end up with the larger bullying the little guys, or the larger get more of the food and lil one's suffer in terms of growth, etc.

[bavaria36]

Camden,

At one point I had just 4 discus in my 110 gallon tank and one of them constantly bullied the other three. As soon as I added three more fish this behaviour stopped and now all I se is the odd head butt.

Another bonus was that once there were seven fish in the tank they spend much more time at the front of the tank. It seems that they are lore comfortable and less skittish.

Hope this helps

Aaron

[White Worm]

Ditto what Connie said, above. :D

[poconogal]

Mike... LOL LOL LOL!!! :D

[Camden]

Ok, so I have 7 juvies about 3 inch in size and I decided to move 3 of them into the 55 with the larger 4 inch guys. And he's still picking on the poor dude :( Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get 3 same size. Too many fish so little monies!

[White Worm]

There is never any exact fix to fish. We can only try different things with cichlids. There is always a chance that you may have a mean fish that will never fit in. You could try seperating it from the rest with a divider for a couple weeks and see what happens. As long as there is no real damage being done, you may just want to let them to work things out. Just watch closely to make sure the underdog isnt getting whooped too bad.

[Camden]

watch closely to make sure the underdog isnt getting whooped too bad.

What would be a the first sign of that? He already has constant stress bars in his coloring. I want him to go back to his beautiful self. Never been one for stripes :P

[White Worm]

Constant dark bars could be and are sometimes a good sign of stress. Seperate the mean one from the bunch and see if the other one improves. One thing....watch out for another to take his place as the dominant one. Its always about pecking order and who is the dominant fish with cichlids. there will always be nipping and chasing and the occasional liplock.

[Camden]

Update, ok so I moved the mean ole guy to his own 20 gallon bare tank. Untill I can get 3 more adult size ones. However he's been in there for 48 hr and won't take any sort of food but is still his normal color (frozen bloodworms included :( ). He just sits there spacing out. And is very skirtish and fearful. I thought maybe he was lonely so I put a Ram in with him today. Lets hope he starts eating :'(