Will this territory warfare settle?

[Daniella]

I am questioning my current setup as I see my 2 discus raising their fry in my community tank, with all the other discus exhiled in the other side of the tank.

Is it possible to even keep this pair in the community tank once they start laying eggs and raising youngs or will this be constant our side and your side and no other discus will be allowed in the breeding side of the aquarium?

Is it only a temporary thing?

I am guessing this will stress my other discus big time, as they are more and more losing ground and are more and more confined into the extreme end of the aquarium.

Is there a solution or is it required to move a breeding/mated pair once they start this territorial warfare?

I want a peacefull tank with everybody going relax anywhere they want, but that's not the case right now.

Will they eventualy return to tolerating the others around that part of the aquarium? The more the fry grow up the more aggressive they become. Now I have one day old wrigglers, about 80 to 90 of them.

Also I feel bad about not doing anything since it will be hard to feed the fry in such large tank...But I never planned to be breeding discus, no time for this.

[Disgirl]

You can always just turn out the lights and let nature take it's course...not everyone wants baby discus.
Barb

[Daniella]

turn out the light? what will this acheive?

I only turn on the ligth around noon but during the day there is enough ambiant light in the room anyway.

The lights are always off at night. I only need it for feeding time when it is dark outside.

I will try to put a separator until I can move them. If they simply eat the fry or if the fry die, it's going to be the same warfare as they are going to lay eggs in a few days after that.



You can always just turn out the lights and let nature take it's course...not everyone wants baby discus.
Barb

[maca9]

I have exact same issue.

7 Discus and 2 have paired and laying once a week.

Other 5 discus are forced to extreme side of tank when eggs or fry around.


Other than moving to their own tank any ideas?

[Daniella]

I did use a separator and it did the job to stop the aggression between them but the fish were uncomfortable with the lack of space still and the divider and it was so ugly.

I was told that I should let the fish reproduce if they want to so I put them in their own tank hoping that they will finaly get what they want and be done with it so that I can put them back in the big tank.



I have exact same issue.

7 Discus and 2 have paired and laying once a week.

Other 5 discus are forced to extreme side of tank when eggs or fry around.


Other than moving to their own tank any ideas?

[Chad Hughes]

All you have to do is split the pairs. If you are having such violent behavior with certain fish, then you may want to think about selling that fish all together. It really depends on what your goals are and how much you are willing to cater to the needs of your specific fish.

If you just want a community tank with no breeding going on, then you have to split the pairs up. Maybe two community tanks? You have plenty of discus to do this.

Another thing that you could do is desensitize yourself a bit. Unless the fish are showing signs of physical damage from fighting, they're fine.

Best wishes!

[mmorris]

I understand your frustration, Daniella. Unfortunately, IMO it is impossible to predict what will happen. When my male blue saphire decided to pair up, he picked three females, kept them at one end of the 125 gal. tank and squashed the others up to the glass at the far end. He finally made his decision - a turq - and sent the remaining two females to the end with the others. If even one of them moved off the glass the male flew at them so fast he was swimming sideways. This went on for a couple of weeks. As it turned out, the turq wouldn't give him the time of day, although she was perfectly willing to hang out with him. He finally turned his attentions to the female saphire, to my delight, without further aggression to the others. My advice would be to wait it out but remain watchful for injury or illness. Perhaps, in time, they will resolve it themselves.

[Daniella]

haha, cute story :)

I could try that. Now most of the fry is dead at the bottom today. I have about 5 left. Not sure why they are dead because there is no ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at 5.

they still won't eat thier fry even when they are dead on the bottom. wierd. They clean all the worms but leave the little dead bodies at the bottom.

I will not sell any of them because I like them too much. I thought they will get tired of breeding at some point.



I understand your frustration, Daniella. Unfortunately, IMO it is impossible to predict what will happen. When my male blue saphire decided to pair up, he picked three females, kept them at one end of the 125 gal. tank and squashed the others up to the glass at the far end. He finally made his decision - a turq - and sent the remaining two females to the end with the others. If even one of them moved off the glass the male flew at them so fast he was swimming sideways. This went on for a couple of weeks. As it turned out, the turq wouldn't give him the time of day, although she was perfectly willing to hang out with him. He finally turned his attentions to the female saphire, to my delight, without further aggression to the others. My advice would be to wait it out but remain watchful for injury or illness. Perhaps, in time, they will resolve it themselves.

[Daniella]

I would not be too worried for the adults but I was afraid the little ones would get stunted if they are so afraid that they hide and don't eat.


I regret buying small discus. If I had knew what I know now, I would have got all adults or young adults.


All you have to do is split the pairs. If you are having such violent behavior with certain fish, then you may want to think about selling that fish all together. It really depends on what your goals are and how much you are willing to cater to the needs of your specific fish.

If you just want a community tank with no breeding going on, then you have to split the pairs up. Maybe two community tanks? You have plenty of discus to do this.

Another thing that you could do is desensitize yourself a bit. Unless the fish are showing signs of physical damage from fighting, they're fine.

Best wishes!