Discus aggression

[discusalex]

Hey all,

Just got back into the hobby after a long layoff, and purchased a group of 5 blue turks and a group of 7 red turns. All the fish are about 3 to 3.5 inches. At first, I put all the fish into a 75, and the blue turks were beating the crap out of the red turk, so I moved the blue turks into their own 75. Now, the red turks are beating the crap out of each other in their own tank, and the blue turks are beating the crap out of each other in their tank, especially during feeding time.

Is this just discus puberty?

[Eddie]

That's what discus do. I'd put the Red Turqs back with the Blue turks, 4 is not a good number at all.

Eddie

[golden29]

I agree. They have to reestablish a pecking order as well as establish each others territory. If you leave to few in with each other then usually two will end up ganging up and beating the tar out of one discus. But if you put them all together they will have plenty of distraction and will be focusing on more than one discus at a time leaving time for others to get a rest or in on the action. Usually at the end of the day you will notice them sleeping all together again in the dark as one happy family. This will help them to bond to.

[Jhhnn]

My 2 groups of 8 sub adult discus engage in a lot of nipping, butting, chasing and posturing. It's stylized aggression, with none of them getting so much as a torn fin out of it all. It's part and parcel of their social dynamic.

Some members of the older group of 5+" fish have established territories of sorts, one fish in particular rather rigorously holding to one end of the tank, chasing the others off when they enter. The others are a bit more gregarious, with a couple of roamers, but their relative positions are pretty predictable if there's nothing going on. At feeding time they're all over the tank...

The 4"-5" fish don't really have territories, often holding to a tight school, particularly if upset by anything. Their normal routine is nip and chase, with the pursued dodging behind tankmates to distract the pursuer, taking a nip at somebody else in the process, spreading it around... That's how the group of larger fish behaved when younger, too...

Each group consists of hatchmates, siblings, fish who've spent their whole lives together. Fish who are strangers to each other will likely display more aggression until they get it sorted out... and aggression can apparently become focused on one fish in small groups of 3 or 4, not a good thing, at least not for that fish...

[Daniella]

My young discus are like puppies or kittens, they fight all the time.

Adult don't fight much at all, except when protecting a breeding territory, then they can become really nasty and scare the whole tank to the far end.

the more the fish the less the aggression, the older the fish the less the aggression. I have one that was picked at a few months ago, now nobody pay attention to it.



Hey all,

Just got back into the hobby after a long layoff, and purchased a group of 5 blue turks and a group of 7 red turns. All the fish are about 3 to 3.5 inches. At first, I put all the fish into a 75, and the blue turks were beating the crap out of the red turk, so I moved the blue turks into their own 75. Now, the red turks are beating the crap out of each other in their own tank, and the blue turks are beating the crap out of each other in their tank, especially during feeding time.

Is this just discus puberty?

[MSD]

This is a false blanket statement. I've had lots of young fish never fight but the older ones constantly bicker. There are no absolutes in life, or discus. And just because one tank of fish does something one way means nothing to the next set. Sheesh. Eddie, help me!!!!