Discus pecking

[plark]

Hello everyone, I'm new here.... Not to fish but to discus and have been reading around the forums for about 3 days now stuffing my brain full of discus information :D
So I have 3 discus in a 40 gal. It was originally 2 (a snakeskin and pigeon blood) well the pigeon blood would non stop peck the snakeskin, so I decided maybe another discus would help the pecking order, Nope now he just has another fish to pick on. The new one hasn't been in the main tank for 24 hours but all 3 have been eating..... They are all healthy I feed something different stuff at every feeding.

My water is perfect 0,0,0 @ 84.7 deg. Only other thing in the tank is a 3 inch gold nugget pleco (my bottom cleaner :D ) I have really light amount of gravel and some driftwood.

I'm useing a Tetra ex55 HOB filter and a 20 gal sponge filter with 50% water changes every 2 days.

Thanks for your help

[jimmyjoe]

Sorry, to say this but three discus together is what your going to get as far as discus and a pecking order. JMO but usually six or more is what most people might buy so things like this even the pecking out. Your always gonna have a dominant discus in any tank but not only 1 or 2 that takes all the abuse, I've heard that changing the tank features helps and putting new fish in at night so they don't become stressed out right away from being a new tankmate. HTH but if it were me I would maybe purchased a bigger tank like a 55 gal. and then maybe buy a couple more and put them all in at one time so there equal to there new surroundings.........Good luck though. Jim

[plark]

Hey thanks for the reply, I plan on buying a 100 gal w/ sump within the next month, I also have a 35 gal that's empty right now, maybe sticking all 3 in there with bare bottom, heater and sponge filter with water out of my main tank might help?

[jimmyjoe]

Go ahead and give it a try, I think the one that's really getting the worst of it, might enjoy it till you get the 100 up an running. Another suggestion is to put the pecker in the 35, but in the long run you'll just end up with the more dominant one then taking over the top of the pecking order. Try and give them some places to seek refuge from the abuse see if that helps for awhile...................HTH Jim

[poconogal]

Yes, 5 or 6 is the minimum best number. With 3 Discus, 2 usually end up picking on one until it gets sick and dies. Then you have 2 left and one picks on the other until it gets sick and... yep dies. With more Discus, the aggression can be spread out. Discus are peaceful with other fish, but amongst themselves, they are still Cichlids, especially when juvie and sub-adult, coming into breeding age. Once adults, IME they calm down and are more peaceful with each other, unless you have spawning pairs in your tank, LOL!

I'd get that bigger tank, the sooner the better, then get more Discus. Put them together only after 6 week minimum QT.

[tcyiu]

Agree with Connie. Once they're adults, they calm down a lot.

When I started out, I didn't know about the discus-on-discus violence. I bought a pair, and pretty soon in 2 weeks, I was down to one. :-(

So I bought 3 more ... duh. Then I found Simply, but it was too late.

Anyway, I stuck it out with the four. I ended up constantly moving fish in and out of the hospital tank which turned into a jail for bad behaviour, or a refuge for battered fish depending on the drama of that particular week.

The upshot is, by the time they became adults, most of the violence subsided. It didn't entirely go away, but it subsided by a lot.

I now have six juveniles, and I must say, I think a larger school would be helpful to distribute the harassment. But I have no room :-(

Tim

[Ibanez540r]

Plark-

Sorry to say it but your just going to keep getting responses about the amount of fish. 5-6 or more bottom line. It's going to be a broken record. Get a bigger tank, more fish. But the upside to this is, well... a bigger tank and more fish! ;) It was just a matter of time anyways.. bite the bullet and make you and your fish happy.

-Mike

[plark]

ok soooooo today i got a 55 gal tank and ordered 2 #5 sponge filters from jehmco.com.... Already got the tank panted black and filled with water (out of main tank) just got to wait for filters to get here so I can get this going.... gah owning fish is like having another kid haha

[csarkar001]

painting your tank background black may make your discus turn dark.

[poconogal]

Black or dark background will cause some peppering in your PB, and may make others turn darker. How much peppering on the PB depends on how clean a PB it is to start with. If your substrate is dark as well, you can count on peppered and darker discus.

[Ibanez540r]

Yup, black was a bad move.... I did the same thing when I first started and ended up scraping them all back off and going blue.. sucks..

[plark]

gah!!!! the black looked so nice.... oh well blue it is, I better get to working on it.... My filters will be here friday I think

[poconogal]

Black does work well for albino strains of Discus since they won't pepper or darken. And yeah, I know the black looks great. Cardinals look spectacular against black too.

[plark]

well peeled all the black off tonight, got the blue on water into the tank with a small sponge filter and 12 neon tetras..... just waiting for the bigger sponge filters to get here so I can put the 3 discus in and I'll go buy 3 more from the same guy I bought from already. Hopefully they will relax a little and stop being so dam dominate to eachother

[plark]

Also tanks for the advice everyone, hopefully this works out for the best because I have a really good looking blue snakeskin that I think is going to be an excellent fish. When I get some good pics I'll post em, I only have pics on my phone right now

[Ibanez540r]

well peeled all the black off tonight, got the blue on water into the tank with a small sponge filter and 12 neon tetras..... just waiting for the bigger sponge filters to get here so I can put the 3 discus in and I'll go buy 3 more from the same guy I bought from already. Hopefully they will relax a little and stop being so dam dominate to eachother

Be careful you don't put brand new sponges in and toss in all the fish. You need some seeded sponges or do a fish or fishless cycle. Remember your biological filter is only as big as it needs to be, AKA if you have 12 neon tetras the BIO can only handle 12 neon tetras. When you add more fish the BIO has to catch up or it will spike.

Good luck, that Blue should look great in his new home, happily w/ some friends!