juvenile domination

[fishkeeper59]

Hello all, i am currently growing out 9 juveniles in a 75 gal. tall tank. They are about 6 mos. old and they are all from the same batch. I have 2 juvies that has basically outgrown all the rest and have become quite dominant. I would like to give the other discus's a chance at achieving their potential,but as it is they are always weary and cautious and their stress bars are always prominant. The subordinante fish do fight among themselves but never with the 2 largest ones, what can i do to alleviate this dillema? any suggestions would be very welcome.

[tcyiu]

If you have a smaller quarantine tank, you could use that to isolate the dominant fish every once in a while. This gives the weaker fish a chance to catch their breath so to speak, and bulk up a little.

But having done this before, it gets tiring moving fish around and you have to maintain same parameters in both of the two tanks so that the moves are less stressful for the fish.

One more thing, netting a fish is stressful for the fish and rubs off the slime coat. One way to minimize the stress of moving is to use a tall food safe container. "Cup" it over the target fish against the side of the tank. f you tilt the container in the right way, the fish is trapped inside with water. You can now transport the container to the other tank and the fish never gets touched in the process.

Tim

[j_li8]

If your tank allows you to, you could use the egg crate and divide the tank into two parts. This would allow you to maintain both the same parameters and have a division between the two groups.

[tcyiu]

True. But it's uglier than sin. :-)

I do it right now in my growout tank. But the problem is that the detainee on the other side wants to join in with the school on the other side.

Tim

[fishkeeper59]

hey tcyiu, and j_li8, thanks for getting back to me, i do have a few other tanks but, i really don't want to move the larger one's as they are so beautiful and perfect in coloration and shape, just afraid to risk them stressing out, these are my first batch and i've been kinda treating them with kid gloves, and regards to a divider, the tank is a tall 75 gal which is 36x31x15 it's quite a chore to create a divider for it. i'm thinking maybe keeping the best 4 or 5 in there and move the one's that are alot smaller.:confused:

[j_li8]

yea that might not be as easy making asuck a tall divider. It sounds like moving them is the best bet right now.

[Jhhnn]

hey tcyiu, and j_li8, thanks for getting back to me, i do have a few other tanks but, i really don't want to move the larger one's as they are so beautiful and perfect in coloration and shape, just afraid to risk them stressing out, these are my first batch and i've been kinda treating them with kid gloves, and regards to a divider, the tank is a tall 75 gal which is 36x31x15 it's quite a chore to create a divider for it. i'm thinking maybe keeping the best 4 or 5 in there and move the one's that are alot smaller.:confused:

Might be your best option, dunno. I'd probably leave 5, move 4, depending on a lot of stuff you haven't specified.

Inexperienced as I am, it doesn't seem to me that tall tanks are much benefit, other than in terms of total displacement. My fish generally all occupy very much the same vertical level in the tank, claiming their personal space in a horizontal fashion... So the group dynamic is more like it would be in something like a 40 breeder tank, which has approximately the same footprint as your tank. In other words, they can't establish enough breathing room to reduce aggression.

Might be different in a very, very large tank, dunno...

[fishkeeper59]

Jhhnn,your right tall tanks are quiet a bit more restrictive and the 75 gal pretty much have the same horizontal dimension as a 40 gal.,J_i18 i think i will just move the 4 that are being repressed that way they'll have a chance of getting bigger.

[mmorris]

Hello all, i am currently growing out 9 juveniles in a 75 gal. tall tank. They are about 6 mos. old and they are all from the same batch. I have 2 juvies that has basically outgrown all the rest and have become quite dominant. I would like to give the other discus's a chance at achieving their potential,but as it is they are always weary and cautious and their stress bars are always prominant. The subordinante fish do fight among themselves but never with the 2 largest ones, what can i do to alleviate this dillema? any suggestions would be very welcome.

What's happening that the others, you fear, won't reach their potential? Are they having problems getting enough to eat? Are they hiding a lot? How long has this been going on? It may be that once the hierarchy becomes established, they will settle down. There's bound to be some variance in size.

[fishkeeper59]

mmorris, yes those are pretty much my fears. Well i needed to make a change since they are at a critical stage of growing, i ended up moving the 2 dominant fish into their own 30 gal.(temporary for now) and also while i was at it removed 2 more that were showing signs of ick. infestation(flashing, dark and always hiding)into a qt tank. the remaining 5 fish seems for the moment going thru their position of their ranks of who's dominant. overall the 2 big fish have settled down on their own, the qt tank seems good right now,double dose of rid ick, as i think my ick's are starting to develop some immunity to the meds.

[Jhhnn]

mmorris, yes those are pretty much my fears. Well i needed to make a change since they are at a critical stage of growing, i ended up moving the 2 dominant fish into their own 30 gal.(temporary for now) and also while i was at it removed 2 more that were showing signs of ick. infestation(flashing, dark and always hiding)into a qt tank. the remaining 5 fish seems for the moment going thru their position of their ranks of who's dominant. overall the 2 big fish have settled down on their own, the qt tank seems good right now,double dose of rid ick, as i think my ick's are starting to develop some immunity to the meds.

I wouldn't treat for ich that way, at all. If one fish has it, they all have it, to one degree or another. It's ridiculously contagious. They're all infested, even if you only see it on a few. You have to treat for it *systemically*, because the whole tank, at least, has it. Otherwise, it'll be back, again and again.

My favorite fish dealer back in the 70's taught me that, and he was right. He was very rigorous wrt to quarantine of new fish, and if any in a shipment developed ich, he'd treat 'em all, even fish that arrived in different containers... figuring it was systemic in his supplier's tanks...

[mmorris]

showing signs of ick. infestation(flashing, dark and always hiding)into a qt tank. ..double dose of rid ick, as i think my ick's are starting to develop some immunity to the meds.

It's unlikely to be ick but it does suggest either a water quality problem or a parasite infestation. What are your water stats? (temp, ph, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia) What is your water change regime? How much, how often and how do you treat it? Can you post a pic? Do you see any white patches on the fish's body? I recommend you begin a thread in the disease section with the answers to these questions so the disease experts will be more likely to find it. There is a disease questionare to fill out near the top of the disease section. Best of luck.