dominance

[robxc80]

Hello Everyone,

So i've now had my 60 gallon discus tank up and running for about 3 months now. I currently have 6 discus with a number of cardinals, harlequins, rams, and cories in a heavily planted tank.

My problem is that my red turq is bullying the other 5 discus to the point that they stay hidden in the plants while he circles around the tank to make sure nobody is in his territory.

I've had this problem before and traded two of my discus in for smaller ones since one turq i had was EXTREMELY vicious. Now i'm concerned and realize that i cannot keep taking fish back (and losing money in the process).

I do not want to rearrange the tank because i love my aquascape and it took me FOREVER to get it right. Also, i hate upsetting the rooting of my plants.

So what can i do? all 6 discus are healthy but i dont want some of them to starve and than get stunted.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[rickztahone]

it's a pretty touchy situation at best here bud. are they all around the same size? if not then that would be my start. usually if one is much larger than the rest it will be the bully. what you have to keep in mind is that when discus are placed in a new tank they will battle it out to determine the pecking order.

[tcyiu]

So what can i do? all 6 discus are healthy but i dont want some of them to starve and than get stunted.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

This is what I have done and it has worked for me. Your mileage may vary:

I had a bully that picked on his other tank mates incessantly. Being a bare bottom tank, there was no place for them to hide. So I bought a small, rectangular plastic "basket" from the dollar store. It had slits/openings along the side walls, but the bottom was solid. This is important for a couple of reasons (see below).

I took a length of vinyl tubing and wrapped that along the top edge under the lip. The two open ends were shoved onto a single wood dowel. This made the tube water-tight. The basket now floats on this.

Whenever I see really bad aggression, I would scoop up the mean fish into the basket and let the basket float at the surface. In essence I isolate the fish. I do NOT use a net because I believe that the more one nets a fish, the more one rubs off the protective slime.

The solid bottom on the basket is important for a couple of reasons. 1) when you feed the fish in the basket, the solid floor keeps the food in there longer. 2) I've noticed that discus tend to range from the floor to mid levels unless they're feeding. They do not normally hang out at the surface of the water. Since the basket is a little shallow, if the floor is "open" the fish will probably feel insecure being dangled up near the surface.

Anyway, keep this routine up until the other fish gain more confidence. This means they will stand their ground a little better when the bully is let out. More likely than not, another bully will emerge. This is good. The first bully will now have to contend with another dominant fish.

The only downside to this approach is that the basket will be ugly as sin in your nice show tank. But this is a better alternative to trading in your fish at a loss, or messing up the aquascaping.

Hope this helps.

Tim

P.S. There's some good info on this other trhead. I didn't see it at first: http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?p=586453#post586453

[Scribbles]

It sounds like your tank is pretty heavily stocked. The 6 discus alone would stock it, then you have all of the other fish. There may not be enough room for everyone. Any chance of moving the discus or the other fish to another tank? If not perhaps a divider to keep the bully in his own area. Of course if you do this a new bully may emerge.

Chris

[smoothhound2000]

Hi robxc80,

I have just had this problem with mine and again it was a red turq doing most of the bullying, and this poor little blue diamond was getting the brunt of it. I tried every thing to stop this, i tried removing the bully for 10 minutes and rearranging the tank but he still kept on and two of my discus just hid and even stopped feeding. It has been around 3 weeks now and the bullying has now really calmed and nearly stopped and their are starting to swim together and are all feeding. So hang in there and they might calm down especially if they are new fish just been put together. good luck.

90 gallon planted tank, 7 discus, 3 clown loaches, 1 cory, 1 plec, 3 angels and 2 gouriamis.

[robxc80]

thanks everyone. I hope it does go away by itself but things aren't any better today.

I agree that my tank is pretty heavily stocked. I plan on removing some discus over time. I always have a problem with over stocking but frequent water changes usually remedies that...in addition to having all those plants.

Ill probably be forced to thin down as the discus get bigger.