ceaseless aggression

[robxc80]

Hello Everyone,

I am at a wits end with my aggression issues.

I had this same problem before i got rid of my last aggressor and now my red turq, who was getting the abuse before is the relentless bully.

All of my discus sulk and hide among the plants in one corner while the red turq rules the rest of the tank. He even goes to the corner where the other discus are and bites each of the discus one by one to show his dominance. Due to his dominance, he gets the most food and beats the heck out of the others when they want to eat.

He is now the largest fish in the tank and i'm beginning to worry that my others will slowly fade away.

What can i do? I can't easily catch him since my tank is heavily planted but i'm ready to call it quits since it seems i'm wasting my money having one fish beat the daylights out of the rest.

i thought my cichlasomines were aggressive. This one guy wont leave any of the others alone.

[David Rose]

Do you have a quarantine tank that you can separate him for awhile? That would give the others a break and the pecking order would change again. When you reunite him/her, I've found that aggression will lessen.

[csarkar001]

how big is your tank and how many discus do you have? what is the difference is length between your largest and smallest fish?

[Eddie]

Discus life

[David Rose]

Hi Eddie... do you think the aggression is mainly during the juvenille period. At least in my tanks, whatever little aggression I had was during this time mainly?

I know my snake skins were the dominant and most aggressive, but now they are sub adults, I don't see it any more. Also, I did experiment separating the more aggressive for a few days a couple of times and that seemed to do the trick in shaking up the pecking order and changing terratories.

[Eddie]

Hi Eddie... do you think the aggression is mainly during the juvenille period. At least in my tanks, whatever little aggression I had was during this time mainly?

I know my snake skins were the dominant and most aggressive, but now they are sub adults, I don't see it any more. Also, I did experiment separating the more aggressive for a few days a couple of times and that seemed to do the trick in shaking up the pecking order and changing terratories.

Yeah Dave, my fish are fierce. They pound the pi&& out of each other, all day...every day. Guess my fish have rabies!!! LOL Its been like that with all my discus, since the beginning. Age doesn't really matter IME.

Take care,

Eddie

[Disgirl]

This makes me wonder something here. When I used to have African cichlids, Mbunas in particular, we were told to keep the tank heavily stocked with them to help with aggressive behaviors. In my tank, it seemed to work. Does the same apply to some discus? I know, 10 gal. per fish, but in some cases, with lots of wc's, perhaps more is better? Just wondering...
Barb:)

[csarkar001]

most of my aggression problems got much better when i increased the number of fish in my tank. its one of the few fish problems i know that is solved with more fish.

[robxc80]

so the answer is to buy more? I just see one more fish hiding in the corner. Believe it or not, these discus are much more aggressive to conspecifics than most other cichlids i've kept and i've kept them all.

THe only reason i don't have any deaths due to aggression is the lack of any real dentition like a umbie or dovii. The aggressive discus in my tank is a complete and total jerk to the others.

i don't see how getting one more would solve anything. if anything, its probably best to get rid of all of them.

[Chad Hughes]

Increased numbers have always worked for me as well!

Best of luck!

[csarkar001]

can you tell me how big your tank is and how many you have in there now?


so the answer is to buy more? I just see one more fish hiding in the corner. Believe it or not, these discus are much more aggressive to conspecifics than most other cichlids i've kept and i've kept them all.

THe only reason i don't have any deaths due to aggression is the lack of any real dentition like a umbie or dovii. The aggressive discus in my tank is a complete and total jerk to the others.

i don't see how getting one more would solve anything. if anything, its probably best to get rid of all of them.

[Jhhnn]

With my two tanks and limited experience, what I see with my fish is more along the lines of stylized aggression- pecking, chasing, posing, & chest thumping for lack of a better term.

OTOH, each tank contains siblings- roughly the same size and temperament. They were already 4" when I obtained them, and had lived together their whole lives, even though they came from a much bigger school, obviously. I have 8 in a 120 and 8 somewhat younger fish of a different variety in a reef-type 75. Each group had their dominance heirarchy sorted out, for the most part, before they ever came to me.

Nobody takes the brunt of it, because there's always somebody else to duck behind, and there's no point in trying to hide because there's no place to hide- BB tanks w/ heaters and sponge filters...

Two of the fish in the 120 paired up, claim one end of the tank as their own pretty much. When they have eggs, or thinking about having eggs, the male is pretty aggressive, chasing the rest of the fish to the other end of the tank. Once they're past the halfway mark, he leaves 'em alone, and they'll generally stay there, at least for awhile.... It's obvious when he intends to charge, and that's usually enough to send the offender scooting away, so he just charges out a little, to let 'em know he means it...

[Scribbles]

What size is your tank and how many/size discus do you have? I have found that more is better in most cases. If you remove the aggresor then a new one may emerge in it's place.

Chris

[robxc80]

its a 60 gallon with 6 discus with the largest being about 4" diameter. All but one are close in size with the smallest being about 2.5" diameter.

The tank is heavily planted with a bunch of small dithers.

[Nismo]

what helped me out was getting more discus and having a bare tank. they seem to group together more in a bare tank. now my tank is filled with decor and they are fine except when I feed them pallets that sink to the bottom. So I try not to feed them pallets as often.

[csarkar001]

its a 60 gallon with 6 discus with the largest being about 4" diameter. All but one are close in size with the smallest being about 2.5" diameter.

The tank is heavily planted with a bunch of small dithers.

not a lot of wiggle room to add more fish with this size tank unfortunately.:(

[sthai75]

Under four inches with this behavior is normal, and HEALTHY BEHAVIOR, I know, not so great for the ones getting bullyed. I noticed that after keeping my discus for over a year this bullying becomes less frequent. You have the min # already, you may want to try trading him in for store credit or even trade and try again in getting the right mix of males vs female. you may have a tank of all one. Likely hood is slim but still a chance of it occuring. But if you are truley concerned and fed up with discus I would be willing to give them a good home. Of course for what price you offer. Wat strains are they and how long have you had them? Post some pics.

[robxc80]

i think i figured it out.

The bully is a red turq that seems to be civil and sometimes downright nice to a slightly smaller cobalt blue. He actually tolerates it in his space. I'm assuming that the red turq is a male and the cobalt blue is a female and they have begun pairing off. He does display to her often and shows what looks like courtship behavior.

I have two checkerboards (i think, definatley a PB based but much more brilliant in red coloration) and i think that they are male female as well since they always hang together. They are being picked on though but show more boldness and eat better than the last two.

The last two are a snakeskin and a PB. The PB is the smallest but he likes to pick on the cobalt blue that is the big hancho's lady. The snakeskin is my favorite since its so beautiful and he's the worst of them all. He is ALWAYS hiding in my rotala.

My tank is so heavily planted that they hide a lot. I love my plants and would not go to a BB tank.

I guess i'm just screwed. I'm hating my red turq more and more each day.

[jaykne]

I almost always grow out my fish in barebottom tank, 55g I will grow out 6, always at one time or another have a problem with aggression but just make sure I put food down in more than one part of the tank and after a while they work it out. I think the key is at least 6 fish in a tank then the aggression gets spread out. Now I have one tank with all adualts, have a pair in there and at times they can become very aggressive, but always calms down. Larry