Older Discus Fighting with New Discus

Hi!

So, I recently (about a week ago) bought my first Discus. He seemed very peaceful with his tank mates. Today, I bought a second discus and slowly acclimated him to my tank over the course of 30-45 mins. During that time, the older discus kept trying to get at the newbie through the bag, and I just figured he was curious.

Now, he seems to be chasing the newbie all over the tank. I'm pretty sure their fighting, but it this normal? My opinion is that the older discus is trying to establish his dominance in the tank. Or preserve his territory.

I'm just wondering, should I expect this every time I add a new discus? I plan on getting more (I have a 55 gal.) and would like to have at least three. Will this behavior disapate over time? If not, what should I do?

Any halp is much appreciated...Thanks in advance

 

I don't know much abt discus... but, how big are they?

 

They are both approximately the same size, about 4-5 inches in diameter. One is a red turquoise and the newbie is more of a beach with blushing red marks and red and turquoise on its fins...

 

I'm guessing it has to do with territory. If it carries on you may have to return one or maybe more will help the situation. Better wait for someone who keeps them to come up.
Best of luck.

 

Thanks, I went to the LFS today and he said it's basically a dominance struggle, one putting the other in his place. If it continues, he recommended rearranging the tank and giving some heavier feedings to ease aggression...aslo, more would help, but I have to wait for them to get some prettier ones in....

 

Thanks, I went to the LFS today and he said it's basically a dominance struggle, one putting the other in his place. If it continues, he recommended rearranging the tank and giving some heavier feedings to ease aggression...aslo, more would help, but I have to wait for them to get some prettier ones in....

Yeah redecorating should help however I don't think over feeding is a good idea.

 

not necessarily "over" feeding, but a little more to avoid squabbles over food....

 

Hi!

So, I recently (about a week ago) bought my first Discus. He seemed very peaceful with his tank mates. Today, I bought a second discus and slowly acclimated him to my tank over the course of 30-45 mins. During that time, the older discus kept trying to get at the newbie through the bag, and I just figured he was curious.

Now, he seems to be chasing the newbie all over the tank. I'm pretty sure their fighting, but it this normal? My opinion is that the older discus is trying to establish his dominance in the tank. Or preserve his territory.

I'm just wondering, should I expect this every time I add a new discus? I plan on getting more (I have a 55 gal.) and would like to have at least three. Will this behavior disapate over time? If not, what should I do?

Any halp is much appreciated...Thanks in advance

HI MasterShake..
I didnt see this post earlier, and I don't know if you resolved the problem in your tank yet,but thought I would respond.
Discus can be really hard on each other. If you have two Discus that really do not like each other, the aggression never seems to stop, with one being so tormented in the continual chase, that you don't know what to do.
One of the best things to do is get all the Discus you plan on bringing into the tank at the same time. This helps cut down on that " I was here first" syndrome.
Changing decorations around is not going to help. They will find each other anywhere. its not so much a territorial problem, if it were, it would stop once the trespasser was chased out of the area.
If a Discus is getting tormented continually it can really get sick, injured or stressed which can lead to secondary illness's.
I have one right now in the same situation. I finally had to take the aggressor out and I put him in a 29 gallon tank shared with a angelfish that I already had there. They both are getting along fine ignoring each other. The poor Discus that was haunted by the aggressor is very dark, very stressed and staying by itself. I hope it recovers.
The Discus do not like to be alone and that was the one thing that stopped me from doing something about this earlier as the aggression is just not going to stop.
How are your Discus faring now? Did you get more yet? Have they calmed down some?

~ kate

not necessarily "over" feeding, but a little more to avoid squabbles over food....

It seems you can never over feed juvenile Discus. They like to be fed 5-7 times in a 24hr period. You don't want your guys to grow 'stunted'. They grow fast and large and need their good food to do so. Other wise you end up with a small fish with HUGE eyes... yep! I had one like that... :-\


~ kate

 

Thanks for the info capekate!

As of yesterday, I purchased 2 more discus, bringing the grand total up to 4(1 red turquoise, 1 red marlboro, 1 blue snakeskin, and 1 neon blue), and they are all amazing!!!! I also rearranged the tank yesterday while I did my weekly maintenance.

With the addition of 2 more, it seems the aggression is now more spread among the four, which helps. I'm noticing that the two I bought together(BS and NB) are perfectly ok with one another, buddies even. Now, I'm noticing that the original two bought about a week apart (RT and RM) are even seemingly ok with one another most times.

So, what I'm trying to figure out is if there is a way to reacclimate them all together back into the tank. Unfortunately I only have the 55 gal. and a 20 gal that is full of livebearers.

I'm watching them right now and it seems like the RT defends the left side of the tank, and the RM defends the right, which leaves the two new guys constantly running back and forth across the tank.

Any further thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

HI MasterShake
Your tank must look great with the new Discus. I hope you will post photos soon! ;D If I were you, Id probably wait it out and see how they all get along. Maybe they will be ok.
My poor discus that was tormented by the pigeon blood died today. It never recovered from the stress even tho I moved the pigeon blood to another tank.
I had it for about seven months and its a shame to loose one of these guys.
So with that in mind.. just make sure that if one does get constantly harassed that you may want to move the aggressor. I wouldnt bother taking them out now and re acclimate them to the tank, since they are already in there. Just do a wait and see and hopefully there will not be too much aggression. I have had Discus that got along, and then for some reason suddenly would become aggressive towards each other. So its so hard to tell what they will do next.
Good luck with them and keep us posted! and don't forget photos!

~ kate

 

capekate

here's some pics. I think they will all get along alright....eventually.

My 55 gal after redecorating...




Red Turquoise Discus




A few of my Red Marlboro(I think that's what he is...)










My Neon Blue or Blue Diamond...not sure




The Blue Snakeskin







If you can clarify that those are the correct color variations, I'd appreciate it...common names are difficult because it seems 3 places will call the same fish 3 different names...

The Red Marlboro?? I got from a small shop here where I live from an idiot. He had siameese algae eaters in with all his discus and 3 were lying dead in the tank. I think the little buggers ate away all their slime coat and killed them off, so I rescued him. He was only $35 which is the cheapest I've ever seen for his size (about 3.5" in diameter).

The other three I got from an LFS about 45 mins. from my house. Much better staff there and they really know their stuff. They ranged from $47 to $57. They are about 4-5" in diameter except the neon blue or blue diamond, he's only about 2.5", but they special ordered him for me!

I have some other miscellaneous fish in with the discus. 2 boesmanI rainbows, 1 threadfin rainbow, 1 turquoise rainbow, 1 praecox rainbow, a dwarf gourami, a few neon tetras and a few zebra danios. I think there may be a few guppies I couldn't catch to move to my 20 gal. and I have a black ghost knife. That sounds like a lot but all my water levels are perfect and everyone seems to get along...except my discus from time to time.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics. I have a feeling that I'm going to end up with many more tanks as time goes by. I'd absolutely LOVE a reef tank, but all that money frightens me. So, I figure if I can care for Discus and keep them healthy and thriving, the next step up in difficulty would be salt reef tank.

What do you feed your discus? I'm using a combination of Tetra Color flakes, Cyclop-eeze micro crabs and Bio-Pure frozen bloodworms. Also, freeze dried blood worms. Any other tips on how best to care for these guys would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

good morning MasterShake
Your Discus are beautiful! ;D The blue diamond looks just like mine. Your red marlboro looks like a Melon to me, either a red or orange melon. Looks like a blue Tourq in there as well.
I love your tank set up..but I'm not too sure of all those rocks. Discus sometimes spaz out for no reason and really fly all over the tank. They will bounce off of what is in the tank and can really hurt themselves on those rock formations in there. I have seen mine get spooked for no reason and do that. Your beautiful discus can really get hurt against those items there. I have three quartz rocks in my tank but they are small but I have to worry about them. Discus in the wild do not normally live in an environment with all those rocks.
I can relate to your ideas on the Saltwater tank. Its far too expensive for me, and I thought that the next best thing would be a discus tank for all their beautiful coloring. ;D Sounds like all of your tank mates will be fine with them. Ive had no problems with my own rainbows and Discus. I really love those rainbows.. they truly are a peaceful species of fish. :;a2
For foods I give them a variety of the HikarI frozen... brine shrimp w/spirulina, blood worms and a cichlid flake food. I don't like using the beefheart, tho its in my freezer. They just didnt seem to take to it and its a mess to clean up. Tho I know that its good for them, I think they can get the proteins from the bloodworms instead.
Its so early in the am and I'm not sure if I had already mentioned the Discus Care Sheet for more information, but if I did sorry for repeating myself.
You are lucky to have a few places close by where you can buy them. The prices sounded great. I paid 25 bucks each for my guys but they were small. They do grow fast tho, and my Blue diamond is about 3 inches now.
Here is a photo of Ricky Blue, the blue diamond that looks just like yours. ;D
Glad to hear the aggression has slowed down some. Good luck with your beautiful babies there! ;D

~ kate

 

I heard that the Malbro Reds or ones with the reddish coloring, are more aggressive than others. I don't if this 100% true or not.
I want a tank full of blue diamond discus someday. Love your fish!

 

HI Allie
I don't know if its true or not either, but it was my orange pigeon blood that I had to move out of the tank due to its aggression towards the other Discus. My blue diamond is the most peaceful of them all... well of the ones I have left. Which I am now down to 2 :-\ ....

~ kate

 

HI Allie
I don't know if its true or not either, but it was my orange pigeon blood that I had to move out of the tank due to its aggression towards the other Discus. My blue diamond is the most peaceful of them all... well of the ones I have left. Which I am now down to 2 :-\ ....

~ kate

 

Just to clarify, those deco's in the tank are all artificial, made of a resin-plastic type stuff. As rough as they look, they are actually quite smooth. Now, I got them at a discount because they were broke, which led to some sharp edges, but I sanded them down a bit and for even more assurance, stuffed the holes from the breaks with some java moss.

I'm becoming a bit worried about my tanks because I'm going to be moving within the next year or so. I still live at home while I'm going to college, but will be graduating in December (hopefully). I don't know what I'll do when moving day comes. Guess that's a problem to worry about when the time comes.

In a perfect world I would have just two tanks. Both 120 gal., one salt reef and the other fresh Discus and Rainbows. Maybe a small third like a 29 gal. livebearer tank.

I would love to have some of these tanks I've seen around that look like they were pulled straight from a lake with beautiful aquascaping and live plants. When I first started out I went with the blue and white gravel because I'm a huge Colts fan, but now, I'm wishing I'd have read a bit more because I LOVE the black substrates.

Enough rambling for now...LOL