Discus Behaviour?

[Seed_Lord]

Hello i've recently started keeping discus, picked up another 2 at the weekend so i have 4 in total now, basicly the pairs ive brought where originally brought as breeding pairs but the guy i got them off never got them to breed so he thinks he was basicly conned, now i dunno the sex's of 3 of them but my new biggest turq is a male because it spawned with a melon, but like, i had 2 leopards originally and brought 2 turq's, the biggest (male) turq has a go at the smaller turq but doesnt bother my leopards, and the smaller turq has a go at the leopards and runs away from the bigger turq, ive seen the bigger turq literally watching from the corner of the tank when the leopards go near the other turq and when the smaller turq has a go at the leopards the bigger 1 will come over, i've never kept discus before so dunno what this means? guessing the turq's prob didnt like each other before i got them, is the bigger one just taking charge of the tank or what?

thanks for any ideas

 

[markandhisfish]

sounds like the new additions have upset the pecking order , which needs to be re-established . give it a few days it should settle down

 

[Seed_Lord]

sounds like the new additions have upset the pecking order , which needs to be re-established . give it a few days it should settle down

yeah thought it might be something like that, just weird how he doesn't bother my leopards atall which to him are the new fish

 

[kevinjames]

you need to keep an eye on this as 4 isnt too good a number for discus. what might happen is that 3 of the discus may bully one specific fish and isolate him/her. thats not happened yet but if the leopards turn on the smaller turq then you may have a problem.

 

[Seed_Lord]

you need to keep an eye on this as 4 isnt too good a number for discus. what might happen is that 3 of the discus may bully one specific fish and isolate him/her. thats not happened yet but if the leopards turn on the smaller turq then you may have a problem.

Its a bit of a weird situation, the leopards havent shown any aggression not even a peck towards the smaller turq, its almost as if the bigger turq doesnt like the smaller one because it picks on the leopards, but idk i'm gonna try get another one sorted

 

[Seed_Lord]

Still having problems, the i tried taking them all out re-arranging and putting them back, they swam around together for about 15 mins then the bigger turq started on the smaller one again, I'm looking into buying another discus but with 35 quid postage if it won't sort my problem its a bit of a money sink. Any ideas on what else i can do?

 

[kevinjames]

what are the exact dimensions of the tank and are all the fish around 5 inches? if the tanks initial footprint is quite small an area then it could be a case of the tank being too small. volume isnt everything its the area of the tanks floorspace that dictates the territories that form.

also do you have any decor in the tank that breaks the eyeline of the fish? ie tall bogwood which acts as a defence for the bullied fish.

 

[Seed_Lord]

what are the exact dimensions of the tank and are all the fish around 5 inches? if the tanks initial footprint is quite small an area then it could be a case of the tank being too small. volume isnt everything its the area of the tanks floorspace that dictates the territories that form.

also do you have any decor in the tank that breaks the eyeline of the fish? ie tall bogwood which acts as a defence for the bullied fish.

its roughly 48 inches long, 17 inches deep (bow front) and 19 inches tall. And yeh ive got aload of plants/wood/coconut caves in the middle forming a barrier which the bullied one does use (hes not atall constantly bullied and the bullying isnt all that bad the other turq just wont let him swim with the group basicly)

edit: seems to be getting a bit better, hes allowing him to swim with the group now still has a go every now and then, will keep an eye on it

 

[kevinjames]

Sounds like the hierarchy is now sorted and the big bully will keep them in line. In my shoal of 6 the golden albino gets the worst of it and at one point had all the other fish having a go. But when its settled down they get along, just takes a while.