Discus Chasing

[Nashoda]

I bought 2 discus a week ago (getting more, just don't want spikes in water getting all at once) and they are about 7-10 months I think. I had them in my 70 gallon planted, but even though they ate well, the one was hiding from the other all the time as he/she was being chased, so I put it in my 40 gallon alone as it is setup for discus (bare-bottom and temperature 86).It did remarkably well, colors really vibrant, eating, swimming. It's been there for 3 days now, so this morning added the bully to the tank to try again as now its the shy ones territory. The bully flashed its colors, fins and keeps coming up beside and swishing itself against it then sometimes chases and nips. The shy ones bars became very pronounced and sometimes just swims casually away or swims for its life.
New to discus so I'm uncertain what is going on. They both ate well today together and no fighting over food. They come up eat out of my hand even the shy one.
I am afraid of the shy one being chased too much, but I know they are cichlids so they will do that. Any advice?

Thanks Nash

 

[DevotedToDiscus]

Nash, this is very normal behavior for what are still relatively young fish. It's all about food, and sometimes you will see them squabble so much over the food that they actually forget to eat it! This pecking order will swing from fish to fish until they mature, at about 18 months old. Then it will calm down. It also tends to happen a little less the more fish there are in the group. Don't worry, they won't actually hurt each other, it is all show.

A couple of tips to lessen the chances of creating a bully....... First try to stick with fish of very similar size, as small fish will tend to get bullied by larger ones. If you are feeding things like frozen blood worms, use 2 feeding cones at the same time and place them at opposite ends of the tank. This will stop the dominant fish from being able to guard the food. Same applies to feeding dry pellet etc. try not to drop all the food in one area.

Also these fish are new in a new environment, and you should see them settle down once they are comfortable and the group is bigger.