I am currently raising 4 young discus about 3-5" in diamater in a 36 gallon tank. I previously owned 2 blood pidgeon discus in that tank, for about 2-3 months they were doing great, no illness, eating well, growing well, out of nowhere the two of them went beserk and within 3-4 days their fins looked like a major case of fin rot (all chipped up and ripped) I knew this wasn't fin rot because of the absence of the white fungus on their fins. After some watching i noticed the two were fighting, quite relentlessly. I've had fish aggression before but that was nothing - usually just one fish chasses another fish about 1/10 of the tank length and gets bored. These two were sparring like lions, circling around and taking shots at each other. I added in one more discus (blue turqouise) to lessen the aggression, the blue turquoise, from that day to this day remains unscathe, whilst the one blood pidgeon is torn up and the other deceased. In hopes of lowering the aggerssion I looked around and once again the best solution was dispersing the aggression so i got 2 more discus. Things were fine for 2 or so weeks but now once again the sparring. I know discus having a pecking order but its gotten to the point of being ridiculus. The blue turqoise is now on the rise and harassing the other discus very badly (even the one bigger than him) whilst teh sparring ebtween the others is very minute. I was wondering what i can do to stem the harassment as numbers are not working. The pidgeon blood is looking bad, torn fins and thin, I dont wanna lose another discus to the sparring. Help please
Discus - Aggression - Very Bad
- Thread starter Aerious
- Start date
First, what are the parameters of your tank and your maintenance schedule? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, Temp, ph...etc... Second, a 36 gal is too small of a tank for discus of that size, in my opinion. If it is solely aggression, with a tank that small there is no place for the attacked discus to go to get away from the aggressor. Aggression causes stress and a stressed discus is more likely to get diseases.
I agree. If your 4 discus average 4", then your tank is too small. What you need is a four foot, 55 gal. tank. A 75 would work as well, but the 55 is cheaper. Give them a piece of driftwood for cover, and tank size problem solved. Don't expect juvi discus to never spar and chase however. It's natural for them no matter how big the tank is. They will form a "pecking" order and mellow out as they grow and get older.
I got a 75 with all the equipment, just working on setting it up, I think the drift wood is a great idea, I had unhooked one of my decorations and let it float and the run took shelter there right away. Thanks for the help guys, I'll post feedback after I resolve the 75 issue.