Is the Discus runt always cursed?

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nintri

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 12, 2006
42
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Canada
I had 8 discus in my 77 gallon tank. They are very well taken care with lots of WCs and well fed.
My smallest discuss (about 3 inches) stopped eating and slowly died over a month or so of not eating. I understand that this can happen with discus and is a social characteristic for the runt - and I beleive this to be true as there was no aggression towards it and it had plenty of opportunities to eat. There was not a big size difference between him and the others at first but the others kept growing and he did not.
Now, following my first discuss death, the next smallest has slowed down on its eating and is becoming a loner.

Will this continue to happen until I have one discuss left?

I actually had another one display this behaviour for a period of time (weeks) but for some reason the roles switched and he is now growing nicely while the other died. Strange.
 
Any fish lowest in the ranking within their group will always get deprived of what they need. Why? Because being the smallest, there is no way for them to compete fairly with the other members of the group who are larger and more powerful thus being able to outcompete other fish quite well.
nintri said:
I actually had another one display this behaviour for a period of time (weeks) but for some reason the roles switched and he is now growing nicely while the other died. Strange.
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Nothing strange in my opinion.:) Could be that the bigger one was weakening allowing the smaller one to compete for food without much competition with the rest.
 
Bluebell: what you say makes perfect sense. However, there is one thing that dosen't fit IMO.
Is it that the fish KNOWS that it COULD NOT compete fairly for food and, therefore, does not compete for the food? In the cases of both my recently deceased discus and my other discuss now not eating, it is not the opportunity to eat that is the problem. They are fed 3-4 times a day and I can watch as the food floats right in front of their (the problem discus') mouths - they even sometimes folow the food descent close up - with no risk of competition as the others are feeding elsewhere in the tank. They seem to just CHOOSE to not eat. It is definately not a case of others snatching the food too quickly. I can see it more likely that intimidation at other times of the day causes them to show submission.
Regardless, these are just my theories. I just hate the idea that I will continue to lose fish. Seems a shame.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
nintri;663335; said:
Bluebell: what you say makes perfect sense. However, there is one thing that dosen't fit IMO.
Is it that the fish KNOWS that it COULD NOT compete fairly for food and, therefore, does not compete for the food? In the cases of both my recently deceased discus and my other discuss now not eating, it is not the opportunity to eat that is the problem. They are fed 3-4 times a day and I can watch as the food floats right in front of their (the problem discus') mouths - they even sometimes folow the food descent close up - with no risk of competition as the others are feeding elsewhere in the tank. They seem to just CHOOSE to not eat. It is definately not a case of others snatching the food too quickly. I can see it more likely that intimidation at other times of the day causes them to show submission.
Regardless, these are just my theories. I just hate the idea that I will continue to lose fish. Seems a shame.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

he is stressed from being picked on, that is why he wont eat.

isolate him in another tank, and get him to health and size, then reintroduced him into to the tank.
 
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