Juvenile bully

Hi there.

I would just like find out if somebody can maybe help me. I bought 2 Juvenile Discus on Monday and put them into a small quarantine tank. I noticed today that the one juvenile keeps pecking on the other one. They both are about 5-6cm.
When I took off the lid to feed them the one jumped out (that's getting bullied), now I dunno if I scared them, or if he just tried to get away from the other one.

Thanks

 

As my first option I would get more discus to even out the hierarchy there abit, maybe 3 or 4 more as discus are social shoaling creatures. If not get some filter fish like cardinals or perhaps even angels. Ornament or other decorative items for the other fish to hide or take protection aswell

 

Hi there.

I already have 2 Discus 8-10cm in my main tank, I bought the 2 juveniles on Monday, I want to quarantine them for at least a month before adding them to my main tank. The quarantine tank which they are in at the moment is a bare bottom tank.

 

Hi mate.

Like the previous post, discus are social fish and will do much better in a big group 6+ or more. They are cichlids and will try and dominate another fish. He could have jumped out for any of the reasons you mentioned. If the behavior continues, the week discus will just get weaker, stop eating and eventually die.. If you are not planning on getting any more, I would separate these two for now.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I will get some more in about 2-3 months time, my lfs doesn't sell Discus, so I only buy when I go down to Durban or in Richardsbay when I see one I really like. The one juvenile that gets bullied does eat and swims around with the bully from time to time, but when he gets bullied he just sits in the corner. I am planning on keeping about 5-6 as I only have a 4ft tank. I'm also planning on getting a bigger tank, either a 5ft or a 6ft later this year so I can keep more.

 

OK so update on this. I added both juveniles to my main tank, both of them were hiding for a while, then they eventually started swimming around, but my one semi-adult Discus kept on chasing the one juvenile around, especially when it came to feeding time. I saw that his colours started going funny (not dark), looks like marks where the colour is gone. I took him out and put him into my quarantine tank for now.
I'll try and take a picture of him.

 

I hope this photo does it, he gets very excited when he sees me, and swims around the whole time.

 

I have 3 discus in my tank and I see that one get bullied almost constant, the other 2 have paired of. In general the bigger your school the better the chances that the agression gets spread over more fish, and not on one. For the time being I will suggest that you add him/her to the main tank but ad some seperation between them. After some time you should be able to remove this. The other discus whould most properly accept the fact that they are not the only fishes in this tank. BTW what is the size of the tank you have them in at the moment?

 

I have the same problem. Bought 2 Discus almost a year ago and all was going good they swam together fed together until 2 weeks ago the bigger one start nipping and chasing the smaller one around. Ive got a big tank with lots of hiding place but the bigger still chases the smaller one around. I thought that the only solution would be to get more Discus, same story as with Malawi's 2 of them never stops fighting but the more you have the less aggressive they get.

Do I need to get the same type of discus. Ive got the two turquoise discuses, and where planning on getting red or diamond discus fish. Will it help or will the turquoise still fight?

 

It doesn't matter if the others are not the same. As long as the school grows they should be fine

 

It is perfectly fine to quarintine 2 discus for 4-6 weeks together.yes they will fight they are fish.once you add them to your main tank things should be fine.6 -8 Adults in a 4foot will be fine, but dnt expect the fighting to subside completely there will allways be a fair amount of disagreements in a discus tank.

 

It looks a the peace was settled between my 2 discus they swimming together again. The only trouble is it looks if the one shrinked in size comparing to the dominate one. Hopefully he will recover and grow again with time.

 

Hi @Tetra Can you post some pics of your tank and discus please.Love to see them.I can never have enough of discus