Agressive Discus

Hello,
I have 4 discus: a couple of ob and a couple of questions:

1) I had 5 and one blue died 2 days ago. Saw him unwell and isolated in the evening. He did have what seemed to be swollen gills on one side only. Other fish were perfectly fine. This guy wasn't feeding. In the morning he was dead and i could not see anything strange about him. At first I did no worry as the biggest one of the bunch had had an "off" day about a week before and started acting normal again. So I am thinking he may have hurt himself with a sharp branch sticking out of a root while fighting with his fellow tank mates. Is there any other clues I should look for, or any ideas what it may be?

2) I have read that they will be "attacking" each other pretty much constantly as part of their natural behaviour. They do seem a little more intense in the last couple of days. 3 of them are roughly the same size (between 8-9cm) and seem to be giving each other hell. The blue that died was slightly smaller, and now i have an orange red one (will call it junior) that is in the 5cm range. I am a little worried that they could hurt him. Should I ?? Also read that 4 is not a good number, so should i get one or two more? They currently share a 108L with 4 angel (for the last 2 years) but I should be ready to move them in their new home soon (240L).

Other considerations after reading comments and a few bits of info:

- Should I separate Angelfish and Discus on the basis that they will be too many for a 240L especially if they all grow to adult size?
- one or 2 more discus? (Now I am thinking 240L with discus only, and maybe a couple of corys for cleaning.


Thanks in advance for answers.

Hi,

You can easily keep a group of 8 discus in 240l tank. I have group of 8 Blue Diamond in 180l tank, adults, waiting for them to form a breeding pair (check in Discus section topic My Blue Diamonds).

I also used to keep discus and angels together, they can be kept together but they need plenty of space once they are all adults, because they are territorial fish. Discus do pick on each other, but if all your fish are healthy they should never die of being chased, they hide, they move away from the bully... They usually don't pick on really small ones, more of a same size, from my own experience.

How is water in your tank, pH, GH, KH, maybe that could be the reason if those dying?

If you need any advice, just ask, I'll answer as soon as I get a chance.

ps. Also read that 4 is not a good number, so should i get one or two more? - I don't get this, why 4 is not a good number???

Thanks

Sina

Discus-Killester wrote:

Hi,

You can easily keep a group of 8 discus in 240l tank. I have group of 8 Blue Diamond in 180l tank, adults, waiting for them to form a breeding pair (check in Discus section topic My Blue Diamonds).

I also used to keep discus and angels together, they can be kept together but they need plenty of space once they are all adults, because they are territorial fish. Discus do pick on each other, but if all your fish are healthy they should never die of being chased, they hide, they move away from the bully... They usually don't pick on really small ones, more of a same size, from my own experience.

How is water in your tank, pH, GH, KH, maybe that could be the reason if those dying?

If you need any advice, just ask, I'll answer as soon as I get a chance.

ps. Also read that 4 is not a good number, so should i get one or two more? - I don't get this, why 4 is not a good number???

Thanks

Sina

A group of 6 is supposed to be more ideal as it dilutes any bullying that might be going on....I find if you all them all at the same age, size and time it will minimise the territorial nature of the fish...,unless they have paired up of course".....

Exactly what Gonefishy wrote on the thread: by increasing numbers you "spread" the aggression. Read it on some website or article or forum... Conclusion was you better keep or more.
As you know i lost one last night. So have 3 left. The 2 bigger one 6-7cm are going at each other very often but it seems a lot less violent than what i saw yesterday. "Junior" as i call the little one is actually left alone as the other 2 focus on each other.
Couple of pics from yesterday.

Nice looking fish.

What are you feeding them with? Is that a blood worm coming out of blue discus, or just a regular sh*t?

they did eat blood worms a few hours before but that is a nasty shite hahaha

they did eat blood worms a few hours before but that is a nasty shite hahaha
unfortunately the bigger one (picture in the middle) is the one who killed himself getting stuck between thermometer and glass. If you look at the aquarium top right corner: i found him flat against the glass, not moving, and being held in place by the thermometer.

What picture light and camera love the picture of them

I use a Nikon D90 SLR in automatic mode and I swear by this camera. I have rarely seen much better pictures (amateur) from any other camera.