help!

Hye all!
Have had 4 discus in my tank for the last 3 to 4 weeks. Everything was going fine until yesterday. Notice that 2 of them are getting bullied by one of them, they keep hiding under the plant and one of them doesn't seem to eat much. They used to swim all together just notice that behaviour in the last 2 days. Is that the normal domination behaviour or something to worried about? All my parameter are good and taking good care of the tank.

i'm not up on my dicus but could this be aggression due to the development a mating pair?

Hi Frankie. Have only kept Discus for a few months, so not as much of an expert as others on here, but from my experience it's very common for Discus to assert their dominance in a way that you described. If the 'bullying' is split between more than one fish it shouldn't stress any particular one too much. Ideally you should have enough room in your tank for them to avoid one another and retreat when necessary. A few plants to hide behind would help them get some peace.
Also, if you have the room, try get one or two more fish about medium size of others. The largest will usually exert dominance over the smaller fish, but if there is enough fish no one individual should get too much grief. In my tank there is only regular spats between the two largest males. The smaller fish are generally left alone.
The Discus is a shoaling fish and will work out a structure between themselves. As you said, they aren't in there too long, so still working that out. In general they won't actually do much physical damage to one another. Just be wary of one fish getting hassle from two or more larger fish. If that happens, the bullied fish could become stressed and be less likely to compete for food, leaving the door open for illness.
Hope this helps,
L

have kept and still do keep discus found that yes they can get along for a while and then the dominance/ heirarchy thing can kick in i presume this is happening in your tank it will continue sporadically for a while till the discus form their heirarchy and when another once decides to assert itself and it dominance as xaribdis say make sure you have some safe havens which will break the line of sight from the fish asserting its dominance and you should be ok.. unfortunately it happens from time to time, unless one of the fish is showing extreme stress or injury you should be ok

Hi - I've found this happens from time to time and I reckon it's a fairly normal thing. Somethings just a re-arrangement of plants, wood, stones etc can sort out the bullying. But keep an eye on it because even though 90% of the time it's harmless, Discus can get hurt or swim into something where they get trapped.

Good luck!

Rob

Discus behaviour can be quite complex, and 'bullying' is a particular problem with Discus.
However, the good old bashing at each other is not necessarily the worse. Discus are rather tough medium large Cichlids and can take a bit of a battering, but there comes a point (as with so many medium sized cichlids) when a fish can go down hill surprisingly fast irrespective of whether it was the bullied or the bullier.
There is a difference between the aggression shown between a couple of discus and bullying.

Discus are rather good at what appears (ie from a human perspective) as psychological bullying. This is something to take paricular care of.

I tend to not worry too much when I see two discus having a good battle and each goes off to their own happy-space, but if it is all one-sided then you need to not only watch out for the ones being bullied but also need to keep a close eye on the bully:
if any of the fish stop feeding then you may have a problem of getting them feeding again;
if the fish are small then the high metabolism of discus means that they really can't go without food for to long;
and
sometimes you may even notice that the fish dishing out the bullying is so intent on bullying that it doesn't eat, eventually it may become weak and suddenly find that the tides are turned.

In young fish, you may often find that top-dog changes places quite often.

Increasing decor may help, but be prepared to change things around in case you have accidently made a visual entrapment.

Discus have fascinating behaviour....many people call them boring, but I disagree (so many subtle bits to study).

ian

One thing that I forgot to mention....and I forgot it because it is so obvious.

The water needs to have increased oxygen, be extra clean, and more general tank circulation (to avoid dead-spots) during cases of bullying or other over-dominant behaviour to prevent damage to the intestine during periods of reduced immunity.


ian