New discus in new tank!

[symplysymphysodon]

YAY!!

I now have 4 fully-grown discus in my 6ft x 2ft x 2ft tank. I got 3 of them (a Super Sapphire, a Turquoise and a Golden) on Friday, and then I added one more new one (a Rafflesia) on Saturday.

In terms of diameter, the Super Sapphire is the largest, followed by the Turquoise, and then the Rafflesia, and finally the Golden. However, the Rafflesia has the thickest body out of the four.

The Turquoise got scraped against some tank decorations at the fish shop while the owner was trying to catch it, and it suffered a small abrasion and had a few scales missing. However, the scales seem to have all grown back now. There is one scale which is still somewhat loose and looks raised from the rest of the body on a bit of a white bump. Will this small bump heal completely with time, do you think?

I had planted my aquarium with lots of tall plastic plants to provide a corridor at the back of my tank where the fish can go and hide if they feel unsafe. The injured Turquoise spent the first day and night hiding behind these plants. Early the next morning, it came out a few times to explore the new tank for a bit, but was quick to go back and hide for most of the time. By Saturday afternoon, it swam out to the front of the tank a bit more. By Sunday afternoon, the Turquoise was in the front of the tank swimming and eating with the rest of the fish.

The Super Sapphire and the Golden adjusted well to the new tank straight away and were both swimming happily within minutes of being introduced to their new home.

The Golden was the first to discover the frozen bloodworms in the worm feeders, followed by the Super Sapphire. I didn't see the Turquoise eat until the afternoon of Day 3 (Sunday).

I got the Rafflesia late on Saturday afternoon. It began swimming happily as soon as it was put into the tank. It was eating well on Sunday morning.

By Sunday evening, I began to notice the Rafflesia behaving quite aggressively towards the Super Sapphire and the Golden. It seemed to leave the Turquoise alone. Do you think the Turquoise managed to make it known that it was still recovering from its injuries and the Rafflesia understood this?!? Anyway, the Rafflesia kept chasing and bumping the Super Sapphire and the Golden every chance it could the whole of Sunday evening until I turned the lights off. I'm really thankful that my tank is big enough for the Super Sapphire and the Golden to be able to swim away. I was quite surprised, because the Super Sapphire is the biggest of all four fish (but not by a lot). However, the Rafflesia is the one with the thickest body.

By Monday morning, the Rafflesia was only interested in chasing and bumping the Super Sapphire. Do you think that this might be because the Golden, being clearly the smallest AND thinnest fish out of the four, clearly was in no position to challenge the Rafflesia, and therefore, the dominance of the Rafflesia was quickly established? By contrast, the question of whether the Rafflesia would be dominant over the Super Sapphire remains not quite 100% unsettled, and therefore the Rafflesia continues to challenge it?!?

It is now Tuesday evening, and the Rafflesia is still chasing and bumping the Super Sapphire, although much less than before. Do you think this kind of aggression will settle soon? Do I need to think about removing either the Rafflesia or the Super Sapphire?

By the way, I am doing about 10% water change every day, and the water chemistry parameters have stayed completely stable. YAY!!

Discus keeping certainly is fascinating! Thanks again for all the advice while I am going through a steep learning curve!

Cheers,
Andrew

[Crispy]

Congrats! We need pics. :ssmile:

[Spartanhockey89]

I agree, discus are beautiful fish, so pics are a MUST.

[toysrus]

Maybe it's like a wolf pack with an alpha top boss kinda and the chain of seniority down to the smallest?
How are water changes in that tank?:22:

[james20]

:worthless:

[Zincubus]

I have a similar problem !

I had a mature tank and got rid of all the communtiy fish and put in 4 Turquoise Blue and 4 blue Discus . All the same size and very healthy .

Trouble is one of the Turqiouse Blues chases all the others into corners !!

Shall I let them settle down as it's only been about 5 days or shall I take out the troublemaker ??

HELP !!

[Zincubus]

Tank is 5' long and heavily planted with loads of hiding places etc.

Temp is about 83 degrees.



Food - Frozen blood worms , live daphnia , Tetrapro flake food and Cichlid pellets (small).
I was hoping for a happy bunch of young fish ( 2" long) but this one dominant Discus is spoiling everything

[domjd05]

Cichlids are cichlids, discus are no exception, sometimes you will get a particular discus that is very aggressive... This is part of the reason it's sometimes better to buy fully grown adult discus.

If you notice that they are unable to eat because of the aggressive discus's behavior, you will probably need to remove it. If there appears to be no stress or loss of appetite, then leave him in there and they will establish a pecking order. (sounds like they already have for the most part)

[Cliff]

Sometimes you can get a very dominate fish that just takes over the tank and trys to boss the others around.

I've experianced this before. I had to take verything in the tank and moved it to different spots in the tank. I even re-shapped the substraight. I broke the dominate behavoir enough to were everyone got a long better. There still was a dominate fish that did a little bossing around, but at least the other fish were not stressed out anymore.

Keep in mind I've never had discus, but you might want to give it a try

[symplysymphysodon]

UPDATE

I posted the original thread on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the Rafflesia was much less aggressive towards the Super Sapphire. Whereas before, the Rafflesia was chasing and bumping the Super Sapphire quite a few times every hour, by Wednesday morning, I noticed that the Rafflesia was only chasing the Super Sapphire half-heartedly maybe once every hour or even less, and often, the Super Sapphire and the Rafflesia were next to each other without any problems. However, I noticed something new, which was that every once in a while, the Turquoise would chase and bump the Super Sapphire for a little bit (but this was with much less force than what the Rafflesia had been doing). I thought it was very unusual that the Turquoise, which had previously been injured, was now behaving in this dominant way, so I took a close look at it and found that its injury had healed completely! It seems that, once its injury had healed completely, it needed to establish its own place within the tank's social hierarchy.

I got my 5th discus on Wednesday afternoon. It's a Raspberry Cobweb. It is the smallest of the discus in the tank. It was swimming with the rest of the fish at the front of the tank in the evening, and it came out early this morning (Thursday) to feed, but it is preferring to hide behind the plants while the bright lights are turned on during the day.

I think I will have room for 2 more discus in my tank. However, It is my opionion that one should not over-indulge on purchasing too many discus in too short a period of time, because looking at all their candy colors can lead the discus keeper to form a subconscious appetite for desserts and therefore make it easier to put on weight, eventually maybe even leading to the development of diabetes!

[Mith]

... and yet, still no pics!

[Zincubus]

Well I took the bully out and then another one took off the "bully" role !

Funny thing is that they both have huge RED eyes whereas the others are black with a hint of red !>>??

[Zincubus]

Thanks everyone !

Shall I put the old troublemaker BACK in the tank and let them just sort things out ??

Just worried that I may lose a few of them . I know that they can be bulled to death .

[Zincubus]

Just returned it to the main tank and removed the four baby keyholes to prevent any future problems/

Fingers crossed !!

[Zincubus]

They seem a little happier . The two main bullies have calmed down a bit although they all seem to prefer to hang out in one corner of the tank - very dissappointing as I was hoping for a peaceful , happy tank .The strongest take random little nips at the others ...



Latest question.

Ready to do a water change today .

ANy suggestions ?

I use one of theose vacuum thingies.

10% or 20% or 30% or even 50% ????


Once or twice a week or more .... you decide ;)

[Crispy]

I would do 30-50% twice a week for discus.

[Zincubus]

Well , 2 weeks on and the main group of 7 are doing great all feeding and getting on fairly well.

Only problem is the eighth one who I have put in a smaller , quieter tank , with two young female Siamese fighters and an Otto .
It was just staying in the corner in the main tank and not eating so I just thought it was worth a try apart from the rest . I will try and fgeed it up so I can re-introduce it into the main tank but it is still hiding in the corner of the small tank , looking dark and still not seen it eat any frozen bloodworm, as yet .

[Shaysfishys]

With my discus I try to change 25% at least every other day, time constraints at times doesn't allow for this but works good they are growing like little weeds.

As far asbullying, have a couple in the crowd they seem to be an item always hanging out together and everyone else tries to stay out of their way. They are way too young to spawn but have a inkling when they are these 2hoodlums are going to be a pair.

[brianyu]

:hmm3grin2orange: i dont see any pic :(