Unruly Discus Behavior

[Discus1739]

Hi all

Bit naughty of me to be asking a question like this on a plant forum, my apologies in advance.
In my 55 gallon tank, I currently keep 5 discus, one of which was only recently added. They are very well fed (stendker good heart, tetra prima pellets and occasional bloodworm) One of them seems to dominate the others by constantly chasing the others, I know this is fairly normal behaviour for discus but have many of you had good ways of getting discus aggression down. The constant pestering of the new discus by the dominant fish is becoming particularly stressful to see as it sometimes prevents it from eating.

Because of the high value and my passion for a high standard of wellbeing for my pets I really want to get this sorted As soon as possible.

Thanks
George Burnett

 

[alto]

Tank details?
Fish details? especially age & size of the discus

Curious what led you to add a single new discus?

I'd've add at least 2, possibly 3 - discus do better when somewhat crowded rather than fewer BUT if you have numerous other fish, then 5 may be the maximum bioload for your tank

If tank is fairly bare, then removing all discus, & changing up limited decor isn't likely to be very effective
But it is the general suggestion with territorial cichlids when adding new fish to an established group - sometimes it works very well, other times not so well ...

At this stage, you likely need to remove all fish, adjust tank decor - ie alter territories, create visual barriers etc - then add new fish back first, allow him (?) time to become comfortable ... not as easy with a single discus as with single other cichlids, so use your judgement, eg, if you've 3 lower level discus, then add them in one go, if only the 1 discus is an issue, leave only that discus separate for now
Plan on keeping the bully out for at least 24-72 hours; tank discus should be freely swimming, eating before re-adding the problem fish ... of course, if you wait too long, another bully may rise from the ranks (this is always an issue when keeping small numbers of discus)

(I'm assuming you've a quarantine tank as I'd never add newly sourced discus to an existing group)