Bullying In My Tank

[henriko]

Hi all
i upgraded to keeping discus fish instead of having a comunity tank i went out to a breeder and bought 6 discus,that was 3 months ago ,they all took there time to come out for food,some nearly a week,but now they have become accustomed to the tank,3 of them are stopping the other 3 from trying to get to the food,its as if the 3 bully's want the other 3 in the back corner of the tank,and when i approach the tank its like they associate me with food and straight away the 3 bullys round the others up in the corner,my question is this,is this normal for discus or should i be looking to off load the bullys,im suppose to be getting another 5 next month but dont want to add to the problem,in my tank apart from the discus ive got 10 cory's and 24 cardinals.thanks in advance for any replies

 

[thereverendturtle]

Adding more should help with the aggression. Be sure the new ones are similar in size to the residents. How large is the tank?

 

[star4]

I agree with the reverend, adding more will spread the aggression (I have never kept discus but have many other sa/ca cichlids). You say you are getting more, so in the meantime you could try removing the 3 aggressors, rearranging the tank then put them back. This does sometimes work calming aggresive fish down as they think they are in another tank. You can also break up the fish's eyeline with tall plants, more wood etc. It sounds like the problem occurs mostly at feeding time, I would suggest spreading the food right across the tank more so they have to search out the food, I have found this helps loads with feeding time aggresion, they are too busy finding food to bother being bullies. Hope this helps

 

[printingray]

Some tanks set up that long are not cycled, because people change the filter out every month, and vacuum like crazy.