Discus Help!!!

[Braddah]

So I started off with 2 discus, a blue turquoise and a red marborough...they were fine when i left at the end of Nov. Now the blue is bothering the red and has gotten almost three times the size of the red....Im afraid that the red is being too stressed by this and was thinking of putting him in w/ the angels....(I Know that there different schools of thought on this and would like to hear some more) till he gets bigger and the blue wont be able to bother him....they are in a 20gal(temporary) and I have 3 angles in a 55 gal.... In the 20 are lots of plants and some bog wood but....still I have problems.....any suggestions?

 

[dbollack]

I had the same experience with my discus when i had them around four years ago. Two in a 20 gallon. The problem is their tendency is to establish a dominant fish and with only two fish and so little room to escape the nondominant discus can take some pretty good beatings if not die from unrelenting strikes. I even found three fish was a little questionable on spreading the picking on between two of them when i moved them to a 55 gallon. I've never had more than three but I hear the results are much better when there are more than three discus. If you can't move them to a larger tank and add one or two more fish then i would suggest making a barrier with plants and wood directly in the center of the tank as to force the dominant discus to pick a side it wants for its territory and more of an obstacle for while it is trying to chase the other. The barrier doesnt have to prevent the fish from going to the other side just enough for a sense of boundaries. Well i hope this helps ya.