TropicalChica
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have sort of a problem.. I have had two young discus for about 6 months, they always have gotten along so well. I originally planned on 4 discus (78 gallon tank) but with covid I had to wait for my local aqyarium to start getting fish again. I finally added 2 more discus this week, they are actually adult discus and about twice the size of my original two (not even sure this is a factor at all). Theze two new discus are doing great but suddenly one of my original discus is behaving strangely. The first day he was obviously stressed and his stripes were showing and he immediately started bullying my other original discus who had always been his friend. He was fine with the two new ones and he started hanging out with them but it's been three days now and whenever the other discus is hanging out with the new ones or just in an area the he decides he wants to be, he chases her off (also I am using a lot of he/she but I have no clue what anyone is, I just gave one a more girly name). He also seems to seek her out just to chase her.. like he will go looking for her.. I have a lot of plants and things so she's not even close to in his way. She doesn't actually seem stressed but I just feel bad for her bc now the three discus are always together and she's just hanging out with a bunch of neon tetras and snails by herself. Will this behavior stop or is there a solution to this? Should I remove him or add another or is there something I can do to rebound the original two? This is my first time having any issue like this... I also want to mention that I was worried about it at first so I actually had temporarily separated him using a mesh breeder box thing (I dont breed just have this for fish introductions in another tank) and he actually became less stressed, his bars disappeared pretty quickly and he actually seemed more calm.. I was calling it time out... he's also in no way hurting the other fish, he just keeps chasing her and just being mean.. okay, that's all I can think of.. any help or advice or ideas would be so so appreciated!
