Aggressive Discus

[elvip]

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone is able to offer any pearls of wisdom on my current problem.

I have a gorgeous young red melon male discus - I have had him now for about 2 weeks. However he is proving to be a very aggressive young male - too much testosterone I think :wink:
He is currently in a tank with a female. He often chases her - appears to bully her. He will also usually run at the glass in an act of defiance if I come anywhere near the tank. He has also attacks the gravel cleaner whilst I am cleaning the tank.
But tonight really upset me :( :( - he attacked my hand whilst I had it in the water cleaning the tank! I have never had a discus do this before - I am use to them feeding out of my hand - not attacking the hand that feeds them :!: :!:

I am not sure how to approach this :?: :?:
Do I accept this agressive and bullying behaviour, or is there anything I can or should do to nip this in the bud before it gets any worse??
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Elvip

[*Chris*]

a typical cichlid trait
hopefully he grows out of it because usually any aggressive cichlid can not be changed unless there is someone to put him back in his place
and usually a knock on the tank or even your hand in the tank may spook him out of it but seeing as he already likes your hand i dont know??!!!

but when all else fails put something in there that is going to show him whos boss
cheers
EXAI

(Moderator's edit - this comment was made in jest. Knocking on a fish tank, any fish tank is not recommended. It sends shock waves through the tank and can result in the death of sensitive fish)

[guppy01]

I've got the exact same problem with one of my red melon males! He shares the tank with two other discus (I think females) and he's very aggressive towards them... I've tried everything to make it stop i.e taking him out for a few weeks than re-introducing him, but he still bullies them.

He's a really good looking discus and would hate to have to get rid of him...

We need to mellow out these discus!

[*Chris*]

these traits also come from discus whom are imported and hormone fed overseas
because they are fed with testostrone this could explain there overly zelous behaviour
in this case it could be a waiting game
once these hormones wear off then they should calm done a bit
cheersw
EXAI

[mistakes r crucial]

How right you are Ex and yet people keep importing them from THERE and people keep buying them from THERE!

[*Chris*]

most wholesalers or people with quarantine buy from overseas because of the colors and realtive cheapness of there products
if they were to buy red melons like the super reds that have been in shops lately from a australian breeder they would not only find it hard getting something with so much color but the price would be double that of an overseas import
i was lucky enough to veiw how purchasing was conducted when i was at the wholesaler
and TRUST ME the mark up on these fish when bought in bulk is huge
all said and done we the hobbyists are the ones that suffer yeah sure we have great colorfull fish but at hat price ?
shortened life span
agresive behaviour
sterililty
as soon as they stop the hormone feeding overseas the better the hobby will be longterm
EXAI

[mistakes r crucial]

I dont think you can generalise and say overseas, it totally depends on where you are buying from. I buy from sponsors/non sponsors of this forum who import regularly and I have nothing but good to say about the quality of their fish, their pricing is reasonable and I am very happy with my lot. On the other hand there are sources of fish/countries that I would never buy from because of the horror stories we all hear, the methods they have of growing out their fry and the substances they use, it leads to nothing but disappointment and frustration.

Mind you, if we were getting paid $50 a month and it cost us $80 a month to live I suppose we may well resort to a few short cuts too. It's all about choices, we are the buyers, we just have to be informed before we make them.
MAC

PS You want colour thats better than hormones Ex, PM me and I'll show you the way.

[azzakat]

I had a snakeskin pidgeon much the same. I had 7 discus in total in the same tank and i removed the three that it was picking on the most and put them into a new tank, 1 week later i reomved the aggresive discus and put it in with the 3 removed earlier. The aggresion was gone straight away, i left them in the new tank together for a few weeks then put them all back into the original tank and this worked for me

[Merrilyn]

Thread has been edited and unnecessary posts removed.

Please stick to the topic guys, and keep it nice.

This is a family forum.

[Merrilyn]

Azzakat, that's a very good suggestion.

Elvip it might be worth a try. It changes the pecking order in the tank. When he's returned, he will be on the bottom of the ladder.

[elvip]

Thanks for the advice guys.
It was such a shock :shock: - as it is my first time encountering such an aggressive discus, as I have generally found discus too be passive.
I will see what I can do - as I am unfortunately limited in space - too many discus!!
I am hoping that he will 'grow' out of it too!!
Cheers
Elvip