Re: Discus/angel Behavior

[steev ward <steevward@mac.com>]

In answer to Kate's question: Yes. This behavior can change. If you had them in 
a different (bigger) tank they might actually get along. Sometimes other fish 
may be a distraction or otherwise cause them to "team up". In angelfish it 
seems to me that it is usually males trying to drive smaller males away that is 
the problem (outside of actual breeding). As they pair up you will have 
aggression of a slightly different sort.

In discus the situation is slightly different because it is natural (however 
stupid) for them to defend a territory for FEEDING, regardless of the 
availability of food. I think this is because in the wild each fish would feed 
in his own little area and try to keep intruders from taking over that area if 
there was a good supply of food there. If you are sucking Tubifex worms out of 
the sand you can't get them all at once but if you keep at it you can grab them 
when they stick their noses out. The goal of the discus may be to control a 
large feeding area.

But like I said; this aggressive relationship between two fish can change 
depending on their surroundings. I have a friend who keeps discus in a tank 
that has a large obstruction in the middle so that they cannot see each other 
at feeding time- hence no jealosy.  In a big enough tank angelfish will swim 
together and not fight. I've seen tanks that were populated with fish that had 
been expelled from other tanks for being too aggressive and these fish found a 
way to co-exist (mostly). On the other hand I once had a tank with three small 
discus that had been "saved" from death-by-starvation because they were so 
badly picked on by others in a group, and as they recovered one wasted no time 
in establishing himself as king, mercilessly chasing the other two. Larger 
group sizes help spread out the aggression, and also makes it harder for a fish 
even to BE a bully, but you still have to watch out for the little guy.

Steev


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