Female Stripes

[turbotiber]

Alrighty, in the other thread I mentioned that I bought two females and did the mistake of putting them together in a tank. The blue females has horizontal stripes and I've been reading and some people say it means she's ready to breed (that and vertical stripes) and other say it's because she's stressed out.

If she's stressed how can I make her more comfortable? I have her in 2+ gallon treated with neutra-stress and she's got gravel, plants and a little boot to hide in. Then again, she had the stripes when I bought her....

THe other female is fine, she's in a jar right now till I get her another home with some moss. But both don't want to eat, what can I do? Or is it something that will just pass?

 

[bkk_group]

horizontal stripes are usually associated with fish that are stressed or aclimatizing, such as when you bring them home from the fish store etc. basically, they lose their colour. what you see in the striping is their "base" colour. i believe that the horizontal stripes are always there, they just aren't noticible when the fish has normal colouration. (it's my theory, i didn't read it anywhere, so it's possible that i'm wrong, don't sue me)
vertical stripes are associated more with excitement and are usually noticed when a female is in the same tank as male when breeding.
hope this helps.