Gill Flaring

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hi all... i have 2 firemouths in my tank and they follow each other every where they are colourfull and have a vivid redish orange underbelly as they should even the orange tip on the top fin... but ive noticed recantly they are gill flaring and doing an odd dance with each other ??? they dont seem stresed and arnt bothering other fish.... any idea wots going on here ??? as my camera isnt very good this is the best pic ive managed to take which doesnt even nearly do them justice... ive seen pics of 1s of a similar age and there isnt much differance... ive also put on a pic of my tank so u can see the inviroment.. there are alot more fish than u can see in the pic... some have made the space behind the ship there teritory lol..

 

[star4]

I cannot tell the sex easlily from the pictures, but the Thorichthys love flaring lol, it could be you have a male and female as you describe "dancing" this is possible courtship. They will also lip lock (hold onto each others mouths). Then you get babies, and thats when the fun starts! lol

 

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well if thats the case then cool.. i realy like these fish... will try to get a m8 to do a pic with his iphone for some better pics

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[deftuch]

well if thats the case then cool.. i realy like these fish... will try to get a m8 to do a pic with his iphone for some better pics

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ive got three of them. when they are breeding they will do this, when they are battling for dominance ( 2 males ) they will do this also, or they will just do it for fun, keep an eye on them. if they start chasing eachother off rather than dancing then its a battle for dominance. if you notice one has lost alot of its color, dont worry its just lost the battle for dominance thats all

 

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no colour loss atm.. the longer i have them the better they seem to look... as do my kribs... 1 of them has the cherry underside atm which im told is good

 

[Liam2368]

ooh you will have to get used to the gill flaring if you have two thorichtys in your tank as said above will either be courtship or dominance but they should not lip lock and if they do it will be a very last resort, Thorichtys have notoriously weak jaws and mouths.

 

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they seem happy enough atm ... the smaller of the 2 still follow the bigger 1 everywhere and doesnt seem at all fazed by any of it ?? when they do there dance one will come along side and will sort of do a shake/twitch towards the other... very bizzare...