zenkatydid
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I have 2 SAEs in a 50gal tank, and swear they were exhibiting mating behaviour the other day. Every resource I can find says they don't breed in aquaria. I believe I have a male and a female because one is slender and one is larger and fatter, while they're roughly the same age/size. The "female" has a slightly thicker stripe, but that may just be because she's fatter. Anyway, if they're stressed sometimes they lose colour and become washed out. The other day, they both lost the black colour of their stripes to the point of a pale grey, and were swimming along side each other, sort of weaving back and forth and rubbing up together, swimming circles round each other and generally 'playing' closely. This lasted maybe 15 minutes that I saw. They would occasionally peck at each other, but it didn't seem to be a fight. They do tend to chase each other around occasionally - usually the "female" chasing the smaller "male". What do you think?
