Is this breeding behaviour? Or a case of the Shimmies?

[ThatBritishGuy]

Hi everyone,


I have two Banded Rainbowfish in my 200L tropical freshwater fish tank, along with other tank mates (additional info available on request). I believe I have a male and a female, and am not sure whether this is the right thread to post this in, so forgive me if I'm wrong. What I'm seeing, is the male chasing after the female, and corralling her into a corner of the tank; whilst he has her in the corner he flares his fins, and shakes his head rapidly for around 5 seconds at a time. The female often manages to evade and he gives chase, nipping at her under belly.

About the head shaking, is this a case of shimmies? Or a kind of aggressive courting ritual? He doesn't do this all the time, only on the odd occasion.
The male has also developed a dark horizontal streak along it's side, and a neon coloured vertical streak starting on it's forehead, and ending at the start of the first dorsal fin.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[SushiRoll]

I've never had rainbow fish but that sounds like mating. And shimmies is when the fish looks like it's swimming fast but not going anywhere.


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[ThatBritishGuy]

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking it could be breeding behavior but wasn't sure. I've done a bit of research on the shimmies and I don't think it's that, apparently they shake their whole body, whereas mine is just twitching its head. However, I've noticed the female doing the same last night; and actually chasing after the male. Are they known to do that?