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Hello all, I haven't been on for awhile, but I haven't forgotten this place. Times have just been too busy with my car forum to even think about visiting other places.

I have 3 rainbow sharks in my 65 gallon tank. I've had them for about a year and a half now, so I think they're pretty mature. The last couple of weeks I've noticed 2 of them have pretty much paired up together, where one goes the other one is pretty close behind. I've also noticed that they've been doing this little dance lately and I was curious as to what exactly they're doing. It's not an aggressive type thing, it's all very gentle. I took some video footage of their activities and I was wondering if someone here could tell me what they're up to.

Please click the following link to view the footage. I converted the video over to flash (swf) and it's just a little over 2 megs in size. Hope it loads for everybody interested in seeing it. Let me know what you think please.

http://home.comcast.net/~shobizzy/rainbowsharks.html

Last edited by Beth M. at 22-Jan-2005 21:02

wow thats gotta be the oddest thing ive ever seen caught on video lol. i thought these things were suppose to hate each other so much so you wernt suppose to put more then one in any size tank cuz they would find each other and kill each other. chalk onother one up for personalities.

question for ya...those dorsal fins look extra long and really red, this common in rainbows? they allways looked kinda washed out to me.

They went on like that for quite a long time after I quit filming too. Funny isn't it?

The dorsal fins on these guys has always been rather red, more so when they were younger. I think that the lighting of the tank along with the spot I chose to stand enhances the redness in them. They are usually a bit more washed out looking.

From what I was told, you shouldn't get just 2 of these guys for your tank because one will certainly become dominant over the other and make the less dominant one's life miserable. So the rule of thumb is 1 only or 3 or more. I have 3 of the rainbos and 2 RTBS. One of the RTBS's when bought was smaller than all of them, now he's grown to larger than even the rainbows and he IS the master of the tank. Has his own sleeping area, feeding area, etc. Very territorial.

Edit: To be honest, I was kind of hoping that someone would tell me they were courting or something. I know very little about captive rainbow behavior other than what I've seen in my tank so I'm still learning.

Last edited by Beth M. at 23-Jan-2005 07:20

well according to this site they have been paired in tanks but its followed by its very very diffacult lol. so its possible you have stumbled onto some rainbow shark secret. if you get little sharks let us know im sure there are many watching and hopeing

sorry im not much more help. i wanna put one in my tank but i was told they are to agressive for my fish. after watching that you gotta wonder how much fact goes with that lol. im snowed in today under like 30 inches of snow so i got time to kill anyway. maybe ill kill a couple hrs on google and see what i can find for ya.

it looks like they are playing to me.

My yoyo and clown loaches do that stuff all of the time.

But things can be different in these fish, i cant really tell you, because i have never had them.

ive started to read up on rainbow sharks and a few of the sites actually mention this as fighting. they will push back and forth with thier head and try to push the other fish around. this secures dominance between the fish. little harm is usually done from this type of behavior but the majority of the time the weaker of the 2 will end up starving from the dominateing one. depending on how much food is available and how much space of course. ( goes back to reading )

Well honestly, having watched my fish in the tanks, and the fish that pair up for mating, they behave much like your rainbow sharks.
Nothing about that resembles aggressive rainbow shark behaviour, and I had a rainbow shark who was quite aggressive and did the head butting think Sin mentioned to other fish, but it looked nothing at all like that.
My gut instinct on this is those 2 have paired up, one is male one is female and they quite obviously like each other immensely. Well, the thing is they are bred in captivity for sale as rainbow sharks and rtbs are all but extinct in the wild. You just lucked out and ended up with a pair. Keep us posted as to whether you see one get quite plump as with eggs and whether or not you have little rainbows.

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I do hope they are pairing up. I'd love to have more Rainbows as I find them to be so interesting.

I've seen some of the aggressive behavior before also, but not with this pair. It's more chasing around the tank and some very abrupt/jerky movements towards each other. Typically with teir dorsal fins standing straight up. This was nothing even close, was very gentle and loving as you have seen. I'll try to get more footage one day soon.

*keeping fingers crossed*

Last edited by Beth M. at 24-Jan-2005 06:43