belamyboo

Hey guys, Im a noob to all this, but my wife bought me an upgrade for my birthday, it went from a tiny tank with 2 gold fish upto a 18gal tank with some new fish, any way 2 of these fish are rainbow sharks who at first hated each other I move some things and put in a new hiding place and they settled down now a week later they are dancing around in circles like fighter jets and rubbing bellies, hanging out, kissing and circling the best hidy hole. is this mating?

TFA101

Rainbow sharks almost never breed in the home aquarium, but there have been only a couple of cases. To tell male from female, the male has a black outline around his lower fin in front of the lower lobe of the tail. The female's fin is red, with little to no black coloration at all. This is definately mating behavior, check to see the genders using this method, and you might end up with eggs, but there's a very low chance they'll hatch ina community tank.

slakey

also if your hoping to keep these two rainbow sharks happy, I'd consider getting a very large tank

Barbrella

Right. They'll get quite big, and become more and more aggressive and territorial as they age, especially towards their own kind. No way can you keep them in an 18 gal. tank.

They'll grow up to 6" and need a very large tank (like 50 gals), so they can each have a territory at either end. They should have caves.

belamyboo

Thanks guys, I have plans to get a much larger tank ASAP, as all of my fish grow large but when my wife bought them she was assured that the tank was big enough for them all, just another victim of unethical pet stores out to make a quick buck.

TFA101

See, this guy may be a newbie, but he knows what he's talking about

Barbrella

Right. I'm glad you found this place, and have learned to never ever listen to the staff at petstores, who are usually dead wrong through ignorance or deliberating misleading. They just want you to buy stuff, and couldn't care less about the stress or expense you experience later.

Before buying fish, either ask here or simply go to Google and type in the name of the fish.

belamyboo

Thanks for the replies, you have all been most helpfull, the sharks stopped "mating" for a few days and went back to the old game of tag, but now are back to the lovey dovey stuff but no sign of babys in the near future...yet! Im getting a small terra cotta pot and im going to cut a hole in this to make a "cave" so they can live it up any ideas on this?