Is this Siamese Algae Eater aggression or courtship

I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this behavior and what it might mean.

A little back story first. I bought 3 Siamese algae eaters about a year ago and have had them in a 40 gallon breeder community. 2 of them have always been very buddy buddy with each other while the third seemed to always be off doing it’s own thing on the other side of the tank. The 2 buddies always swim side by side or rest near each other...sometimes even shimmy their sides together. They’ve been pretty inseparable.

Recently, they have been a quarantine tank for a few days, not from illness; but because I am rescaping and changing substrate in their main tank. Even in the QT they laid around side by side. I have decided to rehome most of the community (including the 3rd SAE) and get new fish. Only the 2 SAE and 1 honey gourami are currently in the 40b tank.

When I put them back in the tank, they immediately found each other and greeted each other with their little side shimmy and after hiding a few minutes, swam together exploring their new digs.

After a couple of hours in the new set up though, they started circling and nudging each other and their black horizontal line faded out. They did this for probably 10 minutes then stopped and just laid facing each other in the sand.

I’ve heard it’s near impossible to breed them, but I do t know why they would suddenly be aggressive either. Any ideas? Has anyone experienced their SAE flirting even though they ultimately won’t breed?

Ugh! I can’t figure out how to upload the video from my phone, but the best way to describe it the circling that CPD makes do when sparring mixed with them nudging each other in the analfins.

As I type this, they are exploring together again and swimming in and out of a little cave I made under a piece of drift wood.

 

Commercial breeding of Siamese Algae Eaters has not be accomplished without the use of hormones from what I've heard but that does sound very promising. You should document your findings here in this thread. I think a lot of people would be curious to see if they spawn or not

 

I have seen SAE fade to silver and dance their spawning dance which is just as you describe.

I my case 3 were in the same tank together for months beforehand.

 

I have seen SAE fade to silver and dance their spawning dance which is just as you describe.

I my case 3 were in the same tank together for months beforehand.

Did anything come it? Did it happen multiple times?

 

I have had similar experiences with this. I had 3, and 2 would fade and seem to get more aggressive while faded, then sit and chill and return to normal colors. I took a ton of pics at the time and videos too, I made a thread even. Maybe unrelated, but one jumped and died, and since then I haven't seen them fade out and behave like that again.

 

My honey gourami seems just as curious about their behavior as I am.

I have had similar experiences with this. I had 3, and 2 would fade and seem to get more aggressive while faded, then sit and chill and return to normal colors. I took a ton of pics at the time and videos too, I made a thread even. Maybe unrelated, but one jumped and died, and since then I haven't seen them fade out and behave like that again.

I’m sorry you lost one of your fishies. I didn’t know they were jumpers. I suppose any fish can jump though; huh? (Closes lid.)

Can you please post the link to your old thread? I’d like to check it out.

 

My SAE are in with various other fish . Only once did I notice them dance in their silver costume, it may have happened other times?
Not surprisingly the dancing fish were in dwarf rainbows that spawn most mornings . Some fish release hormones when spawning. I don’t know if rainbows release hormones but the hormones from one species have been known to trigger other species ?

 

There aren’t any other fish that have been spawning in there. If anything, I would expect them to be stressed from being in a crowded quarantine that was a bit too cold and then moved to the new environment with little cover.

 

My honey gourami seems just as curious about their behavior as I am.

I’m sorry you lost one of your fishies. I didn’t know they were jumpers. I suppose any fish can jump though; huh? (Closes lid.)

Can you please post the link to your old thread? I’d like to check it out.

SAE breeding behavior?? | Freshwater Fish Forum | 481573

They are torpedoes, lol. I've been present for 4 different jumping incidents, all 4 times I've scooped and got them into the water, but just one time the fish didn't make it. I'm not sure which fish it was, but since I've lost the one and down to just 2, i haven't seen the same behavior.

 

SAE breeding behavior?? | Freshwater Fish Forum | 481573

They are torpedoes, lol. I've been present for 4 different jumping incidents, all 4 times I've scooped and got them into the water, but just one time the fish didn't make it. I'm not sure which fish it was, but since I've lost the one and down to just 2, i haven't seen the same behavior.

Thanks for the link. I’m not seeing any videos though. Am I missing something?

 

I took video, but I didn't upload it at the time, I had no home internet, lol. I can dig it up and upload it tomorrow

 

That would be totally awesome if you have the time to do that! I’m just really curious to see more of this behavior.