Hi there,

I have recently noticed that 2 of my BHT's are pairing off and acting strange together.
One will drive and chase the other, then they do a weird belly thing - liying other their sides together (opposite each other) and swimming in circles.....

Then they swim off and come back to the plants and do the same thing.....

I ahve heard they are very hard to breed, and often the females can appear to spawn but rarely the male fertalises.!!.

Strange thing is, they look like the same sex!!!
They are similarly coloured, although they are still quite young.... around 1-1.5".

Any info greatly appreciated

They might be preparing to spawn, although they may be fighting for leader of the shoal. My two biggest most colorful serpae tetras fight every once and a while, it's just a blur of red white and black

Yea i thought of that. But it really looks more playful rather than fighting....
That dont make contact, just swim off and laterally flip over in sync - its really weird....

My GF's mother said "why do those fish keep falling over"
Its very strange, but i heard they were almost impossible to breed ....

I dunno....
Its getting more impressive tho, those 2 tetras are relly looking top quality and VERY colourful towards one another

Thanks for the input

Ok, think iv found the reason -

Males have a slightly more concave dorsal fin and females will be larger and broader when ready to spawn. Similar to Black Phantoms, the males will turn darker and dance around each other at unusual angles to establish territories. Breeding in captivity is not documented.

Ok, that seems to be the general concensus

Thanks for the help