Odd behavior

[Rook426]

Just a random question but I'm once again watching my red spotted severum go though his late evening routine amd I'm curious if anyone else has seen this. He will very carefully position himself near the glass and execute a slow motion back flip or a barrel roll whatever seems to take his fancy. He never looks in distress and the rest of the time he swims normally. Is this play behavior?

 

[cliffstips]

Yeah I have raised Green and Gold Severum they can be real clowns at times.

They also lay down and play dead occasionally

Just a random question but I'm once again watching my red spotted severum go though his late evening routine amd I'm curious if anyone else has seen this. He will very carefully position himself near the glass and execute a slow motion back flip or a barrel roll whatever seems to take his fancy. He never looks in distress and the rest of the time he swims normally. Is this play behavior?

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

 

[Rook426]

Ok backflips and other tricks are fine but playing dead would freak me out so I'm hoping he doing add that to his sick trick list

 

[Colin_T]

I can't say I have seen fish do back flips before bed. Your fish must really enjoy going to bed.

Fish with protozoan or bacterial infections in their brain can do back flips but they do this a lot before they die. If your fish does it before bed each night then that is its routine and nothing to worry about. It's a bit like a dog walking around in circles a couple of times before laying down or a cat kneading the cushion it is about to curl up on.

In your case, the fish brushes its teeth and does a backflip before going beddy bies.

A lot of tall bodied fish lay down on their side when sleeping. This presumably makes them blend in with the substrate rather than sitting upright like a normal fish and makes them less of a target for nocturnal predators who might swim straight over them when they are flat on the bottom.