Blue Acara's 'shaking' At Each Other

[joeyh51]

Hello,

When I got my 2 blue acara the LFS said they were too young to determine their sex, so basically gave me the 2 best looking ones. But now they're grown up a bit they've started swimming next to each other and doing some strange shaking. They seem to be happy enough swimming around together and stuff so it doesn't look violent, I was wondering if this could be something to do with them getting ready to spawn/pairing up? They seem to be pecking around a lot at the substrate and bogwood as well.

Does anyone know what this is and advise if there's anything I should do about it?

Cheers

 

[star4]

Sounds like breeding behaviour to me, my BA spawned at 2". The male will have slightly longer dorsal and anal fin than the female

 

[joeyh51]

Yeah the fins do seem a little bigger on one, only by a fraction though, however they are still young.

Well we'll see what happens in a few days time then, will they get very territorial during breeding?

 

[star4]

Yes they do get quite nasty once they have eggs, what other fish do you have in with them? My pair managed to keep the fry 10 days, I was actually growing out 10 young ba when I had 2 sets pair and spawn at the same time either end of the tank, the other 6 couldnt move from the centre of the tank.

 

[joeyh51]

In there with them are 4 rainbows, a juvi blue JD and 2 african butterfly cichlids. I think they're taking up a corner behind the massive piece of bogwood I have so hopefully won't have too many issues!

 

[star4]

You should be ok with those fish, so long as they stay in the corner for spawning the others you may find will stay away.

 

[joeyh51]

Ok thanks for all the help!