Paradise Fish Courtship

[spongy]

I popped into my LFS today after work to have a nosey around and saw that they have had some more paradise fish in stock.

I've been keen to get some more after I lost my females and my male has been looking very pale and lonely so I bought 2 more females to keep him company.

The previous females were not interested in him at all but these two seem much more friendly.

So much so that they are beginning to respond to his advances, and they've only known each other 4 hours

And he can't wait to get his end away by the looks of it either

Shot a quick video, excuse the quality, I was sitting on the sofa awkwardly and then had to move and also please excuse my girlfriends less than savoury language towards the end about the football that was on the tv. she said she didn't realise I was filming

Could someone please tell me what the 2 females were doing about 30 seconds into the vid, I didn't notice when filming them.

http/static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http/vid660.photobucket.com/albums/uu323/gsmorton/VIDEO0017.mp4

 

[thereverendturtle]

Your females were sizing each other up, for dominance. Great looking tank by the way.

 

[KevM]

What a brilliant video! How old is your male? He's a real looker. I can't wait till mine colours up like that (if he ever does).

 

[spongy]

What a brilliant video! How old is your male? He's a real looker. I can't wait till mine colours up like that (if he ever does).

He doesn't normally look that colourful, just when he is feeling a bit horny!!!!! He is much paler normally.

He hasn't been that colourful since the first day I put the females in. I've had him since the end of June, he's grown about half an inch I reckon, I originally had 2 pairs, a green pair and a red pair, the green male was a sod so I took him back and I lost the females, one jumped out when I was doing a water change and I didnt notice the other died recently due to an internal bacterial infection, I was after red females but my LFS didn't have any, he's happy he's got 2 new girlfriends anyway

@thereverendturtle thanks for the reply, its taken nearly 6 months to get my tank looking like that, I've changed from white to black gravel, and completely re planted and the wood took 6 months to find. Been a long slog but I'm happy with it at the moment.

 

[jack1]

cool video - was that your wife saying the game was sh&* at the end of the video? - funny lol

 

[spongy]

Yes it was lol!!!!

Well, wife to be anyway!!!!

I couldn't believe it when she said that, I had been trying to catch them at it but kept failing, then I did and she opened her cake hole,

Hey ho, never mind, I have some sad news though, he died 8 days ago and now the females are constantly fighting and ruining my tank

 

[jack1]

aww that's sad news - might have to get another male

 

[betta fish]

Aww I'm sorry to hear that

he was a looker, you will just have to get them a new man

that's a really nice tank you have, I have become increasingly interested in these fish recently and may get myself a pair at some point, I hadn't even heard about them a month or so ago and now I keep seeing them in all the shops! I don't know whether it's because I am now looking for them or they have become very popular all of a sudden

 

[spongy]

My females have turned into a pair of bullies since he died. One is more dominant and is constantly fighting, they've had one of my swordtails eyes out too

My LFS has agreed to take them back so they're leaving this afternoon. I want to replace with another type of gourami though. Just deciding on pearl, opaline, honey or dwarf. Can't decide /