Does your wrasse get frisky?

[Whiterabbitrage]

Every day my McCoskers wrasse seems like a different fish. Most days he's out and about. Some days he's feisty and steals food from everyone else, then other days he sneaks around hiding behind the rocks like he's seen a ghost. I only see his eye peeking out. And other days, like today, he's bursting with the fish equivalent of testosterone, and he goes zooming around the tank flashing himself silly. He's not flashing anyone in the tank, since they all ignore him. He is flashing the front of the tank, sometimes the sides of the tank for good measure. He flashes so strenuously that he ends up gasping and exhausted and has to go rest for a few minutes then he's back at it. Honestly, when he gets himself all worked up like this, it's fun to watch, but I also worry tha he'll do himself harm. Is this normal? He gets this way a couple times a month. I thought maybe he was seeing his reflection in the glass but I tried looking through the side and there is no reflection. Plus he goes a week or two between these crazy flashing episodes. During these episodes he doesn't even eat, he's too busy racing around flashing. Please someone tell me if his is normal.

 

[Deinonych]

My McCosker's was like that when I had him (RIP).

 

[Rilelen]

I have two male McCosker's...they flash at each other now and then, but mostly stick to different sides of the tank. One is a very gentlemanly fish. The other...the sub-adult male....my god. He'll zoom around the tank like a madman. If he was flashing the other male (or even the other fish) it might make sense, but he (like yours) seems most interested in the front and side glass. It's definitely not his reflection he's seeing, I checked (also if I put an actual mirror up, he reacts to it MUCH differently). He doesn't go on those mad dashing flasing sprints often, but when he does it's spectacular.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

So glad to hear its normal behavior. But what's up with all that crazy flashing for no reason? Is it a way to keep other males away from their territory? Is it a way to attract any females that might be nearby? It takes so much energy, surely it's for a reason. Any theories? It sure is fun to watch. When its feeding time, and he's in this weird crazy-wrasse mood, he likes to swim through the food, disrupting everyone.

I hung a mirror up for awhile. Some days he would play with it and some days he didn't. He had different ways of playing with it; sometimes acting aggressive and sometimes just cruising by slowing, flashing gracefully, like a model on a catwalk. Other times it was like he was playing peek-a-boo with the mirror; hiding then sneaking up slowly and peeking over the edge then zipping away. Then other days he ignored the mirror. He never seemed to take it seriously until about 2 months. Then one day he attacked the mirror. He was thrashing and biting the glass and trying to get that fish in the mirror. He tried so hard to get at the reflection-fish that he beat himself up crashing into the glass. Then he hid for 2 days, not eating, hiding in the rocks, terrified to come out. Maybe he thought he lost the fight to the reflection fish, since he got so beat up and the reflection was still there. So I took the mirror down. He was too scared for a week to go into the mirror corner.
These fish are great!