possible orange spot filefish courtship?

[ml708]

Observed this strange twirling behaviour among two of my filefish, a male and female around 7-8cm in length. Is it the beginning of a courtship display?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiOYhirdXJ0

 

[eco-tropic]

It seems a bit rough in the beginning so it may be a precursor rather than actual courtship. Are you certain that the 7-8cm is female? You might have two males who are display flashing for dominance.

 

[ml708]

yes, I did check the anal fins and one has an orange tinge while the other one is completely black.

I've seen other males competing with each other by actually chasing each other around the tank, by zooming around, never seen them so close to each other before.

 

[eco-tropic]

In that case it might very well be courtship. I know these guys have spawned and reared in the past but I don't see a lot of info on there courtship, but the behaviour in your video isn't too dissimilar to centropyge courtship. I wish you success.

 

[DjScRiBbLe]

Sorry but that isn't courting, but initial pairing possibly. Also sexing is very hard as they can change colors very quickly making it hard to tell the actual color of ventral flap.

I have 2 pairs of OSFF and both males acted the same way towards the female while in qt so i have them all in individual tanks right now. If i were you id watch closely as with mine it got worse and will certainly stress your filefish.