weird wrasse behavior? (1 Viewer)

[CCrescini]

I have a melanarus wrasse about 4-5" long in a 120 gal tank. Tonight, he started circling the tank quickly, generally showboating, and striking at his own reflection in the glass. He doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else, but it's definitely out of the ordinary for him. It reminds me of watching a beta with a mirror. Has anyone seen this before? He's been in my tank for months, and I've never seen him do it.

I tried turning on a light in the room so he wouldn't see as strong of a reflection, but there's no change. The glass is clean, I just wiped the algae off it a few hours ago, so I'm assuming it's his reflection he's responding to. If I put my hand near the glass he swims off until I move my hand and then he comes right back. He's more or less keeping it to the same 10"x10" area of the front glass.

 

[Traclly Le Tran]

Video? :-D

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[CCrescini]

He's still at it. This should give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7__7f_tvw

 

[CCrescini]

Oops! Sorry, I think I figured it out. Just me being an idiot . I spilled a drop of oyster feast on the outside of the glass earlier today. I wiped it off with towel when it happened, but apparently didn't do a very good job. I just cleaned the glass for real, and he stopped almost instantly. Could it really have been that simple?

 

[Traclly Le Tran]

Lmao that's a trip

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[inigomontoya]

makes sense, saw a video of a Tuskfish doing that to a moth on the outside of the glass

 

[Jasonc]

my labouti does it all the time. Perfectly normal behavior

 

[rlpardue]

Your Labouti did that to ME when I walked in your front door haha.

Crescini, at about 0:33 in the clip, you can see his fins shooting out diagonally from his chest; my Halichoeres Chysus (yellow "coris" wrasse) male would do that when he was getting warmed up for courting/spawning. Threat displays, then chasing the female then spiraling upwards with the female repetitively. I think to wrasses, sex and machismo go together. But in your case yeah, I think it was just seeing his reflection in the mirror and getting fired up.