Is This Normal Behavior?

I have 6 Harlequins in my 20g. They spar like that quite frequently. I always assumed that it's a kind of dominance ritual, that they are sorting out their "pecking order." I've never had any jump outs.

Do you have a lid? Failing that, do you have a lot of floating plants? Both can reduce incidents of jumping dramatically, and you may want to try them if you want to get more rasboras.

This can happen sometimes with fish that need to be kept in schools.

My advice- buy more Harlies (so you have at least 5-7 total). Pull all of them out of the tank, rearrange some things inside the tank so that the "old" fish feel like they're in a new territory, and then add them all back to the tank at the same time.

Thanks for the advice guys!

Grah the great said:

Do you have a lid? Failing that, do you have a lot of floating plants? Both can reduce incidents of jumping dramatically, and you may want to try them if you want to get more rasboras.

Click to expand...

I don't have a lid. I used to have floating water sprite, but I got rid of it a couple months ago. I've had the 6 Harlequins in my tank for a bout a year and a half. They are very active, but they have never jumped.

You definitely need more harleys (Up it to at least 7, I'd say), and yes that's normal. That's two males sparring, they won't hurt eachother.

Okay thanks. I know I need more but I don't want more. Instead, I'm going to give them back to my lfs.