Rainbow Fish Fighting?

[rainbowfish90]

Hi all,

I'm just recently having this issue with a couple of my rainbow fish. I've had them for nearly a year (10-11 months) and haven't had a problem until now. A couple of the biggest males are fighting (or at least I assume they are - I haven't seen them actually fighting but they often display to each other, and they're the only ones this seems to be affecting), and yesterday I noticed that one had fin damage. Today I come home and both have picked/messy scales. The Parkinson's rainbow had always been the alpha. Nothing has changed in several months, so I don't understand why they're just now beating each other up?

Planted 55g with only rainbow fish (and a few snails) - a mix of males/females.

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[Anders247]

I'd say they're getting ready to breed and they're fighting over the females.

[rainbowfish90]

I'd say they're getting ready to breed and they're fighting over the females.

So is this something that I should be really concerned about? Is this a normal event for them to pick scales, and will they eventually calm down? I just did a big water change to try to keep the water quality up while they're healing.

[Anders247]

They should calm down.

[rainbowfish90]

They should calm down.

Thanks so much! I was terrified that they would continue fighting and seriously wound each other.

[Anders247]

No problem!
When mine did this, I was worried too. But they calmed down.