Question about Celebes Behaviour—Flaring
 

This is quite possibly a stupid question, and if so, I apologize.

I have a small school of Celebes Rainbow (7). They all hang out together. One almost always seems to be flaring and darting around in the school. It looks quite spectacular! But I'm wondering what's up with it.

Is it a territorial thing? A mating thing? I've googled this and can't seem to find an answer.

It is likely the normal display behaviour of a male. Males are the more colourful and develop beautiful extensions to the second dorsal and anal fins. The plainer fish are females.

Byron.

Look up furcata rainbowfish on YouTube.. The males of this related species are always displaying to each other, it's quite common with all small rainbows. This is considered a healthy trait, it improves their coloration and it's what they do in the wild living in groups.
Does he look like the only male? If there's multiple males then he's the dominant one.
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Looks like there are several males, actually. The one in particular flares at the others a lot of the time, and a couple others flare back on occasion. So I guess it's a dominance thing. He certainly likes to strut his stuff!

Large rainbows do this too. Males will often "battle", though it is very rare to ever see any damage. I agree, it's an indication of having healthy fish - enjoy the show :)