Pheromones?

[Mbuniac]

Two days ago my female Kenyi had babies and I removed them (just the babies) from the tank. At that time I did a 25% water change. All water chemistry checks out normal. However.....a lot of my fish are acting weird! My female M. paralellus was solid white with a black stripe is now dark grey and acts like she is flirting with my male D. compressiceps. The compressiceps coloring has really intensified. My male L. caeruleus acts like he is trying to mate with a smaller (sex unknown) M. estherae. The compressiceps will chase the male kenyi all over the tank one minute and then they stop in the area that the comp. has claimed and the kenyi just stays in one spot while the comp. does his "I'm Bad Shake" in a circle around and around the kenyii.
None of this behavior occured before 2 days ago. What up wit dat???
Thanks, Sam

[WOLVERINE]

Mbuniac,
Sometimes water changes will stimulate fish into breeding behavior. Anyway that what it sounds like to me

[SGypsyMermaid]

i have heard of breeders who induced reluctant fish to breed by adding water from the tanks of the same or similar species which were spawning--so there may be something to your pheromone theory, sam-i-am.

[jonah]

I get that a lot after big water changes, especially if there's a noticible temperature change. Maybe they think it's rainy season? A lot of fish spawn in the wild during that time.

[Mbuniac]

Thanks everyone for your input! It could have been a combination of things. 2 days prior to the baby incident we had a warm day and it got up to 80 deg. in the house and so did the tank temp. That's only 2 deg higher than normal, but that and pheromones(?) may have caused it. And no, I did not feed them green eggs and ham! Nevertheless, things seem to be returning to the normal chaos. Kenyi male and female are going away!
Thanks Much, Sam