Fighting or mating?

Caught these Sand Tile Fish out the corner of my eye yesterday, they were about 5ft of the reef which is unusual for Sand Tiles, they were mouth to mouth for about 15 seconds just long enough for me the get over to them and shoot, so what would you say, fighting or mating? There is a lot of mating going on right now.

Hi Kriptap,

If you have "Reef Fish Behavior" from Ned & Anne DeLoach I suggest you read the section on tilefish (p316-321). They don't show or discuss the mouth-wrangling that you observe but if you read about the courtship dance then it seems what you observed must be a territorial dispute, probably between two males based on the tail fin streamers in your picture. For females they do mention biting as part of territorial disputes so males may be doing the same thing.

Pretty lucky to just come along when this happened. That's one of the joys of diving. Even if you have dived the same site many times, there is always a new surprise waiting around the corner.

Bart

Thanks Bart, I should have known, all the spawning shot I have! I always like to get the behavior images but they are also the hardest.