Are my channa pleurophthalma mating?

[Sphynxi]

Hi guys,

Today I saw a behaviour I never saw from my pleuros. I added more vallisneria the other day and now they are most of the time inder the long leaves in this area in the tank.

First they spread the gills at each other (mostly the bigger one), then they swam around each other and finally ended up in this position like you see in the video.

I found no information about the reproduction of pleuros and I didn't buy them with the intention to reproduce them. I know they like each other and are always together and swim together. But I wasn't sure it was a couple.

Some infos:
Tank size: 6.5' (2 meters), 180 gallon, 720 litres, Ph: 7.0-7.2 (regulated), KH 5-6, GH 8, 26.5° (79,7F)
The smaller one is 27cm (10.6") and the bigger around 34cm (13.4") long

would you, out of experience, say that is in fact mating behaviour?

Video:

and some pictures of them:

 

[Gaz_ham]

I don't think much is know about how they breed, or what the triggers are. All I've heard in the past is that they leave the main river for slower flowing water to breed.
They look like they are sizing each other up, for what purpose I couldn't say. I've never heard of pleuros breeding in captivity before, so I really hope they do.
I had a pair of auranti's that did this frequently, they even knotted around each other once or twice, but I never managed to get the conditions right. Perhaps a bit if research in to temperature during spawning would help

 

[Madou]

sure believe they are trying to.
Whether they do or not is another matter, but they're attempting the process.
With not much conviction, but yeah, who knows?

As Gaz said, in the wild, they leave the group, mate under river banks, and go back to the group. These conditions are almost impossible to reproduce, but a lucky shot is never to be discarded.

 

[Sphynxi]

They stopped the day after with "this". I will try to figure out what triggers this behaviour and as gaz said, I will research more about the mating. You are right, there is not much hope, but we'll see