Is it normal for fish to randomly go into breeding dress?

[Hybridfish7]

Mainly cichlids, but this goes for anything that has a breeding dress, cyprinids and all. I have a female cutteri who has been in breeding dress for the last week or two. She is in a tank with only other female cichlids (my "retirement" tank for females I'm no longer breeding). She has not laid eggs, does not look gravid, is not chasing anything away, not doing displays at other fish, just swimming around the tank like normal but with her colors intensified and her fins flared out. Is this normal/is it possible to trigger this in things that have sought after breeding dresses like some of the more colorful shiners or herichthys sp?

 

[Gourami Swami]

Sometimes fish will go into breeding dress even with no others of their own species around. Pairs of females are pretty common within cichlids, since you are keeping the cutteri with other female cichlids, my guess is she has her eye on another and thinks breeding may be possible. I have had female cichlids go into breeding dress and even lay eggs with no others of their species in the tank. Have seen this happen even with a solo female (no other fihs at all) in a tank.