I showed my fishes to each other

I thought it might help them get acquainted through the glass. I moved Perry's bin downstairs to sit next to the females' ten gallon QT. Since the salvinia minima is starting to look poorly, and it would have even less light downstairs, I took all the floaters out of the bin and put them in the cycling tank. And because I had removed so much of Perry's plants, I put into his bin a small reserve sponge filter out of the 45, on a splitter from the same air pump that runs the QT. It was a bit of disruption for Perry, he hid behind the old filter media panel in his bin, so I kept a cardboard panel between the tanks, and left them alone for half the day.

Late afternoon, Perry was acting perky again, coming up to the bin sides looking interested, when a person approached. I slid the cardboard panel out to see how they'd react. They noticed each other right away. The female colored up- red tail and stripes showing! My photos are poor due to the low light and semi-translucent sides of the bin but here's what I got- female:

Perry displayed too, stunning fish. They swam up and down the sides eyeing each other and flaring, instensely interested.

I tried to get a few photos of them looking at each other through the sides, that was difficult to catch.

The female was curving her body towards him, and sometimes waggling her tail. I don't know what that body language means, but at some point they both just sort of stopped- each lying near the bottom on their side, facing each other, not moving. I wondered if Perry was feeling overwhelmed, or tired from the excitement? When I put the partition up again, the female soon relaxed, dulled her colors and swam around her tank again, kept coming back to the side where she'd last seen Perry, as if wondering where he went.

Perry remained very still on the bottom for much longer. Then he went and hid behind the old media panel again. I don't know if any of this indicates they will get along or not, but I'm giving them a good break for now and will see how they react again later. It's probably going to be several more days before the cycle in the new tank finishes; if they can get used to the sight of each other in the meantime, then I hope things will go smoother when I actually introduce them into the same tank.