Dottyback Experience??

diablomaster9045 · Mar 18, 2015

jman9331 said:
what about being bullied by a wrasse?

Most of my wrasses ignore him. The solon wrasse I have pick on him but that wrasse is a jerk to everyone in the tank.

jman9331 · Mar 18, 2015

diablomaster9045 said:
Most of my wrasses ignore him. The solon wrasse I have pick on him but that wrasse is a jerk to everyone in the tank.

awesome great information to know!

BryanD · Mar 18, 2015

I bought a Royal Dottyback in Jan. 2014, went fish shopping with the wife and she fell in love with it. Even though a little voice in the back of my head was saying "Don't do it, there is something about dottybacks you've forgotten!" I bought it anyways. Got home, looked it up and went "****!" LOL. QT'ed it with the black clownfish bought the same day for 30 days then put it in the display tank which only had a PJ cardinalfish and yellow tang. Right off the bat it went after the PJ who I had had for almost 10 years, I wasn't happy. Kept an eye on it, would tear up a fin, then leave the fish alone, then tear up another fin, seemingly as soon as the first fin healed. Was at the point of removing the dottyback, about 3 months later, and noticed it seemed to be leaving the PJ alone. After about 3 months, it would only bug the PJ once in awhile, you'd see a tore-up anal fin, it would heal. Month or so later maybe a rip in the dorsal fin, then it would heal. Stopped bothering the PJ about 6 months after it hit the DT, would swim at it at feeding time but the PJ is smart, just yields a few inches, dottyback backs off, PJ moves back where it was. PJ used to sleep somewhere in the rocks, started sleeping off to the side along the back. Recently added a lawnmower blenny, was afraid the dottyback would give it grief, but its actually a little leary of it, the blenny has never gone after the dottyback, but if it happens to dive into the live rock and goes by the dottyback fast it flinches. So long story short, it settled in pretty well, never bothered the clown or the tang, never bothered Coral banded shrimp I have and other than bugging the PJ for about 6 months (and never bad, if it had gotten bad I would have removed the dottyback) its been a pretty neat fish, both looks and personality-wise. Oh yeah, and after giving the wife gthe rief for making me buy a fish without researching it, I hear "See, I told you it would be OK" every once in awhile when she is watching the tank.

Junglebredcambofed · Mar 18, 2015

shornik said:
+1 for the orchid dottyback. Mine can holds its own if it has too but mostly spends the day going from one cave to another. So as long as there are enough caves for hiding i'd say it should be fine.

Plus 1 for the orchid dotty, I had one... RIP. It swam with an Anthia, and a chromis, they all were fine the dotty spent most of its time hiding in the rock work and caves but played well with others my peppermint shrimps went missing occasionally but I couldn't blame the orchid dotty bc I never saw it attacking or being aggressive to the shrimps. Also if you want a bright color go with a true orchid dottyback to me it was almost like seeing a neon purple glow that came from it.

shred5 · Mar 18, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
Neon dottybacks are nasty too. I'm surprised they get along. Look for an Indigo, Friedmani or Sprigeri.

Exactly I a have one too and he is the most nasty fish ever.. Most dottyback and Pseudochromis are very aggressive.
I am trying to catch mine because I can not add any fish without him killing them. The only fish he wont touch is a tang and my clarkiis which are huge otherwise he kills everything. KiHe hills all flasher wrasses.
People say it ok as it is the last fish but it is never the last fish unless you leave the hobby. Eventually you will want to add or replace another fish.
I think he worst part of these fish too is the are hidden most of the time in the rock anyway..A freind had a orchid dottyback too and it was not as mean but you never see them.

jman9331 · Mar 18, 2015

not to change the subject entirely but how do you feel about a watchman?

nelson.jdautobody · Mar 18, 2015

I had a magenta dottyback and it was the most aggressive fish I ever had. I think it has something to do with the "order" in which it goes into your tank tho. I had an established tank with several fish (different types of fish, wrasse, angle, clowns) and when I put the dottyback in the tank he seems to get along just fine but he did hide a lot in one of the rocks. Then I upgraded my tank and he was the first one to go in and all of a sudden he felt like he was the king of the tank and started harassing and dominating/chasing around the other fishes. Pretty soon the only fish u could see was the dottyback and all the other fish kept in hiding. So I had to pull all of the rocks out and remove him and take him back to my LFS-was a big hassle

mic209 · Mar 18, 2015

I had a springeri dottyback, was fine until I tried to add a couple more fish, it killed one and wouldn't leave the other alone. So it had to go. I now have an orchid dottyback and it is the most docile fish in the tank. Haven't had any problems adding new fish with the orchid.

bneufelder · Mar 18, 2015

I have an indigo with two clowns, a six line, etc and no aggression problems at all. Very cool fish.

fiji4118 · Mar 21, 2015

I think this has a lot to do with tank size as well. I have a royal, magenta and springeri in my 150. Had the royal the longest, then the magenta and finally the springeri. None have been an issue. The dottys hide in the rock work but are out a lot as well. Have tangs, anthias, leopard wrasses, all with no issues. cleaner, peppermint and copper banded shrimp all ok.

dangerbird123 · Mar 22, 2015

Love my orchid dottyback. Very hearty (aquacultured), great color, good temperment. Watchman/pistol shrimp combos are lots of fun. But, my watchman lost the bright yellow color as it became an adult apparently because it's a female, so keep that in mind if you get a juvenile. Now mines just kind of a gray color.

blackcoffeenosugar · Mar 25, 2015

I have a dottyback. But I don't see it often. Because most of the time, it is just wondering around in the gaps of the live rock. There used to be 2 in a tank. But after half a year. One morning I noticed they started to fight. So now they reside in 2 separate tanks.

shred5 · Mar 25, 2015

I ended up removing every coral and rock this weekend. I have had mine now for several years and I wanted to add some fish again. Well I added a goby which he should not have touched or even bothered with and he instantly started attacking him. That was it, I finally removed him along with two big clarkii's. They now reside in my frag tanks.

The problem with this fish is it is smart, You cant trap them either, I threw traps and kept getting the tang and clowns....