Orchid dottyback

[Tomoko Schum]

I forgot that I had an Orchid dottyback and added a Randall's alpheus shrimp to my 180. When I saw the Orchid dottyback beelining over to the shrimp to check it out, I had to shoo off the fish and immediately constructed a barricade with rubble rocks around the shrimp to hide him.

People's opinions on the aggressiveness of an Orchid dottyback seem to be quite split. Does any of you know if an orchid dottyback is mean enough to go after a shrimp?

 

[Highgrade]

Any Dottyback will attack small inverts.

 

[Brew12]

I forgot that I had an Orchid dottyback and added a Randall's alpheus shrimp to my 180. When I saw the Orchid dottyback beelining over to the shrimp to check it out, I had to shoo off the fish and immediately constructed a barricade with rubble rocks around the shrimp to hide him.

People's opinions on the aggressiveness of an Orchid dottyback seem to be quite split. Does any of you know if an orchid dottyback is mean enough to go after a shrimp?

I have a skunk cleaner, blood red fire, and 4 peppermints with my orchid dottyback and haven't had any issues. Some of the peppermints are pretty small, too.
Of course, I could just be lucky. My fish don't seem to read the species descriptions on how they are supposed to act.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, Brew12.
Hearing people's actual experiences is very helpful.

This is the bunker I built for the shrimp.
No, I did not squish him. He was staying in the bunker while the light was on.

 

[Brew12]

Thank you, Brew12.
Hearing people's actual experiences is very helpful.

This is the bunker I built for the shrimp.
No, I did not squish him. He was staying in the bunker while the light was on.

I feel sharing information like this is fantastic! Had this group been active a year ago I likely would have avoided making many of the mistakes I had to learn from.

Hope you don't mind if I get on my #soapbox

As you are well aware, every individual fish is just that, an individual. In this case, just because my Dottyback leaves my shrimp alone doesn't mean that every Orchid Dottyback won't attack shrimp.
A recent example was someone asking about their fish stocking plan which included a group of Chromis and a group of Firefish. I cautioned them and told them that it may work out but they may have aggression issues and only end up with 1 or a pair of each. This morning, another member saw my comment and replied that they have a small school of Chromis and it wouldn't be a problem.
At our meeting someone asked about 6-line wrasses because they were told they couldn't have them with any other wrasses. The comment spurred me to create a poll.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/poll-6-lined-wrasse-aggression.355042/
79 responders said their 6-lines live fine with other wrasses.
82 responded that their 6-lines were intolerant of other wrasses

Armed with this information, I likely wouldn't try to add another wrasse to a tank with a 6-line in it. I also wouldn't tell someone they can't do it. We can share information like this to try and help each other make informed decisions.

#rant off

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Well, the Randall's alpheus shrimp seems to be doing okay. I just heard its shooting/banging with its claw.

As for sixline, it's also a mixed bag, too. One of my two sixline wrasses harassed everybody including me when I get close to the glass. He used to come over to the glass where I was standing and flare his fins at me. He would not tolerate any competitor for pods like Mandarin. He terrorized the tank mate for a few years and then jumped out.