What killed my royal gramma?

[kindaamaznazn]

Added a neon dottyback on Saturday. I watched for aggression since LFS said the dottyback might bully but should be okay since the royal gramma was there first. No signs of bullying.

Last night, the gramma didn’t come out during feeding and was a no show again this morning. Found it hiding in a rock crevice.

Came home and was about to set up the QT, and the fish was died. Looks like fins were nipped? Can a fish really be bullied to death in 48 hours? My other fish is swimming and eating fine.

75G DT, 18G sump
Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

Stocking: Two clownfish, neon dottyback, yellow watchman goby, and lawnmower blenny

 

[blaxsun]

Yes - sometimes not so much from the actual damage, but stress.

 

[DCR]

Neon Dottybacks are extremely aggressive. I am sure he killed your Gramma. You will have a difficult time adding any similar small fish to that tank with him in there.

 

[kindaamaznazn]

Neon Dottybacks are extremely aggressive. I am sure he killed your Gramma. You will have a difficult time adding any similar small fish to that tank with him in there.

I may have to think about returning him then. Will he leave the goby alone since they’re not similar shapes?

 

[bnord]

Sorry bro, grammas are solid but constant pressure from an ah dotty back at bedding and feeding time can do it -
lots of the standards, move around rocks, add at night etc,, can help but a determined AH like a bad DB can be too much for anyone to handle
if it were me, I'd try to catch it up and bring it back

 

[DE FISH]

dotty back contributed to the death of the gamma

 

[DCR]

I may have to think about returning him then. Will he leave the goby alone since they’re not similar shapes?

He probably will not bother your existing goby and blenny or the clownfish, but it may be difficult to add any others. I prefer the orchid dottyback which is much more peaceful and has always done will with gramma's and other small fish for me. I keep neon's with tangs and angelfish, but they can even get aggresive with newly introduced dwarf angels

 

[Andresnyc93]

Dottyback. One will always end up killing the other.