Breaking news...Dottyback being a jerk.

[huhhh]

Yeah I know.

I have a royal dottyback that's been fine with my Ocel clown, and Valintini puffer for months now (in a 46 bow). I just added a 6 line wrasse and...it's not gone well. I had all the lights off and didn't feed the first night. The wrasse held his own for a while but the dottyback thinks the whole tank is his and there's nowhere to go. The wrasse wound up stuck behind a powerhead (cause he was hiding) with a chunk of his tail missing.

The aquascape is not really that moveable, everything is in there pretty fixed. I got the wrasse cause I figured he would be okay in a simi-aggressive tank. So far he's alive and still eating but confined to a small corner and never leaves.

So, what else can I do? If I take the dottyback out, for how long? and would it be okay in a very small container as I don't have another tank. If I do nothing will they eventually realize neither is going anywhere and cool out?

 

[RobZilla04]

Doubtful you can get either out of the tank without moving the aquascape. Even more doubtful that a "time out" for the dottyback will result in anything other than the same behavior once reintroduced to the tank.

Best bet is to try and rescape a bit and/or add some live rock to hopefully place all fish in a new environment state. If that doesn't work you may be stuck with a dead wrasse.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Unfortunately the dottyback will kill the wrasse. Rearranging the rocks won't work and neither will a time out. I'd suggest returning the wrasse.

 

[nereefpat]

My "captain hindsight" answer would be that dottybacks don't play nice in smaller tanks, unless it's an orchid dottyback.

 

[scooter31707]

Try using a 1 liter bottle and putting food in it and see if he will go in there. May take a couple days. IMO, they are hit or miss. As stated before, the orchid dottyback is the best option IMO.

 

[gamerunr]

My Orchid Dottyback tormented my pair of Yellow Watchman Gobies. It was like his whole function in life was to hunt them and attack them. He even took it as far as following the gobies into their hole when they retreated in the hole for safety. The dottyback currently resides alone in my QT tank

 

[nereefpat]

My Orchid Dottyback tormented my pair of Yellow Watchman Gobies. It was like his whole function in life was to hunt them and attack them. He even took it as far as following the gobies into their hole when they retreated in the hole for safety. The dottyback currently resides alone in my QT tank

What was the tank size?

 

[gamerunr]

My tank is a 34 gallon - 36" x 18" x 12"

 

[hkgar]

Dottybacks are devils in pretty little disguis1st coral of s.es. Kind of like a six line wrasse. Don't woory too much as I bet most all of us got a six line and Royal Dottybacks when were started out. Kind of like Ginapora and Star polyp corals

 

[gamerunr]

FWIW I've kept numerous orchid dottybacks, always with YWG and never had a problem until I bought my current purple devil. The orchid dottyback is one of my favorite fish. You just never know...

 

[Cancun]

Dottybacks are devils in pretty little disguis1st coral of s.es. Kind of like a six line wrasse. Don't woory too much as I bet most all of us got a six line and Royal Dottybacks when were started out. Kind of like Ginapora and Star polyp corals

Yea I made that newbie mistake years ago and got a six line....was ok for a couple if yrs, than he turned into a serial killer! Yea....I had to take half my live rock out, but a divider in the tank to get the little #$@& out.....he wouldn't go near the bottle with food, or a fish trap....it was a PITA. To the OP the others had good ideas....I have heard the mirror on the side of the tank trick might worked.... however it never worked for me....I just removed the agressor and took him to the LFS.

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[Cancun]

Dottybacks are devils in pretty little disguis1st coral of s.es. Kind of like a six line wrasse. Don't woory too much as I bet most all of us got a six line and Royal Dottybacks when were started out. Kind of like Ginapora and Star polyp corals

Yea I made that newbie mistake years ago and got a six line....was ok for a couple if yrs, than he turned into a serial killer! Yea....I had to take half my live rock out, but a divider in the tank to get the little #$@& out.....he wouldn't go near the bottle with food, or a fish trap....it was a PITA. To the OP the others had good ideas....I have heard the mirror on the side of the tank trick might worked.... however it never worked for me....I just removed the agressor and took him to the LFS.

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk