orchid dottyback

[TauntingBeef]

so I have 2 blue/green chromis 1 purple firefish 2 yellow clown gobies 1 green clown gobie and 1 lawnmower. I plan on 1 or two clown fish and a wrasse along with a dwarf angle will the orchid be a pest if I get it next or should it be almost one of the last ones I get?

 

[ratherbeflyen]

I have a couple chromis, yellow clown goby, ocellaris clowns, skunk cleaner shrimp, crab, snails etc, and a royal gramma in my 40 breeder. I did add the royal gramma last. It dug a hole under my background and it will defend that hole, but otherwise there really is no aggression except at feeding time and nothing worse than a bit of chasing. Hard to say anything for sure, different fish of the same species will be more and less aggressive.

 

[TauntingBeef]

gotcha thanks

 

[Moort82]

Every orchid I've seen has been pretty laid back and unaggressive (the only one I'd worry about on your list is the purple firefish as they seem very timid and jumpy) but have read some cause problems. Part of this might be they bought another dottyback (P porphyreus) or they may have mixed them with very timid fish. Ime they can hold there own against more aggressive species but aren't really that aggressive themselves.

 

[ThRoewer]

I had a ORA orchid who though he may harass my first percula pair a bit. That went for a while until the percula female had enough of it. One day she managed to catch him by the tail and shuck him like a ragdoll - had I not witnessed it and intervened she may have killed him. After that he cooled down a bit. Though only after I got him a female he stopped showing interest in other fish.
My suggestion would always be to keep them in pairs.

 

[TauntingBeef]

how can you tell the diff between males and females?

 

[scooter31707]

IMO, the Orchid is the most peaceful of the dottybacks.

 

[Moort82]

how can you tell the diff between males and females?

You can tell but don't really need to. Put simply they swing both ways so to speak and a female can change to a male and back again. So you only need two and given time you will have a pair. The easiest way to pair is to buy two small individuals and they will sort it out for themselves.

 

[ThRoewer]

Moort is correct.

With wild caught it was always easy to tell males from females since the males were more slender than females and had a pointy drawn out lower end of the tailfin which was rounded on females.

With tank bred this works in general as well, thought I found it not as clear cut as with wild specimen.

I would always try to get one larger with clear male characteristics and one (or more if you go for a harem) small ones that are most likely still female.

While studies have shown that Pseudochromis can change sex both ways, they also showed that the chance speed is highly asymmetric. While the change from female to male may take as little as 2 weeks, the change back usually takes 2 to 3 months.
So, when in doubt, you are better off with a group of small that are likely to be females.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Moort82]

That change back from male to female can also be an aggressive time and one that's better missed by careful choosing. THRoewer's advice above is good although I have normally started with two small individuals of similar size which worked (simply because I haven't had much of a choice its either those two or nothing where I am), there is the odd flaring of fins or split tail but nothing I had to worry about. Also had two males and kept them divided until they changed which was more work hence why I wouldn't want to do I again.

 

[TauntingBeef]

I like the sound of a pair I like having pairs seems natural

 

[2smokes]

P fridmani is a beautifull and resistant fish but hides most of the time in the rocks.Mein nipped the finns of my firefish and managed to stress it soo much that it died a few days after i separated the firefish(was a N magnifica).In my opinion best way to keep the orchid dottyback is to have 5-10 of them into the aquarium(so that you can see at least one of them most of the time) and housed with otther peacefull fish that are resistant to stress like clowns and damsels.Also orchids wont botther sand gobyes but wrasses or firefish will be risky to add.Especially 6 line wrasse dont mix well with orchids.

 

[ThRoewer]

Mine were never hiding too much, at least not the females. The male will often stay in his cave to tend to the eggs (they will spawn like rabbits).

My issue with them were the WAV pumps - the fridmani liked to slip into them during the off periods and got chopped up when they started up again. Unfortunately those pumps can't be programmed to an idle mode were they do a propeller rotation every few seconds without actually moving (much) water to keep nosy fish out.

 

[TauntingBeef]

my heads only turn off for cleaning I don't have a wave controller yet