What's the deal with orchid dottybacks?

[SDguy]

I grabbed a pair from a local breeder that shut down his business. I placed them in my reef, and within a few days, the larger one (male?) was gone/dead. Thinking it was a fluke, a week or two later a grabbed two more from him...a replacement male for the reef and a single for my clown tank. The introduction to the reef went well, and all was good for a week or so. Then, again, the male started acting funny in the reef (lethargic), and was soon dead. Fast forward a few months. I was cleaning out the temporary clown tank, and had the clarkiis, a saddleback butterfly, and the lone orchid dottyback in a bucket for about 3 hours. Guess what... yup, the orchid is dead, just laying on the bottom of the bucket, not a mark on it.

Did I miss a class? I'm 1 and 3 with orchid dottybacks at this point. Is this normal?

 

[risin]

Had one for 3 years, and it was an evil little fish. I got rid of him when I upgraded cause he would kill every new fish I put in the tank.

Never had a problem with health, he hid a lot and was really fat.

 

[airplanes1016]

All my time keep them never had a problem, never had one die always sold or gave them away as they can become nasty.? Did you get both from the same guy?

 

[lawboy888]

i have 3 in mine, pretty peaceful. keeps themselves and eat like little purple pigs

 

[milkman55]

I bought one in my original tank over two years ago. Still going strong in my larger reef tank with 14 other tank mates. Mostly stays out of sight, but does have a mean streak.

 

[Bax]

The only way I've ever lost one was during moves where they were pinned under rocks. They are really hard to catch! In large enough tanks they are great tank mates. I have had one be very aggressive when it was in a 26g. In tanks 75 and above with lot of rock work they stay to themselves and are awesome reef fih.

 

[Wolverine]

They're usually pretty hardy, but can be very aggressive. I think your problem is the source of the fish, and not the fish themselves.