Zebra dart fish

[ntropics]

Hi. I have a purple dart fish (Nemateleotris decora), and all (s)he basically does is hide out in the rocks, then come out for feeding time. I have seen the zebra dart fish (Ptereleotris zebra) for sale at DD, and was wondering:

1) Do they exhibit the same behavior, i.e. hiding out all of the time?
2) Are they compatible with a purple dart fish? (It's not only a different species, it's a different genus.)

Thanks!
Bruce

 

[snorvich]

Hi. I have a purple dart fish (Nemateleotris decora), and all (s)he basically does is hide out in the rocks, then come out for feeding time. I have seen the zebra dart fish (Ptereleotris zebra) for sale at DD, and was wondering:

1) Do they exhibit the same behavior, i.e. hiding out all of the time?
2) Are they compatible with a purple dart fish? (It's not only a different species, it's a different genus.)

Thanks!
Bruce

In a largish tank, I have a mated pair of firefish (Nemateleotris decora) who are out all of the time as well as a group of zebra dart fish (Ptereleotris zebra) with no issues, but this is a 350 gallon tank. What other fish may be intimidating the firefish?

 

[itsfreakingmatt]

I had a zebra dart fish for a while(then my eel decided to eat him) and he was always high in the water column, not at the top, but always high in the tank.
It was a cool fish

 

[ntropics]

In a largish tank, I have a mated pair of firefish (Nemateleotris decora) who are out all of the time as well as a group of zebra dart fish (Ptereleotris zebra) with no issues, but this is a 350 gallon tank. What other fish may be intimidating the firefish?

Good point. I have a 180 2' X 18" X 8'. The other fish are four butterflies: a lemon, auriga, true falcula, and semilarvatus. Also a mated pair of clowns,a majestic angel, a bicolor dwarf angel and a ferrugata dwarf angel. Of note is that over the past two months, I lost a coral beauty angel and a yellow cole tang. The angel I have for four years. It appeared to be tattered in the end, with no disease evident, more like it was harassed by some other fish. The kole tang just disappeared. But I have had the dart fish for over two years and he has always been that way.

I think that the auriga is the most aggressive fish in the tank, from what I have seen of its actions, despite the fact that it is labeled as "peaceful" by LA. The majestic leaves most of the other fish alone, with the exception of the occasional aggressive display to the bicolor angel, of all things.

There is lots of live rock with caves for hiding in the tank.

Bruce

 

[snorvich]

Aurigas are not peaceful. Great fish, however. No obvious intimidator for the firefish that I can see. I have found that mystery wrasses, as well as fairy and flasher wrasses can intimidate them

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

My zebra darts were out almost all the time. The only time they hid during the day was when they had a clutch of eggs (one would stay in the cave with the eggs, both would come out at feeding time).

 

[38bill]

My pair of Zebra darts hide most of the time while my Firefish is out all of the time. One of the Zebras is only slightly more bold than the other. I have a lot of active fish in a 215g but none of them have ever shown any aggression to the dartfish.