Finally caught my territorial orchid dottyback!

[Stort]

After 2 weeks of different methods to catch this guy I finally got him! I ended up draining the tank and removing the rock to get it which wasn’t ideal but it was starting to bully my pink streaked wrasse, neon cleaner goby, and even my green banded gobies! I should’ve listened to peoples advice and never gotten it in the first place. Lesson learned, no dottybacks with smaller fish especially in nano tanks! Seems obvious now but I clearly had to learn the hard way. Fortunately none of my other fish were hurt and I’ve decided to replace the dottyback with a much smaller and more peaceful clown goby!

 

[royaleFork]

I personally don't think they belong in tanks under 100 gallons unless it's by itself. They are beautiful but mean.

 

[Cael Gallery]

I personally don't think they belong in tanks under 100 gallons unless it's by itself. They are beautiful but mean.

I agree, dottybacks are amazing fish when kept in large aquariums with larger tougher fish. My bandit dottyback was one of my favourite fish i had in my 200

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I personally have never had one, but It's pretty often I hear people talk about how they are aggressive towards other fish, especially in smaller tanks.

 

[Piotrek]

I had 2 orchid dottybacks in my 80G tank and they behaved. Then at some point in time I purchased a splendid dottyback on a casual visit in my LFS - man what a criminal. It was equally beautiful as it was aggressive. The first day it killed more shrimps that it was worth... I learned about it the hard way.
(my LFS didn't even know what species it was when it was selling it)

Regarding the orchids, I noticed the really like to hide in an azure rock. You can take them out of the tank with the entire rock :), but this time I'm a bit late with the advise.

 

[Cael Gallery]

I had 2 orchid dottybacks in my 80G tank and they behaved. Then at some point in time I purchased a splendid dottyback on a casual visit in my LFS - man what a criminal. It was equally beautiful as it was aggressive. The first day it killed more shrimps that it was worth... I learned about it the hard way.
(my LFS didn't even know what species it was when it was selling it)

Regarding the orchids, I noticed the really like to hide in an azure rock. You can take them out of the tank with the entire rock :), but this time I'm a bit late with the advise.

You had three dottybacks in one tank?

 

[Piotrek]

Yup, didn't notice them fight.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I had 2 orchid dottybacks in my 80G tank and they behaved. Then at some point in time I purchased a splendid dottyback on a casual visit in my LFS - man what a criminal. It was equally beautiful as it was aggressive. The first day it killed more shrimps that it was worth... I learned about it the hard way.
(my LFS didn't even know what species it was when it was selling it)

Regarding the orchids, I noticed the really like to hide in an azure rock. You can take them out of the tank with the entire rock :), but this time I'm a bit late with the advise.

That's impressive you were able to keep three of those fish in your tank with minimal issues (outside of them killing shrimp)