Nathan Milender
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2018
- Messages
- 354
- Reaction score
- 282
- What state or country do you live in
- Minnesota
I have a local breeder of orchid dottybacks and I just bought one. It really seems like a weak swimmer in current but a laser in the rock. I have not seen him chase other fish. Regardless, he definitely behaves like the blennies. He currently keeps trying to steal the prime barnacle spot. I have two clusters with 5-6 holes each but the bicolor, tailspot, and alas now the orchid all like the same hole. Current heavy wt champion is the bicolor, before that it was the tailspot. The orchid will sneak in whenever the bicolor goes to the other cluster to check and make sure nobody has a better man cave. When the bicolor returns the orchid bails below where he has a small live rock hole he likes. He is very fast going into and out of the hole. He seems able to turn around somehow inside much like the blennies.
I do not know a lot about these fish, I was willing to try it as I heard the biggest problem is making sure you have a true orchid, not a purple, and that the captive's can be fairly well behaved vs the wild caught. I figured captive bred is accurately labeled with the benefits of being captive bred. I am not sure if this information helped or not. There is also a clown goby in the mix who is the chicken master and generally gets a prime spot on top of the active rock and never budges when charged. He also does not like the hole and is always the first to the food, always. No damage to any fish but I thought the orchid showed ich after one day in the DT. I turned on the sterilizer and as I worked on a trap to get him to QT but it seemed to disappear so I am not sure what is going on there. No bites on anybody though, so these behaviors may just be sport.
I do not know a lot about these fish, I was willing to try it as I heard the biggest problem is making sure you have a true orchid, not a purple, and that the captive's can be fairly well behaved vs the wild caught. I figured captive bred is accurately labeled with the benefits of being captive bred. I am not sure if this information helped or not. There is also a clown goby in the mix who is the chicken master and generally gets a prime spot on top of the active rock and never budges when charged. He also does not like the hole and is always the first to the food, always. No damage to any fish but I thought the orchid showed ich after one day in the DT. I turned on the sterilizer and as I worked on a trap to get him to QT but it seemed to disappear so I am not sure what is going on there. No bites on anybody though, so these behaviors may just be sport.
