Royal Gramma, Purple Firefish and Springeri Dottyback

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DmitryB

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I have a question on compatibility. Between the three fish listed above, how do you think they can be grouped? Which two would make the best tank mates in a 40 gallon tank?
 
I've read that grammas and dottybacks are not compatible so have always avoided keeping both, but have no experience of my own to share.
The tricky part here is that the Springeri Dottyback is supposedly the mildest of the Dottybacks... 🤷‍♂️
 
I have a royal gramma, two red fire fish, and 2 purple fire fish in my 5 ft display. All have gotten along great. I can’t speak for the dottyback as I have no experience.
 
I wouldnt do a gramma and dottyback, I tried not that long ago and it didn’t work out. I have the gramma in an acclimation box for 2 week before releasing it. Still ended beat up by the dottyback. I would do either or, then a pair or trio of fire fish. You’d have better chances with that.
 
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The Royal Gramma I just had to evict was aggressive toward anything that went near a rock. Did not matter which rock. This was in a Biocube which is fairly tall instead of long which I am sure contributed to the problem. Attacked my watchman goby so often that it stayed under a rock and did not come out. Dive bombed my peppermint shrimp often, bumped or threw crabs and cerith snails off of rocks, often chased my Clown around. I researched and it seemed they are hit or miss, either real chill or REAL not chill. You can find some other threads here about it if you search, one is showing up right now for me in the "Similar threads".
 

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