Help! There's an orchid dottyback in my tank!

[disc1]

It's not my fault. OK it probably is.

I was going to move it into the 14 since that's meant to be a one fish tank. But I was moving the tank and needed to swap water in the QT so I could put the stuff from the 14 in it while I'm moving the tanks. I just needed a couple of hours with both tanks down to get things situated. It was a logistics issue. I should have used a bucket, but I was afraid it wasn't clean.

So I put the dottyback in a big breeder net in my DT. I figured it would be cool for a couple of hours while I moved things around and then it could go back into the QT or the 14 whichever was ready first.


Nope.



Five minutes in I walk by the tank and see this little purple terror ripping into the smallest of my three PJ cardinals. I had eggcrate over the breeder net. I guess it made a one in a million jump.


It's been three days now. The little PJ is no more and the body is missing so now it's going to rot in my tank and make a cyano bloom or something. I can't find the mandy either. The little purple demon-fish is scared to death of the YWG so he's cool at least. The firefish goby stays right above the YWG main burrow entrance and so far hasn't had much of an issue. But everyone else is living on the edge with this little purple nightmare running laps around the tank harassing everything that moves.


I'm thinking I'm going to have to drain the tank and take it apart to get the stupid thing out. What a stupid stupid thing to do. Just use the bucket.


That thing sure is pretty. Would be a lot prettier in my 14.

[ingtar_shinowa]

You sure its not a purple dotty. I had an Orchid for 8 years and never had an issue with him. Also, dottyback will never swim into a net/fish trap lol, I feel your pain bro!

[disc1]

You know it may be. I've never really looked at the pictures side by side until you said that. It's got the color right, but it doesn't have the black bar on the face.

The main kings of the tank are a big YWG and his buddy a Goliath sized tiger pistol. I'm really hoping the little spit tries to get into it with them and we won't have to think anymore about dottybacks for a while.

[ingtar_shinowa]

Yeah I had a sunrise dotty about 7 years ago and had to tear down my tank to get him out. He is the meanest fish i ever saw until a Powder Blue tang waxed my fish a week ago.

[Bmgrocks]

make a fish trap, he's bold enough to check it out.

2L clear pepsi/soda bottle, cut the neck off, and place it like a funnel.

watch, and wait for him to take the bait.

[aleonn]

Originally Posted by Bmgrocks

make a fish trap, he's bold enough to check it out.

2L clear pepsi/soda bottle, cut the neck off, and place it like a funnel.

watch, and wait for him to take the bait.

+1. It helps if you starve the fish for a day or two. I soaked mysis in garlic. You just have to stand by in case the wrong fish enter the trap LOL.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Originally Posted by Bmgrocks

make a fish trap, he's bold enough to check it out.

2L clear pepsi/soda bottle, cut the neck off, and place it like a funnel.

watch, and wait for him to take the bait.

Originally Posted by aleonn

+1. It helps if you starve the fish for a day or two. I soaked mysis in garlic. You just have to stand by in case the wrong fish enter the trap LOL.

This! I caught a very smart, skittish wrasse this way. I had to leave the room though. It wouldn't go near the trap if I was near the tank.

[DownwardDawg]

Originally Posted by Sugar Magnolia

This! I caught a very smart, skittish wrasse this way. I had to leave the room though. It wouldn't go near the trap if I was near the tank.

It took me days to catch a damsel like this but I won the war. I caught a couple of my other fish 1st and about 10 hermit crabs before I finally caught the damsel. I would sit across the room watching tv and watch him hover at the opening before he finally couldn't stand anymore. I had to leave a few hermits in there eating and that ended up being the nail in the coffin for him. He couldn't stand to watch those crabs in there eating!

[disc1]

Well guys,

Thanks for the trap suggestions but I think the situation is less critical now. That's not a good thing. It's easier to catch the PJ's than the dottyback, so I'm just going to take them out for now. Everything else is MIA but the watchman and he ain't scared.


Please tell me I'm not going to crash this tank over a stupid dottyback!

[disc1]

Getting ready for a massive amount of water changing.

[billdogg]

+1 on the fish trap as well. My purple pseudochromis now lives with a very large green brittle star, a huge red serpent star and a 4' moray named Hannibal. We'll see who's toughest....

[Sk8r]

dottybacks are demonic.
I had a yellow one in a 100 gallon reef, and if you try to catch them, you get one try at each method, and then they've learned that and you have to do a new technique.

Try the tank-drain method: dig a hole in one corner, shut everything down, and rapidly drain the tank way down. Fish seek the deepest, then the last water, and you net the little horror. I've even caught eels by that method. It'll cost you for Rubbermaid Brute trash cans, and I'd then run carbon and Polyfilter, but it does work.

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Try the tank-drain method: dig a hole in one corner, shut everything down, and rapidly drain the tank way down. Fish seek the deepest, then the last water, and you net the little horror. I've even caught eels by that method. It'll cost you for Rubbermaid Brute trash cans, and I'd then run carbon and Polyfilter, but it does work.

Works for me as well and is what I recommend for "horrors". But I doubt you have P. fridmani as they are docile as far as dottybacks go.

[Bretts05jeep]

Originally Posted by Bmgrocks

make a fish trap, he's bold enough to check it out.

2L clear pepsi/soda bottle, cut the neck off, and place it like a funnel.

watch, and wait for him to take the bait.

I cought my purple dotty back this way. Not a good Idea to put him in the refugium eather. It wiped out my pod population.

[disc1]

Originally Posted by snorvich

Works for me as well and is what I recommend for "horrors". But I doubt you have P. fridmani as they are docile as far as dottybacks go.

I'm thinking that too. Can a purple dottyback have the black stripe on their face? The color looks more like a purple, but the black bar on the face made me think orchid.

[Beandawg]

Originally Posted by disc1

That thing sure is pretty. Would be a lot prettier in my 14.

They ARE pretty. They would be pretty anywhere. Here are a few examples:

In the toilet.

Smooshed under your shoe.

Dried up on the floor.

In a grouper's belly.

Tied/glued to a bottle rocket.

Sorry. I'm still mad about the neon dottyback I had about 10 years ago.

[disc1]

I got it!!!! I got it!!!!

Caught it in the soda bottle trap.

Originally Posted by DownwardDawg

I had to leave a few hermits in there eating and that ended up being the nail in the coffin for him. He couldn't stand to watch those crabs in there eating!

This is what finally worked.

I put two hermits in the trap munching on some brine shrimp and it took about an hour.

Now it can go into solitary confinement in the 14.

[Khemul]

Funny how that works.

Fish sees an empty trap w/ food... "Stupid humans! I'm not falling for that!"
Fish sees a trap w/ food and something eating that food... "Stupid humans! I'm not falling for...wait...that crab is eating without me?!"

[csmfish]

Originally Posted by disc1

I got it!!!! I got it!!!!

Caught it in the soda bottle trap.




This is what finally worked.

I put two hermits in the trap munching on some brine shrimp and it took about an hour.

Now it can go into solitary confinement in the 14.

Sweet! Glad you got the little busterd! My first one was a terror before I knew they were terrors but he got lodged in a filter. The second one was cool but the ex killed him accidentally. My third one was a sheer total azz and I could not wait til he met his demise, which is what it took to get him, oh well. That SOB would proactively swim around the 90 looking for any of my 6 gobys to chase and terrorize. You would see him swim to all the holes and look around inside "hunting" for them. Not glad to see him go.