Why are Dotty-backs so dumb? --Rant

Well, I just recently setup a small biocube tank, got it all cycled, have live rock, sand, a couple astrea snails, and wanted to get things started off with an orchid dotty-back. I picked the fish up 4 days ago, he decided to hide in a small hole in a piece of coral for about 2 days. I figured it was a nesting thing, well he finally came out today, and the stupid sob has horrible fin damage on his tail, upper, and his left fin appears to be broken/barley movable.

I just wanted to rant for a big waste of 16 bucks(I know thats nothing in this hobby) I figure he'll be dead in the next day or two...

apologizes for the rant.

 

Stress related damage, it should recover. If it is eating it should survive.

 

I haven't seen him eat since I got him, i've thrown some flake in though, its just annoying that hes now out of the coral pocket, but swimming by rock, haven't seen him bump into things, but hes defiantly putting extra effort into it. I'll monitor and see, I take it those fin repair formulas are a hoxt? Probably the only closes thing I would have access too is a PetCO unfortunatly. Probably not worth it at this point though

 

I wouldn't worry about the fin repair formulas. It will recover if it starts eating. Hiding for a few days is not unusual for fish when they change homes. Try not to spook it too much.

 

If you ever plan of putting any other fish in that tank you should have not gotten a Dotty back. They are extremely aggressive especially in small tanks.



The best thing you can do for him now is to feed him quality foods and maintain decent water quality.

My suggestion is to nurse him back to health and attempt to rehome the fish if you intend to have other fish.

 

Try getting food that sinks - preferably the frozen stuff. If he does survive, you might have a lot of trouble adding anything else into there though...

And nothing you've said really makes the fish seem dumb...

 

I don't get what the big deal is including having a pair of clowns to accommodate, he's going to be the smallest of...4...maybe 5 fish? Short of it being territorial in some instances, I still don't see your point.

 

Size doesn't matter. A dottyback can easily stress out a fish and/or keep it from eating leading to its death, even if the fish is several times larger. It's not going to bother a shark, but it could even go after a full grown maroon clown, granted in that case the clown might end up killing it if it tries. Happy endings are rare with these fish though, and the ones that do happen are when it is added last.

 

A public forum works in regard to you post something and others respond, hopefully appropriately. When you research and collect information on any given topic hopefully that increases your odds of success and allows you to provide good husbandry technique to the animals you have chosen to care for.

It's not the fishes fault that it's aggressive by nature or that you put it in a nano. Now that you have the fish care for it best you can and consider it's place in your future purchases for the tank.

Please research nano fish and their relationship towards one another. Your current tank is not large enough for 5 fish.

Sincerely hope I have clarified my point.

 

I've kept orchid dottybacks for 12+ years and never had agression problems. I kept a sunrise for 3 days and it almost killed the entire tank.

It sounds like something is off in your tank if the dotty is running into things. I would check nh4 and no2 levels because thats not normal behavior unless you have been relentlessly messing with it.