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Purple dotty back picking on mandarin?


Wjcastiglione

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Wjcastiglione

anything I can do about this? Mandarin has an open wound on him and the purple dotty back keeps nipping at his tail.

 

Purple dotty back has been in tank for about two weeks, mandarin about a week.

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Purple Dottybacks are one of the meanest fish you can put in the tank. They will kill whoever they don't like, unfortunately. You need to get it out. For purple get a Purple Basslet or another of the peaceful purple fish. Dottybacks are terrors.

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I'm not getting after you, just speaking from experience.

One of the first thing any new reefer should do is research what kind of live stock you want and what can get long with it.

 

This rule will save you $$ and heartache down the road.

 

All Dotty backs are mean little boogers and very territorial.

 

Nothing worst than having a beautiful fish die because you didn't know better.

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Wjcastiglione

I'm not getting after you, just speaking from experience.

One of the first thing any new reefer should do is research what kind of live stock you want and what can get long with it.

 

This rule will save you $$ and heartache down the road.

 

All Dotty backs are mean little boogers and very territorial.

 

Nothing worst than having a beautiful fish die because you didn't know better.

 

well thanks so much for the lecture, dad - but when I was in the fish store, this dotty back was with a much smaller dotty back and was behaving perfectly fine - so I took him home. I did look them up - and they were listed as semi-agressive. Thanks for the help though, dude - appreciated.

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While the purple dottyback is like all dottybacks, major PITAs, the Orchid Dottyback is pretty peaceful. I recommend catching the purple asap and taking it back. Then keep on the look out for an Orchid. As for the mandarin, your tank is only 3 months old. I don't see anything about a refugium on your tank build page either. While you can "train" the dragonets to take frozen food, they still require a supply of pods since they graze all day long. 1 or 2 feedings a day wouldn't be enough to sustain a mandarin once it gets fairly large. I'd recommend taking the mandarin back and waiting until your tank is at least 6-9 months old and fully stocked of pods before bringing home a mandarin. I waited ~7 months till I got my scooter dragonet and I have a refugium. While I am lucky and he takes pellets and frozen food, he probably wouldn't be alive today if I didn't boost the pod population once a month or so. Need to buy more pods too. Had a mini crash and lost a decent amount of micro fauna.

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Wjcastiglione

I supplemented with pods. I'm trying to train him to eat mysis but haven't had much luck yet.

 

Yeah, I'm out of town on business and I have my girlfriend watching over the tank, but the minute I get back this weekend it sounds like the dotty back is going back to the LFS

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I supplemented with pods. I'm trying to train him to eat mysis but haven't had much luck yet.

 

Yeah, I'm out of town on business and I have my girlfriend watching over the tank, but the minute I get back this weekend it sounds like the dotty back is going back to the LFS

 

Is your mandarin starting to get sunken regions on top near the gills? Do you have a picture of your mandarin? If its not eating Mysis yet, I highly recommend switching to something like fish roe or shrimp roe. They are more likely to eat these. Then mix in chopped up pieces of Mysis. And definitely remove the dottyback asap. It's probably making life hard on the mandarin by keeping it from searching for food. To be honest, there is a high chance of you losing the mandarin if its injured and not eating prepared foods. As soon as you get back, try and get the mandarin on prepared foods, then start treating that prepared food with medicine to treat for any internal infections. Most likely the open sore will get infected. Sorry for the bad news, but this happens a lot when people buy dragonets. And from my own experiences, research the fish thoroughly before purchasing. I've bought plenty of fish without thinking it through.

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Your mandarin still doing ok?

 

Did you ever get him trained to eat preparted food?

 

How much/often did/are you having to sup. with pods?

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anything I can do about this? Mandarin has an open wound on him and the purple dotty back keeps nipping at his tail.

 

Purple dotty back has been in tank for about two weeks, mandarin about a week.

Dotty back will kill him. They are nasty and very aggressive.

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