Could my yellow clown goby have stressed my pygmy filefish to death? Is getting another filefish a bad idea? Newish reefer feeling very discouraged.

[jack.mid]

Hello all, this is my first post on this forum over the past 8 weeks I have been setting up my reef tank with my LFS and everything was going pretty well until yesterday. Cycled water for 4-5 weeks then added a black and white clownfish followed by a yellow clown goby a week or so later. Fast forward 2 more weeks to about 5 days ago and this little pygmy filefish catches my eye. He had been in the store for about 2 months so I knew he had to be fairly healthy. Anyways he was a bit shy the first few days, hanging on to a lot of stuff with his mouth, but with each passing day he got better. Yesterday morning he was doing even better it seemed. He was swimming around the whole tank, eating well, it finally seemed he was happy and it made me very happy to see. That's when I noticed some really weird behavior from my clown goby. 2 times I saw as he circled the filefish very tight and very fast. Like so tight that the filefish would try to turn and swim the other direction, but the goby would already be there blocking him. (I feel it should be noted that this goby is somehow dominant over all my other fish. I have witnessed the clownfish try to bite him over food disputes and the goby turn around and give the clownfish the business for 3-5 seconds. I added an orchid dottyback at the same time as the filefish and the goby seems to be his boss as well.)

About an hour after feeding time I look back at the tank and my filefish is being eaten by my hermits on the bottom.....I burst straight into tears. I had just witnessed what seemed to be the little dude doing so much better and now he's gone. I can't help but blame the dang clown goby. Do you guys think he is to blame?? All my water tests came out perfect.

Side note - the owner of my LFS had nothing but praise for ORA Orchid dottybacks telling me how he has never really experienced any aggression and they are great community fish so I listened to him (mistake). It has taken all of 5 days and he is attacking every member of my cleanup crew including my nassarius snail, but won't even touch those disgusting bristle worms( I don't give a dang how beneficial they are I don't want to worry about getting stung every time I reach in my tank). Now I feel like I am doomed adding another filefish into a tank with an aggressive goby and a killer dottyback. I feel nothing, but sadness looking into my tank now. The only fish I feel hasn't been a problem is my clownfish.

The filefish had so much personality I know I shouldn't have gotten so attached to a dang fish but I did. I feel extreme guilt, my tank was supposed to be a peaceful community and now it feels like the exact opposite. Part of me wants to add a flame hawkfish so that little goby can meet his maker.

What should I do? (Don't hold back, I want to hear everything I've done wrong. This feels like my fault)

 

[AnneO]

I have no personal experience with the clown goby but I would return him to the LFS if he is bossing everyone about and consider adding the other peaceful fish you want before you bring him back. You could also try swapping for another one of the same species because I don't believe that behaviour is very common. I would also say that my Royal Gramma (like dottyback) is also the Queen of the tank even though she was nearly the last one in, she even demoted the Coral beauty tank terror.. luckily she is not aggressive unless its about territory... she even bites the tuxedo urchin (ouch?) when he gets too close to her hidey hole ;Punch

 

[homer1475]

Wow I've owned several clown gobies over the years(several citron's and greens). Always the shyest in the tank. They typically perch on a coral and watch. The good news is they have very short lifespans if you can't catch it(typocally 3 years).

Any basslet I've owned was always a very large jerk, with the exception being the black cap.