First fail - Devil Fish

[Bmhowe]

We have been patient setting up our tank and decided to add another fish to our 44 gallon tank. We had two clowns, a watchman goby and a clean up crew. We picked up a Strawberry Basslet and it instantly went nuts on our watchman goby. Kicked him out of his cave and was chasing him just pecking the day lights out of him. He was bullying the clowns and our shrimp as well. We were able to net the basslet and donate to a LFS. Worried about our watchman now. He is all confused and swimming all over, so I hope he settles down. It has been a couple hours since the devil fish is gone. I knew they could be “semi aggressive” but this one was a psycho! $20 lesson learned.

We were looking for a peaceful open water column swimmer. What would be better: cardinal fish, wrasse, other suggestions?

thanks!

 

[Reeflix]

school of cardinals

 

[Reeflix]

id say 3 and a very small wrasse

 

[Sharkbait19]

Dottybacks are pretty mean, not surprising that it got aggressive.
I would look into royal grammas - they are very peaceful and have a similar purple color.

Various blennies are also a good option. Fang blennies are a very active and peaceful fish. Tailspot are also supposed to be great.

 

[Reeflix]

yes look into the gramma

 

[Reeflix]

unless you want the wrasse for pest control

 

[Reeflix]

3 cardinals and a basslet is a good pick

 

[Wolf89]

Get an orchid dottyback. JUst as good looking as a strawberry dottyback, but significantly less aggressive. Bonues if you can get a captive bred one.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I'm certainly a fan of captive-bred orchid dottybacks; they're stunning fish and I've never experienced aggression from them. Springeri dottybacks are equally suitable, but they're much more cryptic and tend to disappear against black backdrops.

Captive-bred yellow dottybacks are not aggressive, but large and nervous. Not ideal.

I'd say that elongate dottybacks are the least aggressive of all the dottybacks. They're pretty, but very timid, and rarely come out of their hidey holes.

If you don't want another dottyback, I'd go for a pink-streaked wrasse.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Dottybacks are pretty mean, not surprising that it got aggressive.
I would look into royal grammas - they are very peaceful and have a similar purple color.

Various blennies are also a good option. Fang blennies are a very active and peaceful fish. Tailspot are also supposed to be great.

A trap a lot of people fall into is thinking all dotties are mean. Orchid dottybacks and elongate dottybacks, for example, are quite peaceful if you take the right procedure in adding them.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Get an orchid dottyback. JUst as good looking as a strawberry dottyback, but significantly less aggressive. Bonues if you can get a captive bred one.

Mine is super cute but is subject to getting bullied a lot.