orchid dotty aggression on clowns & hosting bta

[eaglesrx]

I have 2 questions:

I've had my orchid dottyback for about 3 years in my 30 gallon nanocube with a pair of ocellaris clowns with a rose BTA. I gave my clowns away 2 weeks ago and my orchid had the tank to himself for about 2 weeks.

Yesterday, I picked up a 2 percula clowns, probably about 1.5 years old. The orchid basically keeps my new clowns to the right side of the tank. As soon as the venture to the front, he darts at them. Unfortunately, my clowns haven't yet tried to host the BTA.

To reduce aggression, I've tried to keep a small mirror in front of the tank (similar to what some people do with tangs). I've also left my long plastic tongs in the tank as an attempt to add some new landscape to the tank.

So, my questions are:

1. How long will it take for my orchid dotty to let up my new clowns?

2. How long will it take for my clowns to host my bta, where they'll have some protection from my orchid?

My guess is that the orchid will eventually tolerate the clowns after a couple of days. I think it may take several months to a year for my clowns to host the bta. My ocellaris took about a year to host.

Let me know and thanks!

[ssavader]

Hard to say if a Dottyback (DB) will ever accept new occupants in a relatively small tank. If things don't settle down, remove the DB to your quarantine tank for one-two weeks, and then reintroduce the DB. Hopefully, this will settle the DB down.

[eaglesrx]

thanks. I figured since orchids are one of the more sociable dottybacks, it may tolerate the new clowns. I'm hoping it will eventually, but we'll see.

Thanks

[eaglesrx]

Yes!! One of my clowns is already hosting my bta!!!! Hopefully, the other one will follow him/her! Makes me wonder if the aggression from the orchid the last 2 days drove one of the clowns to the bta for safety.

So, far, after monitoring the orchid today, he seems to ignore both clowns! Hopefully, he can live up to the image of being the most social of the dottybacks!

Let's see if it continues.

[Bax]

I think the clowns are tough enough to hold there own, my OD only freaks over similar body types. I had an OD in a 26 with a pair of o. clowns for a long time with no troubles.

[eaglesrx]

Yeah, my old pair of ocellaris held their own when they were in the tank with my orchid dotty for years. However, the ocellaris were in the tank first. This time around, the orchid had some time to claim the tank for himself.

It's odd, I thought that things calmed down early in the evening yesterday as I didn't see my orchid attacking the clowns for most of the night. However, I caught him one time swimming out of the rockwork to the side of the tank where the new clowns were hanging out and attack one of them. He probably did it more than once throughout the day when i was at work because the one clown's fins were slightly more torn up than the previous day. Interesting enough, he only attacked the clown that was not in the bta for obvious reasons.

I moved the mirror to the other side of the tank, hoping that the orchid will follow it and become preoccupied on that side of the tank.

We'll see if he calms down. Right now, the clowns are hanging in there.

[eaglesrx]

Okay, the mirror doesn't work. the orchid doesn't even acknowledge the mirror anymore. Well, it was worth a try!!

However, the orchid is not constantly harrasing the clowns anymore. Once in a blue moon, it flashes them to show them who's boss and to not go into his rockwork. I guess I'll just have to have a bully in the tank for a while.

I think once the clowns start mating, they'll kick the orchid's butt if he gets even close to the anenome area. This is what my old ocellaris used to do. It was kind of funny, both of them would tag team on him. haha.