Dottyback vs. Shrimp

[jcaulley]

My wife decided she wanted a royal dottyback and he is now in my quarantine tank. Only after she bought this did I start reading that they may eat shrimp. I need some advise. I have 2 skunk cleaners and 2 pepermint shrimp in my main tank. What is the possibility that I can put the dottyback in the tank and my shrimp survive? Or is it not worth the risk?

[slipknottin]

depends on the size of the dottyback and shrimp.

I had one in with peppermints that were full grown and they never had problems.

[Nickeleye]

For what it's worth, I bought one of these fish on Saturday (measures about 2") and it's actually hanging out under a little cove with two peppermint shrimp and a cleaner shrimp. All three shrimp are about the same size as the fish. I haven't seen any problems yet. They all seem to get along fine.

[Ray Pollett]

I've never kept a Royal Dottyback( I use royal grammas -( less aggressive and about the same color). I've kept Splendids, Sunrise, Neon, Sankey's and Orchards. The Neon is the one I've actually seen attack and kill cleaner shrimp. The other's have done OK with CBS. Most are said to eat small (WHAT ever that means) shrimp. The Sankey's has also been fine in my tanks with other cleaner shrimp like Blood Reds.

Ray

[D3adman]

I got a neon dottyback, hes a little bigger than my shrimp and he actually seems scairt of them 9 ) lol He keeps too himself under the rockwork till feeding time then hes like a mad bull going after the pellets...

[Ray Pollett]

Originally posted by D3adman
I got a neon dottyback, hes a little bigger than my shrimp and he actually seems scairt of them 9 ) lol He keeps too himself under the rockwork till feeding time then hes like a mad bull going after the pellets...

Mine was in the tank with the shrimp for over a year. Then one day I watched as he attacked, tore up and ate a cleaner shrimp. The other cleaner shrimp disapeared a day or two before I saw that.

Ray

[D3adman]

DoH!...

I hope mine doesn't go O.J. on any of my shrimp...

I did see him rip out a couple of red legged hermits I popped in there, but that was kinda my fault I dumped them in too soon and they landed upside down and were just twitching. In about 5 minutes he was at them munching away.