dealing with an over aggressive fish

[z_dano]

Plaintiff - new diamond goby
Defendant - purple psuedo

Any suggestions? I got the goby last night and the psuedo won't leave it alone.. its pretty viscous too.
I'm going to try to capture the psuedo and rearrange the lr tonight if the goby makes it that long. Anyone have another suggestion?

 

[Sterling_salt]

As with most aquarium advice, info about the set-up is helpful. Size of tank, how much LR, other inhabitants. Seems you've got the right idea though, maybe even keep the pseudo out of the tank for some time and let the goby make a burrow and get comfortable

 

[z_dano]

As with most aquarium advice, info about the set-up is helpful. Size of tank, how much LR, other inhabitants. Seems you've got the right idea though, maybe even keep the pseudo out of the tank for some time and let the goby make a burrow and get comfortable

Although I don't believe setup has to do with my problem, ill oblige.
56 gallon collum
All water params are good
65-70# of lr
80# of live sand
Eshops sump, protein skimmer, blah blah blah

 

[z_dano]

I think that's my best bet (moving stuff around) but I was wondering if anyone had something different to add.

 

[Sterling_salt]

Set up has a lot to do with it. Your chances of keeping both fish in a 6ft tank would be much better than a 56 round. With their similar body shapes, I doubt they'll get along. Best bet is to establish the goby in the tank then add the dotty.

 

[z_dano]

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off rudely (after rereading my post I see I did). The collum is still rectangular just deeper and taller than a std 55. I get what your saying about the larger tank, more room to hide and less territory conflict.

 

[boardsurfer]

Yep- only thing you can do is drastically change the aquascape. OR (and I don't suggest this) you can add another different type of aggressive fish and sometimes this levels things out. But again- you may just want to sell one of those fish back to the fish store (or both) and plan your inhabitants, and their stocking order (which I had to learn the hard way, when I first started out).

 

[z_dano]

Yeah, I'm learning that also. I tried to rearrange the rockwork and catch the dottyback (to no avail, darn near impossible to catch). But my wife called me this morning to tell me she found the goby on the floor...
There is only a tiny hole it could have gotten out of and it did.. poor thing.

 

[z_dano]

It's my fault for not researching the fish first, I've been pretty good about it but obviously made some bad choices..
I thought the dottyback had changed once I got a snowflake eel, since it lost its territory to the eel. Nope, should have looked into that more also.

 

[Gregcoyote]

My dotty back bluffs fish 50 times his size. Never see a little fish that is this aggressive. Luckily for me, the others ganged up on him and taught him a lesson. He now lurks and rarely attacks. But gram for gram, they are formidable.