Time to call in a favor from your LFS and hope they have an ‘in’ with ORA. “Another ORA first, the Black Margin Dottyback. We have a few pairs available for shipment next week. Retailers should check in with the sales office, they are going to go fast!” This is yet another case of captive-breeding facilitating the wider availability of a species that, less than a year ago, was almost virtually unheard of in the aquarium trade. First spawned in 2012, 2013 marks the beginning of true commercial availability.
Like its relatives the Blue Bar Dottyback (Pseudochromis cyanotaenia) and the Orangetail Dottyback (P. cocinicauda), this species is known to be highly aggressive with members of it’s own species. This leads to ORA’s suggestion that, “keeping a pair together can be risky unless they are kept in a large tank with numerous hiding places. Here at ORA the broodstock fish are allowed to view each other but only share a tank when the female is ready to spawn.” That said, we should emphasize that this aggression is focused mainly towards conspecifs…we’ve kept individuals of the related species (P. cyanotaenia and P. cocinicauda) in community aquariums with no problems to speak of.
Learn more about ORA’s newest species addition on their website.
