), I chanced upon a mated pair of oblique lined dottybacks at a local fish farm. The pair was being put on sale and was previously from a 4 footer tank. As the female appeared rather gravid, I decided to try my hands on them after much deliberation. This was so because a good friend of mine had killed about 5 oblique lined dottybacks trying to pair them up and they were not cheap fish to experiment on.
Went home and tied some pvc parts together and hung them at the front left corner of the tank. The tank they are in is about 15 inches (width) by 24 inches (depth) and 18 inches (height). I expected one of them to be rather beaten up (in this case the male as the female is supposed to be more dominant..this was the experience of my friend). However, the unique thing about this established pair is that the male is slightly more elongated compared to the female. Both fish are standing up to themselves rather well. Before the female was swelling up with eggs, I observed the male being more timid hiding at the corners of the tank. However the male seemed to become more aggressive as the female is getting gravid (I observe the middle portion of the female's body becoming more red as this happens, much like freshwater kribensis). The female would hide at the suspended pvcs during this period. No real drama so far, with both of the fish showing complete finnage. Hopefully if all goes well I should get an egg ball to play around with soon.
Perhaps the secret to pairing protandrous dottybacks are to keep them in a large tank, and waiting for the male to catch up on size with the dominant female. I'm experimenting this with my pair of queensland dottybacks (which also happen to be a protandrous species) by locking up the bigger female and feeding it less while giving the male more space and more food.
