Purple Dottyback

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Semi-aggressive   • Maximum Size: 3"
• Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons   • Water Conditions: 72-80° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.020-1.025
• Diet: Carnivore   • Origin: Indonesia, Vanuatu
• Family: Pseudochromidae   • Species: Pseudochromis   • Aquarium Type: Reef Compatible

Help Support AquariumDomain!      

• Your support keeps AquariumDomain advertisement free, lightning fast and fully optimized for both mobile and desktop browsing.

• Visit our Patreon page to learn about the exclusive benefits our Patrons receive!

Purple Dottybacks are generally sought after for two reasons, their small size which makes them suitable for smaller aquariums and reef environments and lastly their amazing purple coloration. Their coloration is both unique in color and spectacular in brightness and contrast with other compatible fish species that they would most likely be housed with. They are also popular for their darting swimming style that will have them zipping in and out from amongst the live rock and corals within the aquarium, which makes them a fun fish to watch. Their small size and relatively peaceful demeanor make them an ideal fit for most community and reef aquarium setups.

Purple Dottybacks do well in smaller aquariums as their small size put less stress on the filtration system with their smaller bio-load. However, if kept in a nano or very small aquarium, it is even more important to make sure that there is plenty of live rock, a protein skimmer and more frequent water changes to maintain a high level of water quality. Smaller species like the Purple Dottyback require plenty of caves and crevices in which to hide in and retreat to when threatened, this will provide them with a sense of security and keep their stress levels low.

While they are peaceful towards most other community species, they will often show aggression towards similarly sized and shaped species. Also their small size makes keeping them with larger more aggressive species a bad idea as they could accidentally become food for the larger species. Overall, they are a hardy species that can successfully be kept with a wide range of other community species in aquariums ranging from nano cubes to full blown large reef setups.

Purple Dottyback will consume a wide range of meaty foods including flake, freeze-dried, frozen and fresh varieties. It is best to feed them a mixed diet of meaty foods including a high quality flake food, quality frozen foods and possibly live meaty foods like brine shrimp or copepods and amphipods if available. Ideally they should be fed multiple (2-3) smaller meals throughout the day consisting of what the fish will consume within a couple of minutes.