Springer's Dottyback

Overview

Jet black with bright blue blazes above and below its eyes, this is an unusually beautiful and interesting-to-observe species. In the wild, it is found weaving between the branches of Acropora and Pocillopora spp. stony corals, and it with bring these natural behaviors into a captive reef, where it is easy to keep and exceptionally hardy.

A Red Sea native, it was once considered rare and commanded very high prices. Today captive-raised individuals are readily available.

Feeding

Carnivore. Feed meaty foods such as Mysis Shrimp, enriched brine shrimp, reef plankton, and the like at least once a day. Color-enhancing foods will help prevent fading, although it tends to be more color-fast than many others in the family.

Aquarium Compatibility

Like other dottybacks, Springer’s Dottyback can present problems in a small tank, as it is prone to picking on smaller, substrate-oriented fishes such as gobies, dartfishes and blennies. Aggression is less problematic in a larger tank. Keep one per tank unless you can obtain a pair (try adding two smaller individuals, or one large and one small, to increase the likelihood of getting a male and female). It may bother small shrimps, but is otherwise not a threat to ornamental invertebrates.

Breeding/Propagation

Demersal (on or near the bottom) spawners that produce a mass of gelatinous eggs in a dark cave and then tend and protect their broods.

Notes

This is a somewhat furtive fish that will dash about the tank, never very far from shelter, occasionally stopping at the opening of a hideout to assess its situation or to dash out to grab passing food items.