Skunk cleaner vs. Royal Dottyback

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dynamic21

New Member
I have a 10 Gallon nano that I've had a common skunk cleaner shrimp in for the last month now. I just added a Royal/Bicolor dottyback a few days ago, and after observing their interaction, I'm a bit worried that I may wake up one morning to find one or the other missing.

To my surprise, the cleaner shrimp is lunging at the dottyback whenever it gets the chance... Not crawling towards it, but shooting straight at it... Honestly, it looks like he's attacking the dottyback.

As for the dottyback, he's not exactly just swimming away. He'll wait for the shrimp to turn away and he'll lunge straight back at the shrimp and try to nip.

Overall, neither one is entirely passive towards the other, and in fact, neither one seems to back down. Why are these two in a boxing match?
 
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tabblet15

New Member
Well from what I heard (not from experience) some dottybacks can be quite aggresive, but I would wait until some else chimes in on that. The shrimp may acually be trying to clean the dotty, but I would not be worried about the fish, its the shrimp, im afraid, that would lose if the fish is indeed nipping it.
 
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dynamic21

New Member
Bicolor Dottyback, tabblet. Thank you for the response... been a very long time since I've posted this.

Dottyback killed the shrimp about two weeks ago. :anxious
 
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