Guys, i picked up a pond raised 13" & 8" Dovii pair bout 2 wks ago & put them in a 6x2x2 & while the female has a refuge to hide the male has a wide open tank with nowhere to go except the top corner just above his girlfriends hideout & just hangs in the corner doing his best to look like the filter intake. Has anyone here had experience with a mature pond raised pair & how long could it take for them to come around. it is obviously a big change for them going from a pond full of Dovii to a glass box in a garage with lights going on & off & me staring at them but i don't think i have ever witnessed such stressed behavior before. If i sit still while watching them they venture out for a quick look around, have a nibble & it's back to their corner again. I'm not worried for them as i know they will come around but at this point it's kind of hard to believe they will eventually want to rip my face off. This could take some time me thinks.
Pond Raised Dovii
- Thread starter PaleAle
- Start date
I have a wild GT that took nearly a month to come out while I was in the room. Another month after that he was chasing my fingers and following me wherever I was in the room. Give it time and they will come around. Dovii are generally very aggressive I'm sure the male will want to kill you soon enough 
I think they are just really smart fish and it will take them a while to learn the new layout/routine and get comfortable. Definitely the kind of fish that has a more difficult time with change, especially at that age and size. They will sort it out.
I have caught the male outside the females cave a few times & it's as if I've caught him with his pants down he just freezes with panic lol, then when I sit down he slinks back up into the corner. I'll definitely give it some time but watching this behaviour for months on end will be a challenge.
Give them some time buddy sure they will come round, when I moved my male from a 180g to his current 375g he went funny/shy for around 2-3 weeks but when he worked out his new environment he went back to normal, of coarse my fella has been in a tank his whole life so that may make a difference, at the sizes your pair is I'd say they been I that pond for a year or so,will take them time to adjust.
Yeah, at least a year i believe which is why i sought to get opinions as they are basically mature wild caught Dovii. I hope they turn out the way i want then that will give me a good excuse to upgrade to 8x3x2.5 & my Devil can have the 180.
Yeah that sounds spot on buddy my fella lives in a 8x2.5x2.5 and has done for around 2 years he's about 18" or so now maybe bigger not sure, when I go bigger I'll be going for length rather then more height or width as IME 2.5 (30") in enough in that regard as captive Dovii very very rarely exceed 20"-22" in home captivity, my next tank is likely to be 13x2.5x2.5 so he can get out his short bursts of pace better, with the longer length as my guy likes swimming very quickly up and down the length of the tank lol, he's an idiot lol
I recently moved with my Dovii pair and it's been a little over a month now. My male just started smashing the tank lids again like he used to and doesn't run anyway as much. I had a very hard time getting either of them to eat at all. His color is back now and the shyness is fading. Give it time.
