I know this sounds like a contradiction in terms...shy and dovii. But that's exactly what I have, and I am not sure if I am dealing with it correctly. I know that young dovii can be notoriously reclusive, likely to get them through their early days in the wild amongst a lot of piscivorous parents. But I haven't read of any shy to the degree mine are so I thoought I'd seek out some opinions.
These fish were obtained by a local LFS from Jeff Rapp's. They arrived at the LFS last November at 1.5". I picked four of these fish up in late January, still at 1.5-2", and began growing them out in a 150 with six freddies. The freddies were much more outgoing and fed more aggressively, so I didn't think the dovii were getting enough food as the freddies were growing considerably faster. I decided to move the dovii to their own 120 to grow out. The second largest was given to a friend and I later replaced it with the last one at the LFS as I didn't think I had a female amongst the three I had (still don't
).
The 120 was only sparsely decorated, so the dominant fish chased the others around and guarded the sole piece of bogwood as his territiory. By this time the largest fish had to be 4" or so...I don't want to give the impression these fish aren't growing. I decided to plant the tank artificially more as a biotope and added more bogwood. I also added a larger (6") female carpintis to shake things up a bit and give the other dovii a chance to come out of hiding. The carpintis was the dominant fish and things seemed to be ok. The carpintis tolerated everyone well except for the largest dovii, which began skulking behind some plants, only coming out to feed. The dominant dovii is to be my showpiece fish, so I try to make decisions based on what is best for him. I decided to rearrange the tank again (this occured over a period of months not days) and take the carpintis out.
Ever since I took the carpintis out and changed the aquascaping, the dovii are not to be seen. For 10 days I literally could not see a trace of any of four dovii ranging in size from 3-5+"...nothing. One night before bed after turning the lights out on the tank I saw them all out feeding. I realized that they will not come out if the lights are on. So I am left with a dilemma. I can leave the lights on and never see the fish. Or I can leave the lights off and rely on the ambient light in the room to let me see shadows of my prized fish. I really enjoyed watching these fish, and even in the shadows I can see simply amazing blue finnage developing on the dominant fish. I tried some dithers, but they took 8 Columbians down to 5 in one night and 6 tin foils down to 3 in the same time span.
If anyone can relate how their dovii behaved as juvies, I would like to get an idea if this is just at the far end of normal or if I should be making some changes. The tank looks great, but if I'd be better off with fewer decorations to actually get the fish to come out of their shell I have no problem with that either.
Water parameters are fine BTW. I do 60% WCs every 7-10 days. I'm running an FX-5, XP3, and AC110 on the tank. The only other fish are a male BN pleco and a rhino pleco. Both are about 3" currently. Thanks in advance for any feedback. Sorry for the long post.
These fish were obtained by a local LFS from Jeff Rapp's. They arrived at the LFS last November at 1.5". I picked four of these fish up in late January, still at 1.5-2", and began growing them out in a 150 with six freddies. The freddies were much more outgoing and fed more aggressively, so I didn't think the dovii were getting enough food as the freddies were growing considerably faster. I decided to move the dovii to their own 120 to grow out. The second largest was given to a friend and I later replaced it with the last one at the LFS as I didn't think I had a female amongst the three I had (still don't
).The 120 was only sparsely decorated, so the dominant fish chased the others around and guarded the sole piece of bogwood as his territiory. By this time the largest fish had to be 4" or so...I don't want to give the impression these fish aren't growing. I decided to plant the tank artificially more as a biotope and added more bogwood. I also added a larger (6") female carpintis to shake things up a bit and give the other dovii a chance to come out of hiding. The carpintis was the dominant fish and things seemed to be ok. The carpintis tolerated everyone well except for the largest dovii, which began skulking behind some plants, only coming out to feed. The dominant dovii is to be my showpiece fish, so I try to make decisions based on what is best for him. I decided to rearrange the tank again (this occured over a period of months not days) and take the carpintis out.
Ever since I took the carpintis out and changed the aquascaping, the dovii are not to be seen. For 10 days I literally could not see a trace of any of four dovii ranging in size from 3-5+"...nothing. One night before bed after turning the lights out on the tank I saw them all out feeding. I realized that they will not come out if the lights are on. So I am left with a dilemma. I can leave the lights on and never see the fish. Or I can leave the lights off and rely on the ambient light in the room to let me see shadows of my prized fish. I really enjoyed watching these fish, and even in the shadows I can see simply amazing blue finnage developing on the dominant fish. I tried some dithers, but they took 8 Columbians down to 5 in one night and 6 tin foils down to 3 in the same time span.
If anyone can relate how their dovii behaved as juvies, I would like to get an idea if this is just at the far end of normal or if I should be making some changes. The tank looks great, but if I'd be better off with fewer decorations to actually get the fish to come out of their shell I have no problem with that either.
Water parameters are fine BTW. I do 60% WCs every 7-10 days. I'm running an FX-5, XP3, and AC110 on the tank. The only other fish are a male BN pleco and a rhino pleco. Both are about 3" currently. Thanks in advance for any feedback. Sorry for the long post.
