Orchid Dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani)

I never planed on getting my Orchids.  As usual it was an impulse buy from Perry, but who can resist their stunning purple colouring?  The pair I got were young and had already formed a pair.   Put two of these fish together and a pair will be the result.  You may have to provide shelter for the submissive one to escape to, but a pair will result a couple of months down the line.   And mine were no exception.

It wasn't long before I had eggs.  The female lays every 6-8 days and by all accounts is not fussy where she lays, a bit of a slut is Mrs Orchid.  The male broods the eggs for 4days, on the 4th day they hatch.  That's what nature intends to happen, I just don't think the message got through to the male.  

Male tends one of the first batch's of eggs to be laid - and then eats them on day 2-3

 I got this male in early summer 2011, and he has had at least 20 batch's of eggs, of those I have had about 3 hatch which promptly died as they hatched.  I have tried everything to try and settle him down, added more pvc pipes, added a dither fish, added a barnacle shell.

The barnacle added to the tank.  I thought I had it sorted with this, but he eat them on day 3

My latest "cave" is a tub of sand with that clay tube inserted into the sand at a 45deg angle with a clam shell over the top of it.   He seems to like this.  However the proof will be in the babies. He never likes to be seen in his cave, almost like a mother plover will pretend to have a broken wing to lure the preditor away, he always leaves the cave when I come in, and sits in the clay cave I provided for the female.  Is this normal for them?  Who knows!  But Mr Orchid does it.  I did manage to get a picture of him going in and sitting in the entrance of the cave!