🐠 Lyretail Dottyback (Pseudochromis steenei)
A Bright Orange Head With a Blue-Black Body and Flowing Lyre Tail • Hardy and Disease-Resistant • A Bold Showpiece for Large, Robust Tanks
 
📋 The Lyretail Dottyback, also known as Steene's Dottyback, has a striking bright orange head, a neon blue fringe along the dorsal fin, and a blue-black tail, with males developing a distinctive white bar behind the eyes and the long, flowing, lyre-shaped tail filaments that give the species its common name.
It comes from the tropical Western Pacific, primarily Indonesia and northern Australia, where it's found across a wide depth range, typically over soft bottoms near coral and rubble. It's a hardy, disease-resistant species that heals from fin or scale damage quickly. Every Lyretail Dottyback we ship is feeding well.
It's one of the boldest, most confident dottybacks in the hobby, so it's a showpiece for a large, well-planned tank alongside equally dominant species such as eels, angelfish, surgeonfish, groupers, squirrelfish, snappers, triggerfish, or rabbitfish. Keep just one per tank, since it's territorial toward its own kind. It's reef safe with caution: it typically ignores sessile invertebrates and eats bristleworms, though it will sometimes take ornamental shrimp. It reaches up to 12.7cm, so plan on at least 280L.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Orange Head, Blue-Black Body, Flowing Lyre Tail: A striking, distinctive dottyback
💪 Hardy and Disease-Resistant: Heals quickly from fin or scale damage
🏆 A Showpiece for Large Tanks: One of the boldest dottybacks available
🍽️ Ships Feeding Well: A confident eater from the start
🌿 Reef Safe With Caution: Ignores sessile invertebrates, sometimes takes shrimp