[ACBlinky]

I just purchased a beautiful Pseudochromis dilectus dottyback, and he's a painfully shy fish. I'm used to dottys being obnoxious, gutsy and even mean fish, but this guy seems really reserved. He's in robust health, really beautiful, but refuses to come out of hiding until I'm out of the room (I do see him come out when I watch him from around the corner where he can't see me).

In the LFS tank he was housed with some pretty tough customers; I figured he was staying in his PVC tube to avoid the vicious damsels that were trying to take pieces out of him, each other, and everyone passing the tank. Now that he's been here for a while (four days) I had hoped he would relax -- he's got a PVC tube in his QT and nobody else in there to bother him -- but his behaviour hasn't changed.

He seems incredibly intelligent, always watching movements outside the tank, and he's eating very well (he loves frozen blender mush) -- provided I put the food in the tank and then leave the room. I've been reading up on dilectus and they're supposed to be fairly aggressive as dottybacks go, but this one seems positively meek.

Does anyone have a dilectus dottyback? Has anyone seen this behaviour with this, or other species before? I really hope he'll warm up to me -- I want to see him more often, he's such a gorgeous fish!