The lfs that I used to work in, and still have good relations with the owner, ordered a banded jawfish and received the BSJ twice in as many orders! They told me that I could have it for the price of the banded ($20) since that was what they were paying for. As familiar as I was to the difficulties with this species, I couldn't pass it up. I kept this fish in a 125 gallon tank with a 5-6'' sand bed with mixed sized substrate along with PVC hideouts, lots of live rock, very few fish at the time, t-5 lighting, refugium and was kept at 76.5 degrees. He did great for about 8 months and then, out of nowhere, began swimming all over the tank during the dusk and dawn lighting periods. He did this for two consecutive nights and perished on the third. I couldn't tell you what happened exactly. He was feeding up until the pacing of the tank, he didn't get harassed by anything and he was very active and alert the entire time I had him. A theory that I have with some of these fish that go like this, are that they injure themselves when trying to jump out. It's just a humble thought, but Jawfish, Gobies, Tilefish, Wrasses and any other fish that is prone to jumping are susceptible. It makes sense to me anyways. We cover the tank because we know, at some point, they are nearly guaranteed to try the escape. If they jump into the netting, no big deal. But if they hit the brace, then perhaps they receive injuries that aren't recoverable. Maybe this is me being arrogant to the extent that thinking it couldn't be my fault while so many aquarist warn against this species.
Either way, I would advise against this species. The pearly is my favorite fish that I have never tried.
