MarineSniper
Member
Back in March, one of my pearly (yellow head) Jawfish began exhibiting some odd behavior. He was digging out ~5" circles in the sand and "displaying" in the center of it. About a week later, he was mouth brooding eggs, which he promptly lost. A week later, I couldn't find him and finally located him in a hole at one of the tank corners; again, with a mouthful of eggs. He eventually lost these and began a downward spiral that resulted in his passing away last month: 8 months later. He refused to come out of that den for 3 months and would barely eat any of the food: mysid, Rod's, Cyclopeeze; that I would squirt right in front of his hole. I eventually got him back to some semblance of health in October, at which time he began the crop circles again and disappeared for the last time
I'm not deluding myself into thinking I can raise the fry but am curious, before acquiring another, if this is common or if anyone else has had a similar experience with theirs. I love these fish over all my others, including a pair of borb anthias and mandarins and would prefer not to go through this experience again! In all honesty, it was as if the guy died of depression. Where both would display, follow people around the tank, decorate with shells...occupied or not and were the most entertaining fish I've seen, after the second spawn, he simply laid on the sand, when he did finally come out. He easily lost 30-40% of his body mass before coming out of the den in the corner. Every piece of food, even the Rod's, was soaked in Selcon, Zoe, VitaMin or all three but none seemed to make a difference. Not sure that there's any way to prevent this...maybe I just have a black widow female Jawfish
I'm not deluding myself into thinking I can raise the fry but am curious, before acquiring another, if this is common or if anyone else has had a similar experience with theirs. I love these fish over all my others, including a pair of borb anthias and mandarins and would prefer not to go through this experience again! In all honesty, it was as if the guy died of depression. Where both would display, follow people around the tank, decorate with shells...occupied or not and were the most entertaining fish I've seen, after the second spawn, he simply laid on the sand, when he did finally come out. He easily lost 30-40% of his body mass before coming out of the den in the corner. Every piece of food, even the Rod's, was soaked in Selcon, Zoe, VitaMin or all three but none seemed to make a difference. Not sure that there's any way to prevent this...maybe I just have a black widow female Jawfish
