Blue Spot Jawfish - 3rd time the charm?

[ThRoewer]

These two are driving me nuts - they constantly steal each others burrows. In total there are now 3 holes - two on one end and one at the other of the tank.
At times they even sit right next to each other in the two holes on one end.
If these silly fish just could make up their minds and stay at one location :headwally:

Otherwise they do fine and eat like pigs.

This weekend I saw a bunch of fairly healthy looking BSJ at a local store - all looking like my smaller one, and even smaller than him (her?). They had them for at least 2 weeks, so they are likely good.
I was playing with the idea to add one to my current two to make a trio, but decided against it for now since my QT space is totally maxed out.

 

[Martini5788]

My one is driving me crazy. He has made 8 burrows now in my 90 gallon. And he still isn't happy. Trying to find an escape route all the time. I also have no idea how he has connected all the burrows. The rocks were placed on the glass( thank god I did this) but they were pretty flat so idk how he is getting under them. Wish I could see the bottom of the tank but the stand has a plywood top so I can't.


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[ThRoewer]

The hole swapping and creation of new holes continues. By now the tank bottom looks like a gofer infested lawn with holes and mounts everywhere... :headwally:
Otherwise they are doing good and eat well. They have grown a good deal and especially the bigger one has become a fat little sausage.

The third one I got 2 weeks ago got sick - ich and milky slimy areas on his fins. I have him and the 8 barnacle blennies that share the tank with him currently in treatment with CP. When I got him he was scary skinny from being severely under fed at the store. Despite ferocious eating he has so far failed to get as fat as he should be. Though he doesn't look like he has intestinal parasites.

 

[alton]

Mine is just laid back and never gets excited

 

[ThRoewer]

The 3rd guy didn't make it and died Wednesday night. He was too undernourished and despite aggressive feeding he wouldn't gain weight.
Yesterday the blennies looked like they are on their way out.
What they have looks like ich but may not to be ich from how it progresses and how deadly it seems to be - something is off.
Since CP didn't seem to work (at least not quick enough) I'm now trying hyposalinity with the blennies after a near complete water change. Let's see if that brings any change.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Just FYI I've done formalin dips on a blenny and yasha goby. They handled it fine.

 

[Triggerfish]

awesome fish....

best of luck...

 

[ThRoewer]

Just FYI I've done formalin dips on a blenny and yasha goby. They handled it fine.

They all got a formalin dip before they went into the QT. This is something unaffected by formalin. What is even more concerning is the fact that it can also infect other fish than BSJs.

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[OrionN]

always :d

though my wife may not agree to another permanent tank. She is already nagging about the 5 qts i have lined up in the living room for about a year now......

 

[ThRoewer]

Thought to give a quick update:
It seems they largely settles into their current holes, though I can't keep an eye on them all the time and therefore don't know what they up to when I'm gone.

The larger has gained a lot of weight and looks like a fat sausage. It has also gained a good deal in length and sports an overall darker coloration.
The smaller is much more slender, but not undernourished. It hasn't grown much, and is also lighter in color.

The temperatures have been quite high during the days for the last 3 weeks. The temperatures in my un-chilled tanks has gone up to 30°C - too much for my crispa anemone which deflates every time when the temperatures go up.
But the BSJs seem totally unaffected by this, which kind of confirms that high summer and fall temperatures are not generally an issue for them.

 

[alton]

Good news but it will be awesome when you come home and your male will be flashing your female

 

[ThRoewer]

Yours were sitting pretty close to each other.
How did they get along and behave to each other when the male wasn't flashing?

 

[alton]

Yours were sitting pretty close to each other.
How did they get along and behave to each other when the male wasn't flashing?

Great, the female to the right was his match. I had one more female in the tank with no problems. I found out real quick when I added a fourth BSJF and it was obvious it was a male and the fight was on.

 

[ThRoewer]

I'm not sure if one of mine is a male. I could have two females. The fat one is IMO for sure a female as it looks pretty loaded with eggs.
I may need to find another one to see if I get a reaction. I'm just afraid to add one because he could bring in a disease despite quarantine.
As long as it isn't known what BJFD is it is kind of tricky to prevent it from getting into the system. The last one I got from the LFS died miserably of it.

 

[alton]

A while back I tried to add a second to my office tank. I did this by leaving the second BSJF in the bag and placing it in the aquarium close to the 1st ones home. The first one actually attacked the bag, so I did not add the second one to the tank. I figured if it is already attacking it while in the bag , that wasn't a good sign. I never tried adding a second to my current BSJF

 

[ThRoewer]

I tried Google Translate on the Mexican breeding study (Comportamiento reproductivo del pez Opistognathus rosenblatti en cautiverio) and found this paragraph about a sexual dimorphism:

I tried if Google translate could help and found this paragraph about a color dimorphism:

"... Sin embargo, de una forma detallada se puede decir que el macho presenta el cuerpo ligeramente más brillante y el contorno anterior de la aleta dorsal de color ligeramente amarillo y las aletas pélvicas en negro desvanecido, comparado con el aspecto cristalino en todas las aletas de las hembras. Estas sutiles diferencias solo se aprecian en organismos vivos.
..."​

Google Translate delivers this (if someone can improve this translation, feel free to post it here):

"... However, in a detailed way one can say that the male has the slightly brighter body and the anterior contour of the dorsal fin slightly yellow and the pelvic fins in black faded compared to crystalline appearance in all fins of the females. These subtle differences are seen only in living organisms.
..."​

This would confirm my impression that the smaller and lighter colored of my two is the male.

The female is by now much larger than the male and has forced him to settle in a far corner of the tank. I plan to upgrade their tank to a 29 gallon so I can give them a higher gravel and sand layer (I would love to get them a 75 gallon tank, but that would definitely go beyond my wife's patience).
So my plan is rather to divide the tank with some mesh and feed the male more so that he can catch up in growth with the female.

 

[ThRoewer]

Based on the findings above, the top one in this picture would be the male, the bottom one the female. The color difference is pretty striking. There is also a difference in head shape.

In the picture below the bottom one should be the male and the top one the female. Though with these two I wouldn't rule out both to be females.

BTW: according to the Mexican study these guys are not mouthbreeders like Opistognathus aurifons from the Caribbean. With O. rosenblatti the male guards the egg-ball inside his burrow, more like Marine Bettas.

 

[alton]

One thing I forgot to mention was that both in my BSJF and Yellow Heads the females where the home builders. The males maintain there own home, but if they move over, or build a new burrow, it is always the female doing it.

 

[ThRoewer]

That fits my guys. The big one (female) is the more avid builder while the smaller (male) is rather lazy.

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[alton]

That fits my guys. The big one (female) is the more avid builder while the smaller (male) is rather lazy.

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I am surprised a female RC member hasn't jumped on these comments with "men never do anything to fix up the house", they just lay around drinking beer all day.