Blue Spot Jawfish - 3rd time the charm?

Last night I added 4 barnacle blennies. Let's see how that goes.

The two jawfish have now settled in or behind the rock pile in the far left of the tank, less than 4 inch from each other with the smaller one pretty much directly in the corner. The large one has also moved a lot of the sand and gravel over from the other side to build a hill.
 
Took a video of them today and finally got the confirmation that the smaller one is a male when he started flashing at the female. Though she was utterly unimpressed and pretty much ignored him. She seemed more interested in her reflection in the front glass (cleaned the glass for taking the video and turned the light on).

Here is the video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T5CIHAANk_0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I also noticed that she has some damage to her dorsal fin - I hope it's rather from bites than fin rot.

Later this afternoon the female looked a lot less "pregnant", so I'm assuming they spawned - time to break out the larva catcher and get the rotifer cultures in shape :bounce1::bounce2::bounce3:
 
Well, it seems he may have eaten the eggs as he now looks a bit "fat":

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kcd_GDqvY04" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Yesterday the male decided he doesn't like to live in the ground anymore and moved to the rock structure to the right to hang out with the blennies - these guys are just crazy :debi:
 
I'm pretty sure the male ate the eggs, but that isn't too uncommon when fish spawn for the first time.
The female is getting bigger again. It may take a week or two or maybe more until they spawn again.
 
saw this on youtube today
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ON3ZTKxalOw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
The one in the front is the male.
I feel they do better in their own tank with only smaller fish as tank mates.
 
I'm not sure what's going on, but during the last few days feedings my two seemed not too hungry, especially the female. The male went after a few LRS bites but the female wasn't interested at all despite the fact that they previously liked it a lot. They went equally unenthusiastic after Mysis. Only tigger pods seemed to spike their interest.
They also scratch a bit more lately - it may be time again for a water change.
Also, somebody seems to take bites out of the females dorsal fin.
Otherwise they are fine and still up to their burrow swapping game.
 
The last few days it was pretty hot around here and the Jawfish tank hit 29 °C.
Though the BSJ didn't seem to be bothered by it.
I'm more and more convinced that these guys don't mind high summer temperatures as long as they are otherwise in good health.
It would probably be possible to keep them at a constant temperature of 25 °C. But the ideal conditions are probably to simulate seasonal temperatures.
For now I still keep their tank at room temperature. Though I will probably not let the tank temperature drop below 18 °C due to the barnacle blennies and pipefish that all came from Nicaragua and most likely don't like it too chilly.

I don't think that BSJ are good candidates for a reef tank. They clearly do better in a biotope tank that is geared towards their needs. A sand/rubble zone tank with a cemented back wall and some solitary rocks would probably be ideal.
And while the 20 gallon (30"x12"x12") tank I have them in right now obviously works for a pair, it would be better to give them more ground space and height. So I'm thinking of upgrading them to a 55. The 75 would probably be better, but the IKEA cabinet I plan on putting it on is only 16" deep, so not really good for a 18" deep tank.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
I love your videos and pics. I'm glad the fish are doing so well too and hopefully that continues. Jawfish are so cool, and bluespots are very beautiful. I'd love to have a tank like this some day. You may have inspired me, now all I have to do is convince wifey!
 
It is actually quite cheap to setup and run such a tank: not much rocks are needed, lights can be rather dim and depending on where you live, heating or cooling may also not be needed or if just occasionally.
They also don't like high flow, so small low cost pumps will be enough.

This is probably my only tank where the fish have actually cost significantly more than the equipment.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Since the past week the male's fins looks like he was in a blender. At the same time I often catch him in mating coloration.
From previous observations I would say he got beaten up by the female...
I think that the male needs to be bigger than the female for her to accept him - and my male is smaller than the female...
If the male can't catch up in growth, I may have to replace one of them to get a pair with the right size relation.

I have the tank now for one week at hyposalinity to deal with an ich outbreak - it doesn't seem to bother them, but rather seems to make the male more horny. Same goes btw for the Hancock blennies - they are spawning daily.
 
I have them now for 18 days in hyposalinity.
For at least one week the male is now in permanent mating coloration and doesn't go back to normal coloration.
If this is actually a side effect of the hyposalinity it may be a fairly easy way to reliably sex them at a wholesale or dealer level.

BTW, for those looking for a pair: AC in Hayward has two that are male and female.
 
I see one of my videos was posted earlier. That was a fun surprise. I have 3 blue spots in the 150 tank. No spawning behavior yet, however they seem to be growing nicely. I hope that spring time and longer daylight hours will encourage spawning.

 
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