Blue Spot Jawfish - 3rd time the charm?
- Thread starter ThRoewer
- Start date
Chad Vossen
New member
They started out spread out, but in the beginning they would steal burrows. This is what caused them to all end up in the same corner. After getting it's burrow stolen, it would just start a new burrow 10 inches away. They have stabilized finally, however I have seen them accidentally dive into the wrong hole, which results in some arguing.
Here's one that I suspect is a female. Also my most active digger of the 3.
Here's one that I suspect is a female. Also my most active digger of the 3.
Chad Vossen
New member
Gotta share a jawfish feeding video. 
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Have they been raised in captivity on a larger commercial scale?
ThRoewer
New member
Not that I know of.
ThRoewer
New member
My two are still alive despite a serious deal of neglect (feeding only once in a while - 1 to 2 times a week). Once acclimated these guys are really hardy.
But I have more and more doubts that they actually like cooler water. During the colder months when the tank temperatures dropped to 16 °C they basically hibernated - closed their burrows for days and hardly ever came out. And now that it is warmer again they are out all day. The temperature range I've had them so far was from 16 °C to 30 °C.
But while they can handle lower temperatures (my pipefish and the Eyebrow blennies couldn't) they clearly prefer it warmer. At the higher end they actually did very well.
My next project is to upgrade them to a taller tank - one thing they clearly want is at least 4" of gravel.
But I have more and more doubts that they actually like cooler water. During the colder months when the tank temperatures dropped to 16 °C they basically hibernated - closed their burrows for days and hardly ever came out. And now that it is warmer again they are out all day. The temperature range I've had them so far was from 16 °C to 30 °C.
But while they can handle lower temperatures (my pipefish and the Eyebrow blennies couldn't) they clearly prefer it warmer. At the higher end they actually did very well.
My next project is to upgrade them to a taller tank - one thing they clearly want is at least 4" of gravel.
ThRoewer
New member
The one thing I find interesting with my two is that the male is now always in mating coloration. It started when I dropped the salinity for ich treatment.
I still haven't bought the salinity all the way back up yet so the coloration may have to do with that.
If this is not just an individual quirk of my male but rather a general reaction to low salinity then it might be a good way to sex them.
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I still haven't bought the salinity all the way back up yet so the coloration may have to do with that.
If this is not just an individual quirk of my male but rather a general reaction to low salinity then it might be a good way to sex them.
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RAJOD
Member
I gave it another shot with Blue Spot Jawfish (LA had a killer 42% off deal on them)
My first 2 attempts failed:
First two from LFS: male died of BSJD, female jumped into the quarter sized opening of a EHEIM surface skimmer while in antibiotics treatment.
Second two from LiveAquaria: both died hours after I got them.
You are throwing your money out the window. There is somethign wrong with your tank that you have to treat it. Start off with cheaper jawfish, and see if you can get it to live.
You need to have prestine water parameters. Get that tank in order before send more fish to the toilet.
Third two from LiveAquaria: Looking good so far. They arrived without any visible symptoms of disease. Also, from the looks of it, it seems LA (QM actually) got it right with picking a male and a female by my instructions. So far no aggression.
Despite enough space in the QT and initially taking shelter in another prebuild burrow, the smaller one (female) decided to move and build her burrow underneath the (small) rock where the large one (male) made his burrow and seemingly he didn't mind it.
Now it's to hope that they don't get sick ... or would it be better to dose the tank with CP prophylactically?
fisk and chips
New member
By far my favorite fish!!
ThRoewer
New member
It was never an issue with the tank or water parameters but rather with the fish already being sick when I got them.
The issue with these is how they are treated during capture, transport and at the wholesalers. Usually the damage is done there.
Once acclimated these guys are as hardy as it gets. My last two are still around and doing well.
And while these guys tolerate cooler water they don't seem to like it much. During the winter months when the tank was at around 16 °C they stayed in their closed-off burrows all day and didn't even come out for food. Now that it's getting warmer they have become more active again. On the other hand they handled 30 °C last fall just fine.
RAJOD
Member
I hope the new ones live. How long you had them in the tank?
I only buy from a in town dealer not online. Then you take more of risk.
Find one that has been in the store for awhile then you have an idea if its sick or not. Did you get a full refund on the sick ones?
ThRoewer
New member
I got them since last March, so over a year now.
The first ones were bought at a store here but I only noticed that they were sick when I got them home under better light. No refund for those.
The ones I got first from LA arrived in such bad shape that they didn't even last 8 hours. For those I got a full refund.
My current two also came from LA and arrived healthy.
The first ones were bought at a store here but I only noticed that they were sick when I got them home under better light. No refund for those.
The ones I got first from LA arrived in such bad shape that they didn't even last 8 hours. For those I got a full refund.
My current two also came from LA and arrived healthy.
KingOfAll_Tyrants
New member
Thanks, all for this thread. I'm thinking of keeping one or another species of jawfish, and have a housekeeping question- how do you do your sandbeds? Usually on the net people recommend very fine oolitic sand for a DSB (at least after the first inch or two), but that thin sand reportedly does't work well for jawfish's dens. I also notice, in many photos and videos as well as writeups, that they like playing with rock rubble, shells and the like, and it seems that whatever you make the sandbed out of you should put a good amount of those on top.
What size sand do you use? Do you mix sizes, and if so what formula? Finally, how do you keep it clean/keep away dead zones (if you do so at all)?
What size sand do you use? Do you mix sizes, and if so what formula? Finally, how do you keep it clean/keep away dead zones (if you do so at all)?
ThRoewer
New member
The jawfish tank is my most neglected tank - and the cleanest. The fish, pods and bacteria do all the work. The tank has a skimmer, but it hardly skims anything.
As for the sand bed, you want to place a few rocks (Real Reef Live Rock is pretty good for this but regular live rock or even halved ceramic flowerpots are fine) on the ground to give the fish some caves to dig out. Then you fill in the gravel and sand.
1/4 to 1/3 should be extra coarse coral gravel (basically broken and rounded off coral sticks). This is what they need to build their burrow walls.
The rest should be to roughly equal parts coarse, medium and fairly fine (don't use very fine) coral/aragonite sand.
Mix the coral gravel, coarse and medium sand and fill it between the rocks. Add the fine sand on top. The fish will remodel the sand anyway and ultimately the fine sand gets to the bottom, but I found it to work well this way.
If you have you can also add some shells or extra large pebbles. The fish like to use those as lids for their burrows.
As for the sand bed, you want to place a few rocks (Real Reef Live Rock is pretty good for this but regular live rock or even halved ceramic flowerpots are fine) on the ground to give the fish some caves to dig out. Then you fill in the gravel and sand.
1/4 to 1/3 should be extra coarse coral gravel (basically broken and rounded off coral sticks). This is what they need to build their burrow walls.
The rest should be to roughly equal parts coarse, medium and fairly fine (don't use very fine) coral/aragonite sand.
Mix the coral gravel, coarse and medium sand and fill it between the rocks. Add the fine sand on top. The fish will remodel the sand anyway and ultimately the fine sand gets to the bottom, but I found it to work well this way.
If you have you can also add some shells or extra large pebbles. The fish like to use those as lids for their burrows.
