Blue-spot jawfish keepers, please post

Dragonet- Good point- I am a proponent of ground probes, but I had removed the one on that tank to put on my new sump, and had not replaced it, so it was running without a ground probe.

Well- Bad news today- Even though I took extraordinary effort to seal the top of the QT tank, the little twit OPENED THE PLASTIC LID and jumped out!!!

I could not believe it... I was looking all over for him this morning, and I was nearly standing on him. :( He must have really hit the lid hard to get it open, and the trajectory must have been perfect for him to hit the lid and ricochet out the gap when it bounced up.

Status up to that point: The white spot had not grown noticeably in the 2 days since I started using Erythromycin and Stop-Parasite. I don't think he liked the pepper in Stop-Parasite, and I was more convinced that it was an infection, and not a parasite, so I did a 80% water change last night and the continued with just the Erythromycin treatment. The Amphipods in the QT tank seamed fine with both treatments, they are still active/alive today.

After the water change he looked happier- breathing more normally, a little more active. Things were looking up.

So- No, I won't try one of these again, at least not in the near future.

Zeph
 
i would like to note that today i took a preserved blue spot jawfish, one of my recent deaths, and had a psuedo autospy performed. the results are only for this one fish. i hae no idea if others are infected likewise.

we located gill worms throughout the gills. most likely Cleiodiscus or Dactylogyrus spp. in stressed fish these gill worms, and the subsequent bacterial infection that follows from the stress of the parsite, can cause a quick death. symtoms would be heavy breathing, excess slime - particularly from the gills in the late stages, flared gills, loss of wieght, and scraping against the rocks. eventually the stress will lead to a secondary bacterial infection. together they will kill the jawfish.

treatment is as easy as a FW dip, though it may best to treat for a bacterial infection just in case.

do a quick google search under Cleiodiscus or Dactylogyrus for more info.

HTH

henry
 
I found this thread to be very interesting. It's seems the majority of people "had" one rather then "have" one. I'd like to know who has had one the longest? or for any real length of time??
 
1 mated pair since 5/24/2002 many mateing attempts and deffinately 1 egg carry but no successful young yet....

feed fresh garlic every other day.. frozen plankton and mysis shrimp in am and night.. and a mid day snack of whatever....

these are my 4th and 5th blues..... 1st from fish supply.com died in 3 days.... 2nd and 3rd (warrenty replacement) from FFE each died in a few days... all 3 followed propper quarentine and med's or hypo salinity.

#'s 4 & 5 got from the marine center and figured will try differnet approach.

got the shippment opened box floated both bags
while floating took a syringe and injected 1cc of stress coat and 2cc of ammonia lock into the bags.

acclimated normally and released into main tank.... other than a overflow incedent, a found in the sump once and a few times being freaked out by former occupents of the tank life has been good....
male named snoop cuase he is always looking around and female named spook cause gets spooked easily..

andy
 
Thanks HC- I think it hurts worse to know I was doing the right thing, and still lost him due to something entirely avoidable!

I had given him a 10 minute freshwater bath (ph and temp adjusted) before putting him in to the QT, but I forgot to search the water carefully to see if anything fell off of him.

Zeph
 
What an interesting thread! Tomorrow I'm going to the LFS to purchase the blue spot they've had there for 2+ months. I haven't noticed any white spots on him, but it is difficult to get a good, long view of his body. He's eating well and looks likes he's in good shape. My tank is completely covered and I don't believe I have any fish that will bother him. I have a fairly deep sand bed, as well.

I was hoping some blue spot owners could give me (us) some progress reports on their fish. Thanks! :)

Chris
 
Chris,
Make sure you have lots of rubble so your jawfish can build a burrow.
We have had our pair since May '02, and knock on wood they are doing great. They are mating on a regular basis but so far the male hasn't carried the eggs more than a day.
 
Thanks for the advice, reefaquaria...things seem to be going very well so far. He's very alert, he looks good and he's eating like a pig. I even saw him spit a bristleworm out of his home (at least I'm pretty sure it was!)

I was hoping to get some periodic updates from reefaquaria and others on the status of their BSJs. Thanks in advance for your replies!

Chris
 
Hi Chris,
Our pair is still doing well. They seem to be going to bed earlier during the winter months, sometimes the male goes to bed before 5PM. How is your jawfish? What do you feed him?
 
Reefaquaria,

I'm glad to hear yours are doing well! Both of mine are also doing very well. Right now I'm feeding them almost exclusively mysis, with a little krill from time to time. Do you have any other suggestions for food?

Chris
 
ReefAquaria -
I might say that I am incredibly jealous of your success with the Bluespots. The mating picture you just posted is incredible. I am sad to say that I have gone through over 12 Blue spots in the attempt to keep them alive and pair some up. Unfortunatley, I have never even made it past the "keeping alive phase." All of them succombed to the white fungus death that everyone else has already stated.

I have four wonderful yellowheads/pearlys that I caught in the ocean, but am dying to keep the bluespots. I may again take a stab at them with your success.

Was there one treatment that you felt worked with your pair over the other?

Also, how do you sex them? I looked for another post on this but was unable to find anything. Can you help? I know the male gets black and white, but doesn't that only happen during mating? Thank you guys
 
well concerning our pair I think we were very lucky and they did not get that disease. WE got them from "The Marine Center" and didnt ask for a "pair" just 2 got lucky that way. our first 3, 1 from fishsupply.com the other 2 from ffe all succumbed to the nasty dead. when these arived I injected amonia lock into each bag then added stresscoat. then acclimated them over an hour or so. and put them right in the main tank. (had less luck with hospital tank). they have been happy ever since except for a few startled adventures. we feed frozen plankton, mysis, brine, beefheart, krill and silversides. every day except when I am lazy I crush and pulverize a partial clove of garlic and soak the food in it before feeding. I am not sure of actual sexing them other than during mating my wife may know more that way....(reefaquaria) she is saying over my shoulder... if a pair 2 females will get along, 2 males will fight, a male/female pair will eventually color the way the pic shows, normally sometime in the spring.... I think a group wil get along. need a big tank for a group they like space tho they dont go anywhere....
andy
 
Well, Saltwaterfishlover, thanks for the info. I may try them again one day. When you added yours to the tank, did they ever fight or did they immediately share the same hole? I know that mine had always fought over holes and even in the brief time I had them, none ever stayed very close to the next one.

Can you notice if your male has a different shaped mouth (I.e. different angle, squarer or rounder, larger amount of extra skin around the mouth, etc.) than the female? I know that in cardinal fish and other mouth brooders, the males have different shaped mouths in order to better support the holding of eggs or young.
 
I'll try to get pix of the faces tomorrow. they never share a hole only when they are trying to "do it". they only steal each others rubble.
 
The only differences that I could see when we first got them was the female was more timid, and her coloring on top of her head was a little greener than the male's. Both of them can open their mouths really wide so there isn't any noticeable difference. They moved their holes around a few times when we first got them, but always are near each other. The male tried to connect the burrows several times and the female would move hers away. Keep us posted if you decide to try again.
 
I had two. The first one went carpet surfing after about a month. I picked up the egg crate to cover the tank and that night before I put it on he jumped. I got another one that was doing quite well (other than he would stay in only one cave, my tank looked like a mine field) but he just simply disapeared one day never to be seen again.
 
Oh crap! I was looking at my bsj last night and he appears to have two small white blotches on his body (one on each side). Is this the kiss of death for my little guy? He otherwise seems perfectly healthy...and he eats like a pig.

I'm looking for advice of my next course of action (if anything). Also, for those of you who have had their bsj get this dreaded white splotch, what was the timeline for the eventual demise (or have some of your bsjs worked through it?), and what were some of the further symptoms along the way (such as loss of appetite)? TIA for your responses.

Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Reefing102
No MACNA 2024
2
Replies
24
Views
669
SantaMonica
S
Formulator
Help setting up new quarantine/hospital tank
Replies
9
Views
350
Formulator
Formulator
L
Help! Mysterious white spot found on the side of my seahorse.
Replies
2
Views
229
vlangel
vlangel
Paul B
The Benefit of Parasites
Replies
1
Views
114
Timfish
Timfish
M
Where did my Jawfish go?
Replies
6
Views
494
mrWinter
M
Back
Top