Blue-spot jawfish keepers, please post

Blue spot

Blue spot

I acquired one of these little buggers about 2 weeks ago and put him in a tank by himself with an eclipse hood (worried about jumping). So far so good he's eating like a pig - feeding 2 to 3 times a day mysis, krill, pellet and flake. I had heard about the issues with disease/sickliness but so far so good and I'm trying to baby him as much as possible.

Here's a pic:

http://www.maast.org/modules.php?se...ame=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

He's out and about quite a bit now zipping all over the tank at feeding time and I think he's starting to associate me with food already. Wonderful personality and I am thinking of trying to get another and dedicating a species tank to them.

Anyone found any major bad tankmates so far? I was thinking of moving either my fire shrimp or my CBS in tank with him but the CBS always makes me edgy with bottom dwelling fish. I have heard reports of bristleworms inadvertenly wandering into their burrows and sticking them while looking for food.
 
Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ve got a major bad tank mate story for you. I had been keeping a bsj for around three weeks, he seemed healthy, was eating mysis, brine, formula one and pellets. Came home from work on Friday and heââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s gone! I look all over the tank and notice that my green serpent starfish seems to be unusually large looking. I reach in and grab him and put him in a plastic bag for closer observation and within five minutes he regurgitates the whole fish. I have to say, my own dumb fault though. I had noticed that the starfish seemed very interested in this fish ever since I put him in the tank. I even noticed some discoloration on the side of the fish over the last few days and was becoming worried that he might have what has been described here in previous postings. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m now sure that these marks where from battling the green serpent star. I even tried posting a thread about what I thought might be happening, no one replayed. This was most likely because (after doing a search on brittle stars) I realized, (to late) that many have lost fish to brittle stars, there where at least a couple of pages of reefers saying the same thing, donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t put these creatures in your tank. Oh well, live and learn.
 
technoshaman:

He's a beauty!! I hope that he lives a long and happy life in your tank!


trumpet62:

Man, that sucks! I'm so sorry to hear this! Brittle stars can be mean b*stards.


Now my sad news. My jawfish hasn't eaten in over a week and I suspect he isn't going to make it. I have continued to treat him with Clout and tonight gave him a 15 minute formalin bath (no Clout tonight...I put some carbon in the filter to clear the water). I'm not sure what else to do...reefaquaria did give me some advice on getting some frozen plankton...I'm definitely going to get some tomorrow and go home for lunch and see if he'll try it. As always, I'll keep everyone posted (for those who care, that is! :D)

Chris
 
Food

Food

Chris, one other thing I feed that I didn't mention he and all my fish/corals seem to enjoy is that sweetwater zooplankton. I believe it's just freshwater daphnia but they go nuts for it.

If he hasn't eaten at this point he may have sustained some damage to his digestive tract or has a serious case of intestinal parasites maybe. I hope he gets better I would like some professional feedback on collection methods / locations / handling on these guys since they seem to be so delicate (which is odd because most other jawfish are tough little fish and very disease resistant for the most part).
 
Blue Spotted Jawfish From The Wrasstaman!

Blue Spotted Jawfish From The Wrasstaman!

I have spent a small fortune on these fish!
I started with the specials from Marine Depot and went through four. My first hit the rug in less than a day. It makes one ill to see such a treasure after he has carpet surfed for a few hours Mon. I did better as I learned how much these guys really like to jump. I think they really hit it hard at night. I watched one night as number three hurled himself into my aquarium top with a crushing sound. Impressive!!! These fish really really like to jump!!! Trust me.
I lost number four to a hole that was about 1/4 inch diameter. It found a way through!
They don't get along with each other either, at least not in a 125G reef.
I found the best price to be from ffxpress for $39.
I have had the latest for about 3 months now. As the others have said they eat like a pig. They are great substrate stirrers and loaded with personality. I think they are one of the coolest fish period dot.
Good luck and if nothing else make certain you have a solid tight fitting top on your tank or else it wont be long.....

Hope this helps :bum:
 
UPDATE:

My little guy passed away last night. :( I'm not sure what else I could have done. I tried an antibiotic, an anti-parasitic, a FW dip, and several formalin dips. I also made sure that my QT water was always high quality. I was very hopeful, even toward the end, that I could turn him around...but no such luck.

If anyone else has a success story fighting this disease, I would very much like to hear it!

Chris
 
Chris,
I am so sorry to hear you lost your jawfish. I wish there was more information about this disease or infection.
Bonnie
 
Chris, so sorry to hear it. What a bummer. But you certainly tried your best to save him, and did much more then most people would.
Are you going to try again?
 
jawfish

jawfish

I to had a blue spotted jawfis. It developed white spots all over it. It would hardly eat. I soaked its food in garlic also. With in days, it looked great, spots were gone and life was good. It does not take very long to get attached to the little guys. While at work he decided to jump out of my tank and do the jawfish walk. I got home from work and found it dead.
 
chicki,

I have to try again...these guys are just too great not to! :) I may ask the fish store to keep him for an extended period of time before I bring him home, though...perhaps in a copper-treated tank...???


jh2pizza,

Food soaked in garlic, huh? I'll definitely keep that in mind for the next one, although I have my fingers crossed I won't need to use it! ;) I'm very sorry to hear that your jawfish jumped...this really seems to be a major cause of death for these awesome fish.

Thanks again, everyone!

Chris
 
These guys are prone to disease, I just got done QT'ing both a few weeks past, put them in a 3gal. bare bottom w/pvc pipe Eclipse (top fully covered), I used Copper Power (copper sulfate aka CopperSafe) and Kanacyn (antibiotics) for 2-3weeks and fed them PE Mysis shrimp among other frozen fare, both are thriving and happy in two different main tanks. It's been close to 5 weeks since they were released in the main tanks. They are worth the extra effort, no fish is introduced to the main tanks without going through 2-3 weeks of the above QTing.
 
Pizza....

I have never heard of soaking food in garlic. What is the story with this? Can you please tell me the benefits, and how often, etc. that you do this? Also, amounts...

Thanks,

Jude
 
kent garlic xtreme

kent garlic xtreme

Call it snake oil, call it what you want, but a local reef dealer told me to try it for picky eaters. He went on to say it may help with sickness. It was $17.00 a 1oz bottle. It was worth every cent. Although, after investigating, it contains pure garlic extract. This means you can get it at a health food store for next to nothing. Makwe sure you read the bottle. You use only 2 drops. More is not better, sometimes its just more. I did not mean to, but dropped in 3 drops, I fugured it would not hurt, the fish would not eat it.
 
Mamajude,
If you do a search on garlic, you will find plenty of information. We slice a sliver off a fresh clove of garlic, mince and flatten with knife and add to frozen food with a little water. After the food defrosts, we use a turkey baster to spot feed our BSJaws and the rest of the tanks (we have 3).
We lost 3 BSjaws to that dreaded white disease before this pair. My observations on jumping is the female is more prone to jumping than the male. Once they settle down and make a burrow, they won't jump unless something threatens them.
 
I know that when I had mine I thought I was safe because I had a totally enclosed glass lid, but he went through the overflow holes. If I was ever going to try another, I would cover the holes with plastic mesh as well. Can't imagine anyone trying one without a lid or a tall canopy.
 
Oh my gosh -- I unsubscribed to this thread months ago!

ChrisPrusha - I read your story just now, all at once, and was so sad to hear the outcome. :(

Glad to hear that a few people are successful with these fish... And much thanks to you guys for posting!

The autopsy story, with the description of how the "disease" progresses in the fish, brought back awful memories....I think that's what happened in my case :(
 
Marie,

Thanks for the nice words. I must admit it was pretty heartbreaking...although I am going to try again...hopefully soon. :)

chris
 
I've started a seperate thread so as not to hijack this one, perhaps some of those with mated pairs would check it out?

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188830

For the record, I've had mine for about 6 months, never had any trouble, feed him/her once every day or every other (he eats a lot of pods and such inbetween I think) with bits of cod, scallop, shrimp, and random other things that I find and think it'd like. I'd feed more but his stomach is huge and he usually only takes a few bites and then just bites my finger if I try to give him more...
Oh ya, got it from Live Aquaria for $39 but I see prices have gone back up since...

Brian
 
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