Blue-spot jawfish keepers, please post

[therealw00]

wow, I read through that whole thread...I got my BSJ about 6 weeks ago, and he eats ok but not very big pieces. When I got him I added more gravel but I think I need to add more still. I have had the same experiences with them being a little jumpy, but I found that you can use the plastic screen material from craft stores to cover little holes. I know that this thread was started a long time ago, but there seems to have been another very large influx of BSJ in the fishstores in the past month. The one I got mine from had about 20 in.

 

[squeezix]

I'll never try again. Since I set up my tank 1.5 years ago, this is the only animal I've lost due to disease. I have lost 2-3 via predation, but the BSJ made us cry real tears.

What a great, busy, amiable pet.

 

[technoshaman]

BSJ

BSJ

Squeezix, I know what you mean. These fish are everyones favorites when they come see my tanks - always busy and doing the jawfish thing.

 

[jcigars]

Well I just read everyone's posts. I'm on my third BSJF until now I thought it was just me. This last one I bought from Marine Depot and seemed to be doing well until this past Saturday. His eyes were all cloudeed I thought for sure he was going to pass. I just let him be and woke up Sunday morning hurried down to take a look to see if he was still alive. Not sure what happened but his eyes were all clear and he started to eat again. I hope this fish doesn't end up like the other two I had. I really believe were getting some bad fish here. From what I have read I thought that the BSJF was a very hardy fish. I will keep you updated as time goes on. BTW there is a Pic of my fish in my gallery.

Jimmy

 

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Ok, I'm just throwing this out as a crazy idea, but maybe someone could try it. Has anyone tried supplementing their diet with nori or spirinula. Maybe this species is omnivorous and its not getting what it needs dietarily. From my experience with many fish I have found that to be the key. The one that comes to mind most is tasseled filefish. My boss kept ordering them and within a week or two they would die, couldn't figure it out, they were eating great. Then I moved it to the tang tank and noticed it grazing on sea weed. Ever since I've had two for nearly a month+. I don't know, guess its worth a shot. Update us if anyone tries it.

 

[nimrodfiftyfour]

http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca.us/cgi-bin/swishsearch.pl?Opistognathus+aurifrons

Info on breeding pearly jaws.

 

[saltwaterfishlover]

Lovely day

Lovely day

It was a lovely afternoon today at around 4:00pm
I get this frantic call from my wife (reefaquaria) saying She's lost her mind spook is attacking snoop and staying out on the sand.
so I wrap up work early and come home. wife is standing guard at the tank with a little stick keeping our mated pair of bsjf separated. I rinse my hands and dive into the tank trying to figure out what happened. come to find out her cave (burrow) must have caved in and she had to dig or push her way out the back door. she was so freaked that she wanted in his home... he didnt want anything to do with that.. so now I got her home all excavated and she is slowly rebuilding and I did some renovations to his to.. they are both a little worse for wear ( a little torn lip skin some skin abrasions and were breathing hard but seam to be settling down now. hopefully they will make it thru the night and begin a lovely recovery.... heavy feeding on the garlic for a few days to help fight infections and boost immunities....
god I love this hobby.....
oh btw these are #'s 4 and 5 for jaws that we have bought at 80+ a pop it really adds up... but thankfully we have had these 2 for a full year and no issues except this one today.. maybe later we can get them to carry a bunch of eggs to term and get some babies.....
andy

 

[truepercs]

BSJ

BSJ

I see that I should have gone through this post before buying my BSJ....

I have had him for a couple of weeks now, at first he did not want to eat anything. I started to give him some live brine and he is now eating fine. I wanted to see if what others have been feeding their fish. I sure did not want to find all of this... It would be nice to hear from people that have these fish for a couple of years or so. Any other good stories out there? At least we will know we have a chance a keeping one alive.

Thanks,

Truepercs
www.octodog.net

 

[technoshaman]

BSJ

BSJ

Truepercs - on feeding this is what mine get:

- Ocean nutrition formula one pellets
- PE Mysis
- Sweetwater zooplankton
- live brine occasionally
- spirulina flake (they eat some - trying to keep em regualr )


They really really like mysis and I use that mostly as a staple. I like the ON Pellets simply because they sink slowly and give them time to grab them before they hit bottom. I have fed them some other pellet and flake food on occasion and they will get it from the top of the water but they like feeding near their burrow or form the water column more IME.

 

[truepercs]

technoshaman,


Thanks...

How long have you had yours? The little guy quicky found a home under a rock covered with star polyps. He has three passages to keep up with what is going on around. After reading this post and visiting dome of the suggest pages I put some shells gravel, etc just in case he wants to take on any construction projects. He seems to be comfortable, even hovering over his home at times.

He has not been much of a builder, maybe I will give him some incentive "free construction materials dropped off at the site"

Take care,


Truepercs
www.octodog.net

 

[saltwaterfishlover]

update on lovers quarrel
both jaws have settled down again and seem to be happy. any injuries healing or healed nicely.

truepercs we have had ours now for a little over a year this is the first incidents with this pair. our other 3 died like everyone else's in this thread (what I call fish leprosy).
I feed ours a mix of mysis shrimp plankton brine krill silversides (small) and just about anything else I might drop in the tank.

construction materials are always readily dropped of to construction site when needed or site manager makes trip to lfs for building supplies. donations seem to be always happily accepted by the work crew.

 

[Brimarbio]

Just be sure that all consturction is done by card carrying union members only or you could have some real trouble on your hands...

Brian

 

[ajax]

Mine had flukes. Sat in QT with formalin for two weeks. That was one year ago. he or she (i don't know) is doing great.

 

[technoshaman]

Update on mine, 3 of the original 4 are doign fine 6 months later - I lost one to the BSJ disease, others have been fine. Moving them to their own 46 gallon and may try to add one more in a few months.

 

[imstimpy]

My little guy was itching his head on the rocks every now and then and I thought nothing of it. I've had him for about a week and half and yesterday I noticed he had the faded spot on his side. I immediately called my LFS and he said it was common in the jawfish due to their nature to dig around in the sand. He prescribed an anti-bacterial medicine, but I can't remember the name off-hand (it smells like sports cream). I'm doing a 5 day treatment of it right now.

He is still eating very well and moving all over each night trying to find his home. Predation, fast moving fish, and rubble are not a problem. This morning I found him in my overflow (second time he has done that in the 1.5 weeks I've had him). Would it be a crazy idea to do a FW dip? I know it helped my clown in the past but it seems the jury is still out on this disease. If I put him back into my 90g, I definitely wouldn't be able to catch him to try the FW dip again unless he goes into the overflow once more.

-Jon

 

[triggercrazy]

I have had nothing but bad luck with these fish:mad2:I bought one and it jumped i bought another one and it jumped I will never buy one again. Any ways any body know why they jumped

 

[Zephrant]

It's part of their nature. If you don't have a closed top, you can't keep them.

Mine jumped so hard it lifted the black plastic lid on my quarantine tank, and he flopped out on the floor!

Use duct tape.

Zeph

 

[imstimpy]

It is their defense mechanism. They will dart back into their hole, but if that is not an option then to the surface they shoot.

-Jon

 

[technoshaman]

Once they settle in and start building they are less likely to jump but sudden movements , lights going off suddenly can still spook them - I would not ever keep them in an uncovered tank from personal experience.

They are so worth the effort though - very few fish have the personality of a jawfish and bluespots even more so!

 

[imstimpy]

For the record, MelaFix resolves the itching but didn't help him to completely recover. Until the four days ago, he was eating very well apart from the faded white spots. He did appear to have some sort of slime on his head. During the course of the next couple days his overal color faded to a very dull color that wouldn't luminesce any more. It looked like his skin was drying out and shrinking. This morning I found him getting sampled by the hermits. Yet another jawfish claimed by this mystery disease.

One thing that I thought was kind of odd was that recently, he would dart out to grab food from the water, but he would miss ever so slightly. I'm not sure what significance that has except that his eyes had been clouded previously. During this time, they had mostly cleared up by they appeared ever so slightly opaque still. I think he actually had a small clouded spot on his eye the day after I brought him home.

-Jon