I think I just witnessed two of my jawfish begin going steady!

[hunterisgreat]

I have 6 yellowhead jawfish. I had 2 established, and added 4 more last week. One went over to the established one's burrow and began swimming up and down in a column... he (she?) came out of the burrow mouth wide in a threatening way, and then abruptly stopped with the threat... he (she) synchronized with the up and down swimming of the new one, and about 20 minutes later the new one moved in... they now are always in the same burrow lol. They feed together, maintain the burrow together, etc. Interestingly, both have the black spots on the chin. I'm not sure if that is an indicator of sex. All six of my jawfish have the black spots on their chin.

I'll update with pictures and info as I get them... I couldn't find anything online reliable about sexing jawfish so I'm hoping to shed light on it.

 

[silentstorm]

That is cool.. I just have one & plan to add another.. I've read about their interesting behavior when in groups. Waiting for pics.. also how big is your tank? Did you make them any artificial burrows?? how deep is your sand bed?

 

[Ambition]

Nice, it means you have a pair in he group. There is no way to sex them outside of spawnig time in which the male's colors will be much more pronounced than the female's. That and he'll be the one carrying eggs in his mouth. It is very hard to do, but there are possible indicators of sex based on the jaws since they mouth brood.

 

[snorvich]

Congrats! Love in the aquarium. Always enjoyed jawfish, they are a real hoot.

 

[gpdno]

Excellent! Jawfish are so cool. I have two, but I think they filed for divorce they were inseparable for about two weeks and now want nothing to do with each other

 

[hunterisgreat]

They already turned in for the night but I'll get pics or video soon. My sand bed varies between 3" and 6". so far no one had dug to the bottom where I can see inside the burrow. My tank is a 210