Jawfish Dormancy???

[Reeferhead]

I have three Pearly Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) in a 60 gallon reef setup specifically for them. All sorts of info about the system here: http://www.slashclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2021

I've had all three fish for about a year. Recently, two of the three fish have stopped eating and refuse to leave their holes. In fact sometimes they don't even uncover their holes for weeks at a time. Until a few days ago, I actually thought one was dead because I hadn't physically seen it in well over a month and it hasn't eaten anything in close to two months.

So my question... Has anyone else had a similar experience? Is this possibly a normal seasonal thing or a sign they're simply at the end of their relatively short lifespan?

Thanks

 

[Cirenus]

they are definitely eating, you may just not be noticing it. At that time frame they would have starved. Id look at anything you have changed or done lately that may be altering the behavior. This can be anything from lights to feeding to tank mates.

 

[rssjsb]

Are jawfish mouthbrooders?

 

[Reeferhead]

they are definitely eating, you may just not be noticing it. At that time frame they would have starved. Id look at anything you have changed or done lately that may be altering the behavior. This can be anything from lights to feeding to tank mates.

If they're eating, then its certainly not anything that I'm putting in the tank. To my knowledge nothing has changed to spark this behavior. There's only one other fish in the tank and its been in there as long as the jawfish have. Plus, They didn't all start this behavior at the same time. It started with one, then 2-3 weeks later another, and so on.

Are jawfish mouthbrooders?

They are indeed. At first I was hoping this was the case but from what I've read the incubation period is around 10 ten days. We've far exceeded that amount of time. Also, the male must spit out and suck in the eggs to aerate them, a behavior typically done right near the entrance to the hole. Unfortunately, I have not witnessed this or seen any evidence of eggs or spawning

 

[rssjsb]

Well, then, I'm out of ideas.

I realize it's not much comfort when you're trying to figure out what happened, but they must be eating something if they haven't started losing body mass. I've got a possum wrasse that I've had for two years. I've never seen him eat anything, but he's fat like a little football, so I finally stopped worrying about him.

 

[Reeferhead]

Well, at one point I gave up on them. I literally hadn't seen two of the three jawfish in well over a month and hadn't witnessed either of them eat in over 2.5 months. The remaining jawfish that did come out barely ate. However, now they're all finally starting to poke out of their holes a little more and actually eating a bit again. I think things are looking up and wondering if this is some sort of seasonal thing I just haven't read about.