New blue jaw goby

[Shannahan14]

I picked this guy up this past Tuesday and I have not yet seen him eat at home. He did eat at the store and I was told he has been there for about a month. I lost him for a couple of days and turned out he was in the overflow. Glad I put egg crate up in the canopy. The times I have seen him he lays on the sand with his mouth open wide and looks dead unless you can see him from behind and his gills are moving. I'm worried I'm going to lose him. Any advice?

 

[Shannahan14]

A little update. Has not eaten but since he has been out of the overflow he has made a home and looks more alive if I look at him through the reflection of the side glass. If he does not see me he seems fine.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

What exact fish are you talking about, do you have a picture?

Many fish are very skittish, some more than others. As the fish learns to trust you and they you're the one feeding it, then they usually come around.

Is it this one

Or this one

 

[Shannahan14]

The fish in question is the second pic. I should have included a pic. Since I posted he has made two new burrows and has started to eat yesterday. I was really worried I was going to lose him. So far he has eaten for me and the GF.

 

[ThRoewer]

That's a jawfish, not a goby.
Be careful, they are notorious jumpers and eggcrate won't stop them.
They are also quite sensitive to skin infections.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It's not a Goby as ThRoewer pointed out. Cool fish, make sure you give it lots of broken shells and rock rubble for building its dens. If it runs out give it more so make sure there's always a pile next to each of it's dens.

 

[Martini5788]

And it needs colder water. If you put it in a reef tank, I would drop the temp to atleast 75 which will be fine for the other stuff too. Lower if you can manage it.

 

[ThRoewer]

Where they come from (near La Paz) the water gets up to 30°C in the summer months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz,_Baja_California_Sur#Climate
Though they have it cooler in the winter (19°C). But I don't think 24°C will be too hot for them in the winter months.

 

[Reef Ruler]

Where they come from (near La Paz) the water gets up to 30°C in the summer months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz,_Baja_California_Sur#Climate
Though they have it cooler in the winter (19°C). But I don't think 24°C will be too hot for them in the winter months.

In American that's 66 F in the winter, 86 F in the summer, and then 24 C is 75 F

 

[ThRoewer]

In American that's 66 F in the winter, 86 F in the summer, and then 24 C is 75 F

Yeah, but they are Mexicanos and are therefore going by SI units

 

[Joke]

I find they do alot better if they have room to make a burrow in the sand. How deeps your sand bed?