Pearly Jawfish MIA

[BrokenSpoke]

I added a Pearly Jawfish to my tank yesterday and he seems to be MIA. Now I don't know if he is hiding on the backside of the rock, dead, or what. What I can tell you is this:

Not seen him since I introduced him to my 75 gallon tank
Is not in overflow
Is not is sump
Could not have jumped as I have the top covered with BRS netting
Tank mates are 2 Ocellaris clowns, cleaner shrimp, various snails and scarlet hermit crabs

Is this normal behavior? When I fed Mysis tonight he did not make an appearance.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Even though it sucks not to be able to see it, I think you should just sit back and wait for it to make an appearance. Many newly caught wild fish can be quite skittish and some hide all the time. Hopefully yours will associate you with food sooner than later and start being out front for your viewing pleasure!

 

[alton]

When adding my wife's they took three weeks before reappearing. Look in and around rocks each morning for moved substrate. Also if you tank is loaded with amphlipods they will feed at night until supply is gone. Worse case I had a friend who added 3 pairs, for a year and a half she had and fed five jawfish, she figured one perished. It wasn't till she took the tank down that she found #6 who managed to stay hidden in a 220 for that amount of time

 

[BrokenSpoke]

I'll keep looking every night for moved substrate and carry on with the assumption it's still in there. The one plus side is that there hasn't been an ammonia spike, I haven't seen a dead body, but the clean up crew could take care of that pretty quickly.

 

[ginpang]

Could be 4 hours .... Could take 3 weeks before you get to know where they've decided to settle down...

 

[T Haynes]

When adding my wife's...

thats what ill start doing. ill tell her the fish are for her:lolspin:

 

[BrokenSpoke]

Quick update. The jawfish made an appearance tonight! Fed mysis just like I do every night and the darn thing shot out from under a rock and started eating. You guys were right, patience is the key.