Stubborn Jawfish

[spulk]

Hello! Just over 2 weeks ago I bought a Yellow Head Jawfish for my 30 gallon reef. Since then, he has not come out of a hole he dug underneath a large rock. He has not eaten anything since I got him. He is still alive and does not look like he is starving. The only time I see him is if I dig a hole in front of the rock he is hiding under, after which he immediately comes to cover it back up. Everyone that I have talked to about this has all said the same things. They say that,

1. Jawfish will usually start to come out of their burrow after about a week, and usually spend alot of time hovering over their burrow.


My jawfish has locked himself up in this hole and never shows himself. It has been over 2 weeks.

2. Jawfish will usually start eating within the first week.


My jawfish has not eaten anything I have tried to give him(brine, mysis shrimp, krill, cyclopees, live baby brine shrimp.)

3. Jawfish will usually burrow on the first night and always have their heads poking out of their burrow holes.

My jawfish dug a burrow on the second night, and never sticks his head out of the hole. He only shows himself to seal himself back in his hole if I dig it out.



Someone help, please. What is the deal with this fish?

 

[spulk]

Ugh, I meant to add this before I sent up the post. The other inhabitants of the tank are 1 clarkii clown, 1 sixline wrasse, and a coral banded shrimp. There is anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of sand in different parts of the tank, consisting of crushed coral rubble, small shells, and aragonite sand.

 

[eskymick]

I'm thinking that every time you dig a hole next to his burrow and force him fill it in again, it sets his "shyness" cycle back to day 1 again.

 

[Deleted member 82742]

I wonder if your six line is harrassing it. I've had 3 diamond gobys at differant times and each time my sixline harrassed the goby to the point they just died. When ever the goby would come out the six line would chase it back into it's burrow. It sounds like the jawfish and diamond goby have the same habits with there digging burrows.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Spulk,
[welcome]

This is a long shot, but is it possible you keep opening a back door and he's hovering in an area where you can't see him?

6-lines can be real terrors -- what about that coral banded shrimp?

I agree with eskymick - definitely keep your hand out of there.

 

[spulk]

Thank you all for your input! As for the sixline, on the few occasions I have seen the jawfish poking out, both him and the sixline just ignore each other. As the tank is in my office, I have been able to watch the tank almost 24 hours a day. I have not seen any critter in there try to go after or take a poke at the jawfish. Even the coral banded ignores him completely. I have also made very close inspections of the back of the tank and surrounding areas and have not located anything that could possibly be another opening to his burrow. I first started to open his burrow myself after the first week went by without a trace of the jawfish to make sure he wasnt dead. Considering he hasnt eaten in about 2 1/2 weeks, I don't want to wait to find out he is dead down there until my ammonia starts to spike. I have considered the possibility of doing more harm than good by messing with his burrow, but I am at a loss here for what to do next. I went out to a LFS yesterday to try to get some ideas, and they told me all their jawfish in their display tanks burrowed and came right out almost immediately. There setups were not much different from mine. They did recommend putting a second jawfish in that would probably help entice this one out. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Angel*Fish]

What was he doing in the LFS? Could he have been injured? I would only add another one if I was 99% sure this one doesn't have anything contagious --

 

[spulk]

I bought this particular jawfish from Live Aquaria online. On arrival he looked to be in perfect health. At least from what I could tell by looking at him.

 

[spulk]

Angel*Fish - Provided this jawfish is in good health, do you think adding a second one would help at all?

 

[spulk]

I should add that one the rare case this jawfish comes halfway out of his burrow to get shells to seal himself back up, I have taken the opportunity to inspect him as closely as possibly for any signs of disease or illness. He looks fine as far as I can tell, and doesn't even look to be particularly malnourished, which has got me wondering if he isn't finding food somehow, somewhere. But I have no idea what he would be eating.

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8239981#post8239981 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spulk
I should add that one the rare case this jawfish comes halfway out of his burrow to get shells to seal himself back up, I have taken the opportunity to inspect him as closely as possibly for any signs of disease or illness. He looks fine as far as I can tell, and doesn't even look to be particularly malnourished, which has got me wondering if he isn't finding food somehow, somewhere. But I have no idea what he would be eating.

Maybe he found an underground cask of mysis - lol. If your tank is really big - it couldn't hurt - but honestly i just don't know enough about these fish to answer "would it help?" It does seem possible something like that might make him feel more secure - they do live in large colonies in the wild - but that's not really reproducable in our systems.

I think what i would try is to train him to not fear the turkey baster and give him some live adult brine regularly at least it will live long enough in the tank that your other fish will get it if he doesn't. I assume you know that the food must come near his burrow, he won't go seeking it at the feeding frenzy like most other fish.

Sorry to be coming up so empty - All i can say is this isn't normal behavior.

Do you think he's coming out of the burrow at night?

 

[spulk]

I don't think he is coming out at night. His burrow is usually undisturbed in the morning, as it was the previous evening.
The only way I can get any food to him is to uncover his burrow as I mentioned. Do you think I sould continue to do this so that I can try to feed him? The LFS seemed to think that 2 jawfish would be fine together and not likely to fight. My biggest concern would be my bioload. My tank is 30 gallons and I already have the sixline and the clarkii, and of course the troublesome 1st jawfish.

 

[jayo]

If he looks healthy I'd just leave him alone for another week or so and wait him out - see if a week completely undisturbed gets his confidence up enough to venture forth. Putting another fish in right now will probably only add to stress levels.

jayo

 

[Pico Keeper]

My jawfish took almost a month to become used to me. 2 weeks to leave his cave, than another 2 weeks for him not to dart back into his whole if I walked by the tank or made a move.

Now he is great. I have 2 actually. Both are great fish..tons of personality! I added a mollie miller blenny that I collected and my jawfish has been locked up for 5 days straight without comign out. Still eating if I drop food down his hole..

 

[Angel*Fish]

Nice looking fish!
How big is that Molly Miller? From the picture he looks big enough to eat all the others in a single gulp - lol

 

[Pico Keeper]

He's pretty big lol. I'm going to have to remove him from the tank soon. Probably going to trade him into my lfs for a few pink or blue chromis.