What are your thoughts on Yellow headed jawfish

V

Vince272992

New member
Hi i am trying to stock my 65gal reef tank and i am adding the most docile/least aggressive fish first right now i have a clown, 2 firefish, and a mckoskers flasher wrasse and now i want to add a yellow headed jawfish and i was wondering, how active/social are they, how hardy are they, what do they usually go for and would you have one any other things you can think of that would be helpful please let me know
THANKS
 
I like them. I seem to recall you can have more than one but I have never tried this. Sand with some rock rubble is needed.
 
I have one and he's been great! He was the first fish in my tank and I didn't see him for about 5-6 days. Then he started coming out more and eating well. They can be pretty shy at first but once they are comfortable they are out all the time. Mine is constantly busy working on his burrow and gets along great with my other fish.
 
Jawfish in general I think are one of the most interesting fish you can keep in a small aquarium. I have found they do not do well in tanks with aggressive eaters as they will rarely get enough food. And I have found that the yellowheads in particular arn't the most hardy fish.
 
i have had several yellow heads over the years and lost them to jumping, starvation, or they just died. I have a dusky jawfish now, and have had him for over 3yr and 3 tanks. He is always in the front of the tank. He is larger than the yellows, so he moves around larger rock and makes a bigger home. Not as colorful, but I get more enjoyment from him. He doesnt really leave his home, but is always popping out during the day. No issues with other fish, and I had a pistol shrimp pair and they avoided each other.
 
I had a yellow head jawfish for quite awhile and he was one of my favorite fish. They have so much personality. I didn't have any problems with shyness or appetite. By the morning after it was added, it had already made itself a nice big burrow, and was eating well from then on after. It ate frozen brine and mysis, as well as pellets and flakes.

I think the key to success with any jawfish is making sure they have a deep enough substrate, which is also the proper size. They prefer it to be a finer grain, but with some medium grain mixed in, and with a lot of rubble. And when I say a lot of rubble, I mean a few pounds worth! They will endlessly work on their burrow.

I never had any jumping problems with my jawfish. In fact, he never really roamed the tank and at night as soon as the lights turned off, he would retreat to his burrow and cover it up with a big piece of rubble. Only twice in the year I had him, did he attempt to relocate to another spot in the tank. He moved for a day, but was always back by the end of the day.

Oh, expect to pay around $30 for a pearly jawfish.
 
I bought a mated pair from Sea Life and they were the first fish in my tank. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to eat, and they perished.

I have since gotten a blue spot that was in captivity for awhile before I got him and have had him for over 2 years. He's everyones favorite fish.
 
I set up a jawfish tank several years ago, after 6 yellow heads none of which lasted more than a week I got two black cap jawfish, they did fine. It's hard to get them enough food in a community tank.
 
I'm no expert, but did quite a bit of research in planning my stocking. The jawfish should be added first. The only fish in my tank pre jawfish was a firefish and it was sort of a toss up as to which I added first. It is helpful for the more timid fish to be in the tank first to establish a comfortable niche, get to eating regularly, stuff like that. My jawfish is new, and has no competition, but I still need to spot feed him as he doesn't want to come out of his hidey hole, just pokes his head up. I think he wouldn't eat if he actually had to go out and get the food. I imagine if there were other aggressive eaters in the tank, he wouldn't get much to eat at all. I plan on waiting a month or so, then adding a goby of some sort.
 
I love these guys. IMO, if you can get healthy ones they're pretty hardy but keep in mind they only live 3-4 years tops and you have to figure they're at least a year old when you get them. You can keep multiples but in my experience they prefer to space themselves out at least 6" apart, so make sure you have enough room.

You can follow my trials and tribulations with yellow headed jawfish here...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1991251
 
you will get better success adding them early imo. mine was shy and wouldnt come out to eat with the other more aggressive eating fish
 
just to counter all the bad experiences, my pearly jawfish had a great appetite and had no problem getting more than his share of food, even among a purple tang, flame angel, juvie queen angel, and mystery wrasse - all of which you could call aggressive eaters.

moved the jawfish into the 180gal with an adult queen angel, flame angel, purple tang (all 3 different from the previous tank), blue tang, sailfin tang, 27 chromis, 6 firefish, melanurus wrasse, 6-line wrasse and a flame hawk. again, the jawfish had no problems when it came to feeding time, and it was actually one of the LAST fish to be added.
 
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