JaneG
New member
I bought a jawfish pair online about a week ago (it was my first online purchase ever). I asked for their oldest pair (which they supposedly gave me), as QT can be stressful for jawfish- additionally, the tanks run UV, are medicated and this supplier has an amazing track record. The pair was shipped together in a bag (!!), and one of them died during the shipment but the other made it. I did a very fast acclimation (30 minutes after a 15 minute temperature acclimation) on him and added him to the tank- my reasoning was that the ammonia spike would be very harmful, and as far as I know, the ammonia levels get bad in about 30 minutes after opening the bag.
After adding him, he was stressed out, but not horridly. He went to the back corner of the tank and stayed there for a little (not hiding under rocks, etc.) I fed (as I noticed he had already started eating some pods). This piqued his interested, and after I was done feeding, he moved up into the water column as if looking for more food to eat. He slowly started to move around the tank, still high up in the water column, until he reached the overflow box. He tried to jump into it, but I had already anticipated this and put mesh on it so he couldn't. He flopped around for a second on it, fell back into the tank and immediately darted for a cave in the tank.
The first day he started to burrow inside the cave (very little burrowing- not even close to what my first yellowhead did), and ate a little. For whatever reason, things have gone downhill from then. He stopped what little burrowing he had done on the third day and only would stick his head out of the right side opening of the cave, with slightly labored breathing. I asked Fenner on WWM and he said it was most likely due to the extreme shipping stress. Well, for whatever reason, things have gotten worse as opposed to better. His breathing has gotten much faster now, and he is starting to lose his appetite. His body is clean of any problems, and he hasn't been scratching. The main symptoms are labored breathing, inactivity and loss of appetite- in other words, it could literally be anything. Normally I would move him to a QT tank, but I'm sure that the stress from that would do him in and I have no idea what I could do differently.
Could this have been from stressful shipping? He's the only fish in the tank, so I know he isn't getting bullied. Additionally, my water quality is good enough for SPS corals so I know that isn't the problem. He also has a 3" depth substrate with crushed corals, fine sand and everything. I feel so awful watching him go downhill and not having a clue what I could do. I even fed today and he didn't eat at all - his interest was piqued a little but he just couldn't muster up enough to grab the food and was intimidated by even my cleaner shrimp. Yesterday he ate some, but not as readily as earlier. Could it be flukes? He's not showing any other symptoms (no shaking, no discoloration, no fraying, no cloudy eyes), however, and Scott Michael says that yellowheads are particularly resistant to ailments. It's sort of morbid, but I had frozen the dead body of the one that was shipped along with him, and just dethawed it and dipped it in freshwater to see if anything would come off (I've heard that flukes will still come off even after being frozen). Nothing came off the body- I'm really confused and frustrated! Any suggestions?
After adding him, he was stressed out, but not horridly. He went to the back corner of the tank and stayed there for a little (not hiding under rocks, etc.) I fed (as I noticed he had already started eating some pods). This piqued his interested, and after I was done feeding, he moved up into the water column as if looking for more food to eat. He slowly started to move around the tank, still high up in the water column, until he reached the overflow box. He tried to jump into it, but I had already anticipated this and put mesh on it so he couldn't. He flopped around for a second on it, fell back into the tank and immediately darted for a cave in the tank.
The first day he started to burrow inside the cave (very little burrowing- not even close to what my first yellowhead did), and ate a little. For whatever reason, things have gone downhill from then. He stopped what little burrowing he had done on the third day and only would stick his head out of the right side opening of the cave, with slightly labored breathing. I asked Fenner on WWM and he said it was most likely due to the extreme shipping stress. Well, for whatever reason, things have gotten worse as opposed to better. His breathing has gotten much faster now, and he is starting to lose his appetite. His body is clean of any problems, and he hasn't been scratching. The main symptoms are labored breathing, inactivity and loss of appetite- in other words, it could literally be anything. Normally I would move him to a QT tank, but I'm sure that the stress from that would do him in and I have no idea what I could do differently.
Could this have been from stressful shipping? He's the only fish in the tank, so I know he isn't getting bullied. Additionally, my water quality is good enough for SPS corals so I know that isn't the problem. He also has a 3" depth substrate with crushed corals, fine sand and everything. I feel so awful watching him go downhill and not having a clue what I could do. I even fed today and he didn't eat at all - his interest was piqued a little but he just couldn't muster up enough to grab the food and was intimidated by even my cleaner shrimp. Yesterday he ate some, but not as readily as earlier. Could it be flukes? He's not showing any other symptoms (no shaking, no discoloration, no fraying, no cloudy eyes), however, and Scott Michael says that yellowheads are particularly resistant to ailments. It's sort of morbid, but I had frozen the dead body of the one that was shipped along with him, and just dethawed it and dipped it in freshwater to see if anything would come off (I've heard that flukes will still come off even after being frozen). Nothing came off the body- I'm really confused and frustrated! Any suggestions?
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