Yellowheaded Jawfish
- Thread starter d9sccr
- Start date
Yes, I have reared jawfish, the yellowhead jawfish, Opistognathus aurifrons, from the Keys reefs. This was back in the 70's but I'm going to attempt it again soon, I hope. I now have a colony of 6, collected them on Memorial Day, and they are now settling into the tank regime. The substrate in the tank is setup in two sections, one about 8 inches deep and the other about 5 inches deep. There are many small rocks, some larger, on top of and throughout the sand bed. One thing I did was to cut 3/4 inch pvc pipe along a long edge and then embed it along the glass so that it is possible to see inside the burrow, a bit of black plastic taped on the outside of the glass provides a window into the burrow, perhaps I'll be able to record the spawning and hatching process if all goes well. I feed them shaved shrimp, an adequate substitute for their normal planktonic food. I can't distinquish sexes yet, it's possible that the females are a bit plumper than the males... it's still vague. I expect spawning within a month or two. I'll capture the larvae after the male hatches them, a lot easier than trying to recover and incubate the egg mass. I'll rear them in a separate 30 to 50 gallon tank and probably use wild plankton, at least for the first rearing attempts. When I did it before, the larvae were not difficult to rear and when the post larvae reached about a half to three quarters of inch in length they began to dig small burrows in the corners of the growout tanks. They are really exceptionally beautiful and interesting fish. The male puts on a bright blue cast and hovers over the colony flaring his gills and shaking his body to attract the females. I have no idea how to post a photo here, but sometime later if I can, I'll do so.
Martin
Martin
FishGuttz
New member
Martin,
Thanks for posting, I will closely follow any future log of this breeding attempt as I plan on breeding blue dot jawfish, or at least fully researching potential?
What size tank are you using? Do you think it is possible to breed the blue spots? Do I need six in one tank, as you called a "colony"?
Good luck.
-Doug
Thanks for posting, I will closely follow any future log of this breeding attempt as I plan on breeding blue dot jawfish, or at least fully researching potential?
What size tank are you using? Do you think it is possible to breed the blue spots? Do I need six in one tank, as you called a "colony"?
Good luck.
-Doug
Doug, MP, After a few "dry" years, I'm finally getting my culture lab set up here in the Keys. I'll do an article on it one of these days, but it's set up mainly to develop the techniques for pilot scale culture of Diadema urchins as part of a reef restoration project. But on the side, of course, I have to play with some Atlantic species of tropical marine fish. The insided culture lab is made of about 25 tanks ranging in size from 8 to 150 gallons. The jaw fish are in a 150 gallon tank (one of the Diadema brood stock tanks). I'm sure (as sure as one can be without ever having done it) that the blue dot jawfish can be reared. Perhaps after I have worked with the yellow heads for awhile, I'll try them. I think a compatable pair could be housed in a smaller tank, one with a lot of substrate, but I think a 30 is about as small as I would go with them.
Oh yeah, if you can do one, you can do many....
Martin
Oh yeah, if you can do one, you can do many....
Martin
I have a pair of blue Bar Jawfish. The tank for the pair measures 60x30x35 cm with water volume of 57L. I put 4-5 cm thick of coral sand (4-5 mm size) at the bottom. Recently they start spawning. They spawned two times yet. The interval between the two spawnings was 14 days. My problem is that the male has kept the egg mass only a day and three days.
Glad to comment every once in a while. This old fish breeder is very happy to see so much more activity in this field. I can learn a great deal from new breeders, there's always a better way and keener observations. One thing I've found is that Information shared always comes back in some way to help you out when you need it. Maybe some day we'll catch up to the fresh water breeders, however I doubt that I'll live that long....
On the colony thing, many small substrate living fishes have a conflict going on between spacial territorality and reproductive territorality (pairs and harems) and community living (colonies). Usually the environment is large enough to accomodate this conflict, the excluded fish just moves a little way away, just outside the dominant fish's or pair's territory. Unfortunately aquariums are seldom large enough to allow this sort of spread so we are usually restricted to the territorial limits of the pair or a small colony. Thus we tend not to have much experience with the conlonial aspect of behavior in these fishes. In jawfish, the colony can spread out over a fairly large area, maybe from an area the size of a tennis court or as small as a pool table, depending on the size of the sandy, rocky area between the reef formations.
There is also a reason for choosing 6 fish to make up a colony or find a pair among fish with less then definite sexual dimorphism. Stastically, 6 fish is the smallest number that will assure one of obtaining a male and female. In my case I think, based on the abdomen "plumpness" and behavior (I'll take another look at head sizes and jaw development) that I have three males, two adult females and one juvenile, probably female. There is correspondance between Bandeng's photos and the morphologhy of my yellowheads. There is a lot of behavioral interaction, taking over different burrow, posturing, etc. It may be that my tank is too small for 6, but things will get sorted out soon. The little one is at the very edge of the colony. Since they are adults and are interacting, I think I'll get spawning in at least a month or so. I did see a male with eggs when they were collected so I think environmentally and seasonally spawning can happen.
Luis, we were lucky last year, only Wilma caused us some grief. I think we'll be OK as long as we don't get a direct hit from a big one.
Martin
On the colony thing, many small substrate living fishes have a conflict going on between spacial territorality and reproductive territorality (pairs and harems) and community living (colonies). Usually the environment is large enough to accomodate this conflict, the excluded fish just moves a little way away, just outside the dominant fish's or pair's territory. Unfortunately aquariums are seldom large enough to allow this sort of spread so we are usually restricted to the territorial limits of the pair or a small colony. Thus we tend not to have much experience with the conlonial aspect of behavior in these fishes. In jawfish, the colony can spread out over a fairly large area, maybe from an area the size of a tennis court or as small as a pool table, depending on the size of the sandy, rocky area between the reef formations.
There is also a reason for choosing 6 fish to make up a colony or find a pair among fish with less then definite sexual dimorphism. Stastically, 6 fish is the smallest number that will assure one of obtaining a male and female. In my case I think, based on the abdomen "plumpness" and behavior (I'll take another look at head sizes and jaw development) that I have three males, two adult females and one juvenile, probably female. There is correspondance between Bandeng's photos and the morphologhy of my yellowheads. There is a lot of behavioral interaction, taking over different burrow, posturing, etc. It may be that my tank is too small for 6, but things will get sorted out soon. The little one is at the very edge of the colony. Since they are adults and are interacting, I think I'll get spawning in at least a month or so. I did see a male with eggs when they were collected so I think environmentally and seasonally spawning can happen.
Luis, we were lucky last year, only Wilma caused us some grief. I think we'll be OK as long as we don't get a direct hit from a big one.
Martin
Jens Kallmeyer
New member
HI
Currently one of my 3 yellowheads is holding eggs again, tonight I will try to figure out which of the other two is the female.
They did several breedings before, but the eggs were gone after a max of 4 days. How long do these fishes keep the eggs before the larvae hatch?
I digged through the internet but could not find any informations.
If anyone of you (Martin??) has some experiences, please let me know, I would love to give it a try.
Best wishes
Jens
Currently one of my 3 yellowheads is holding eggs again, tonight I will try to figure out which of the other two is the female.
They did several breedings before, but the eggs were gone after a max of 4 days. How long do these fishes keep the eggs before the larvae hatch?
I digged through the internet but could not find any informations.
If anyone of you (Martin??) has some experiences, please let me know, I would love to give it a try.
Best wishes
Jens
Jens, as far as I can remember, the male held the eggs for 6 or 7 days before hatch. It is not uncommon for the first few spawns under a male's care to be lost. Evidently, he needs a little experience under his belt before he really know what to do.
Luis, Wilma did hit us fairly had, the wind wasn't too bad but we did get a 5 foot storm surge. The water came up to tippy top of the door step into the lab and then began to recede. The yard was a mess though, it took me weeks to get cleaned up.
Martin
Luis, Wilma did hit us fairly had, the wind wasn't too bad but we did get a 5 foot storm surge. The water came up to tippy top of the door step into the lab and then began to recede. The yard was a mess though, it took me weeks to get cleaned up.
Martin
David M
New member
Doug, the answer to these questions and many, many more can be found in Martin's book Breeding the Orchid Dottyback 
Do your part & buy a copy, then Martin can write one on jawfish 
Personally I'm gonna let him tell us how to do it and then put all my money into Bluespots :smokin:
Do your part & buy a copy, then Martin can write one on jawfish Personally I'm gonna let him tell us how to do it and then put all my money into Bluespots :smokin:
Thank you Kathy and Martin. So the male is just learning how to care their eggs. Then, I will be patient for the mean time. As Martin said my sexing the pair was "based on the abdomen plumpness". The abdomen of the female deflated when I found the male's mouth was half open to carry the eggs.
Jens, according to "Basslets, Dottybacks & Hawkfishes" by S.W.Michael, "The eggs hatch in 7 to 9 days at a temperature of 25 to 26C."
Bandeng
Jens, according to "Basslets, Dottybacks & Hawkfishes" by S.W.Michael, "The eggs hatch in 7 to 9 days at a temperature of 25 to 26C."
Bandeng
mwp
In Memoriam
Only if I don't beat you to it David...they've been on my wishlist for a while now - just can't find a vendor willing to even TRY to pair them up, let alone get a mated pair from a collector or anything like that. Don't have the cash (and current clearance) even through they're currently on sale for $129 or so at The Marine Center. Maybe next winter if they come around in good numbers again.
As far as Martin spilling secrets, not sure he really needs to - http://www.breedersregistry.org/oaurifrons.htm
MP
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