Yellowhead Jawfish

T

Tinyfish

Membership Expired
I got a yellowhead jawfish 9/13/09 and I have not seen it eat. It seems a very timid fish that just hides in its den. This is the first jawfish I have had so I only know what I read about them.

The only other fish in there is a masked gobi that can fit inside a piece of macaroni.

I have tried mysis, flakes, and pellets. I had hoped it would eat the food as it passed by its den. Is there something special I should try? Maybe it needs more time to acclimate.
 
This fish is in the 20 and the sandbed is only 1" but I added some small reef rock around its burrow. The jawfish is now eating flakes and mysis that drift close to its burrow and I guess it is doing fine.

20gOct32009002.jpg
alt="">
 
Jawfish normally need a deep sandbed of min 5". If yours is doing alright with a shallower bed and just adding rubble to help him secure his den just keep an eye out for how he handles things as he grows more. Jawfish can grow to mature @ about 5" and in his burrow making can cause rocks set on the surface of sand bed to sink and crush him. Most people set there rockwork on some sort of under the sand support with pvc, or dry rock to make sure there display doesn't crash so you should be fine. Jawfish are also prone to jumping out of a tank if they are unhappy or uncomfortable. If he's already established a den then you know it'll be okay.

In the past my jawfish have been fine on frozen mysis, but they do require a bit of time to adjust and acclimate and build there dens.

GL with yours!
 
Jawfish must be comfortable. It will come all the way out and go halfway across the tank after food even with me standing there. I will try to get a new picture.
 
Um oh no :(. Overflows? Sump? I recently lost one of my 3 jaws because I got distracted and didn't top the tank after feeding time. I was crying all night. Actually I haven't gotten over it yet anyhow. Could anything else in the tank gotten it? Hope you find it. My cats didn't eat mine, just played with it from what I saw. It had alot of carpet lint.
 
I purchased another of these fish. Currently it lives alone in a 20g tank. I am unsure what other fish to get for him. It stays in its burrow all the time only partially coming out to feed.
 
Add some nickel size rubble to help it build a better den. I added 2 pounds of rubble for my jaw fish and it helped him be a lot more confident when eating.
 
I added a blue/green chromis and a firefish. It is amazing that just the addition of these fish has changed the behavior in the jawfish. The jawfish will now come completely out of its burrow and look around. Sometimes it will try to chase off the chromis from hanging around.
 
Nice.

Jawfish are absolutely some of the funnest fish to watch when they're building or cleaning their burrow. Do you have any recent photos of the guy?
 
My jawfish is really looking good. It must be the meaty pellets I am feeding. I put them in so the fish gets at least two or three pellets per day right on its head.

I did add some rock rubble. The fish had incorporated it into its burrow system within one day.

I don't have a refugium on this small tank but I have a chaeto ball on one side that takes up a third of the tank. I am wondering how far back to trim this macro.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top