RIP blue spotted jawfish

[44santababy]

I just lost him out of NOWHERE!! I will never own another one. He was unhappy since the day i added him. Tried jumping every night but my mesh cover stopped his suicide attempts. He lasted 2 months only in my tank from DD. Please leave this species in the sea!

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I kept them myself and they are doing very good in my tank one of them is like 3 years here already. He used to quarrel with the newer mystery that the original owner told me was a BAD BAD serial killer(in fact he put up a thread about this mystery wrasse) but they are all OK and they are no longer chasing each other. The tank is only a 20G refugium.

So I assume you may have something in your tank that startle him. Do you have sand & rubble mix(cannot be just sand) that he can build a burrow? If not, you can use a 1.25"-1.5" PVC 4-5 inches long section vertically or at an angle, push it into the sand and leave like an inch out. Jawfish and dottybacks will dig the rest and make it a house for themselves.

 

[44santababy]

he was never picked on, but i did notice he was never comfortable. He had burrows all over the tank, under rock, under a clam, under a plate coral. I think i starved him and that will NEVER happen again. Every night he tried jumping and was always scared shitless after he didn't succeed. Truthfully my tank was to BUSY for him. Never again.

 

[prattreef]

They have a very mixed success rate in captivity and are notorious jumpers. Not impossible to keep, but not easy by any means.

 

[JonnyJ]

I had the same experience with my blue spot jaw. He would continuously attempt to jump out overnight and in the morning. He would literally surface and swim around the top with his head out of the water looking for an escape route for days on end.

He was an aggressive eater that would always later spit/regurgitate his stomach contents. Was really strange.

My cover was 1/4 mesh. One day while removing the cover i snagged it and ripped one hole. It made one of the squares a double square.The next day he was on the floor.

Amazing.

 

[NewfiDog]

If you still want a jawfish try the yellow head.

 

[bklynreef]

I have two blue spotted jawfish and they're doing great for over a few months now. They hate each other but there's a fine medium there. I have a 3 or so inch sand bed. These guys are made for burrowing and that's what they do all day in various spots. I think the just need a lot of space, they are extremely territorial and don't like fish in general swimming around their hole. In experience it's been the tile fish that have jumped in to my overflow boxes to their death. Very skittish fish.

 

[knutez24]

Same tank as the skeletor eel? Cuz with that eel swimming around at night there would be a pretty good reason for the jawfish to try to jump nightly

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Most eels hunts at night. The only eel I can think of that won't try to hunt him is the garden eel. Even snowflake eel and an adult engineering goby love to hunt small animals in a burrow or crevice. So do watch out for those if you have them.

 

[44santababy]

this had nothing to do with the eel, my eel strictly stays within the rocks. BUT, i'm sure it didn't help. BSJ need a tank with little activity, mine had too much going on. I thought i could make it work, it didn't! This was my first TRUE loss to my tank...little upset. Only good thing is my NEW GF thinks i'm the biggest softie now cause she was with me when i discovered him in my RBTA!! Some tears did stroll down when i whacked him to end the suffering.

 

[44santababy]

another thing, my eel doesn't eat fish. Doesnt even have teeth, his jaws are designed to crush shells of inverts. Just fed him shrimp today. My yellow tang tail whips his head all the time and the eel runs behind the rocks.

 

[skene]

ok so where are the pictures of your eel...? or are your posts a facade?
All fish have teeth, just cause you can't see them does not mean that they aren't there.

 

[knutez24]

another thing, my eel doesn't eat fish. Doesnt even have teeth, his jaws are designed to crush shells of inverts. Just fed him shrimp today. My yellow tang tail whips his head all the time and the eel runs behind the rocks.

I was just refering to previous posts you have on here stating how active your eel is at night and not during the day... as most are. I'm sure the tiny jawfish isn't thinking of whether or not the eel has teeth designed to eat him or not. Just my 2 cents on why it was jumping so much at night.

If you found it in a RBTA that's a whole different story...

 

[44santababy]

i understand, but the BSJ was jumping way before the eel was even in the system. The eel was my last occupant due to not overstocking.

 

[Reef Reaper]

I have the same problem with bluespotted jawfishes. I tried many times, but will not try anymore! I have tiger jawfishes and pearly jawfishes and they rarely go carpet surfing. I just got a bullseye jawfish. Very nice and different, but as for blue spotted. No more fish jerky for me!!