Jawfish and sand beds

[Anonymous]

Has anyone that keeps Jawfish had troubles with them interfering with a deep sand bed?

I am thinking about getting a few for my first reef and wondered about this. Are they easy to keep? Do they dig much or just a single tunnel that they stay with? Any insight into their keeping would be enjoyed and appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Matt

 

[Anonymous]

sorry to say that if you want your sandbed undisturbed, you will hace to leave the jawfish at the store. i have had yellow headed and pearly jawfish and always had a problem with them digging under large rocks and digging to the bottom of the tank. this will definately impede the purpose of the sandbed. the also have a very common tendency to jump out of the tank that is not covered. i have noticed this myself twice before i stopped purchasing these beautiful animals.
hope that this could help.
loosbrew

 

[Anonymous]

I have the Dusky Jawfish in my tank, and while he disturbs the substrate with his digging, his activity has remained localized. I consider O. whitehursti an excellent fish for a peaceful reef tank.
-Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Do the jawfish need a substrate with varying sized grains or can they make their burrows in fine sand?

Also how deep of a sand bed is acceptable?

 

[Anonymous]

I use orange spot jawfish to sift the sand. They do a superb job and you don't have to keep them in pairs. I have never had any problems with them toppling rocks or jumping out of the tank.I placed some fiberglass screen about two inches below the surface of a five inch sand bed. They will occasionally expose this but cannot go any deeper.

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http://www.xmission.com/~mikeb/heil.html

 

[Anonymous]

I got a jawfish last Friday and was enjoying his frolicking and animated behavior until he came up missing after a water change. Sadly, I discovered his partially eaten body behind a piece of rock. I have a yellow tang who appeared to harrass him a little and compete for food; a burrowing star; basket star; seahorse; blck spiny sea urchin; orange thorned star; 2 hermit crabs. I read they need to be fed 3 times a day? Could he have been underfed? Could the tang have been the culprit? What else might be the culprit I loved that little guy...

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Evets. The disturbance of the sand is very minimal and very localized. *IF* the proper building materials (rubble) are provided he will build his burrow and probably never leave it. He will just sit there with his head peaking out, waiting for food to drift by. (not from your sand bed)
jawfish like to use rubble to construct the frame of thier burrow( usually under a rock) then spit sand and and crushed coral (that they dig from the hole) around the frame. 4-6" substrate is needed.

 

[Anonymous]

hi,

You have gotten some pretty good answers here so far, but just wanted to add to this..

My fiance has a 10 gallon nano-reef with 3 yellowheads in it. They are quite fascinating. I would highly recomend them to anyone and everyone, simply for the enjoyment of watching their quirky behavior. Jawfish are very gregarious, and will live in small communities, and are seldom too "crowded" as they burrow and live in these burrows. They can be kept singly, or in groups, either way. They like a deep sand bed (on the order of 6"-8") that is varied in grain size. One of the most important things to give them is some reef rubble. Jenny (my finace) recently added a bag of small shells that we picked up in the keys last month..the jaw's love it. It gives them something to use to support their burrows. They drag the shells around the tank constantly and are always working to improve their homes. While the jaw's will definately cause some minor problems with a denitrifying sandbed, they are only minor problems. They tend to make a single hole to scoot into, not an extensive tunnel network like some gobies, so the lack of denitrification will be localized. Also, they are not sand "sifters" as they do not eat the microfauna that grows in the sand bed, prefering to simply "move" sand by the mouthful. They feed fairly regularly, and the 3 we have now are eating formula II, prime reef, and frozen brine. If you decide to go with a jawfish, you will have a very hardy fish, that is very resilient, and has very few problems with diseases. They are hardy, but beware, they dont like the company of wrasses, tangs, and other fast moving, daring, flashy fish... they will keep the jaw's stressed out and they will stay in their hole. The yellowheaded jawfish comes from the caribean, so collection is generally not a problem, and they are almost never the victim of cyanide poisioning.

sorry this is kinda jumbled up, I dont have lots of time to write it all up nicely, but wanted to give you all the info...

vigg aka goby.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks all. Just the kind of stuf I wanted to hear.