Has anyone had good luck keeping Blue Spot Jawfish?

[tarpons]

I've tried 3 times in two different aquaria.

The first two times were in a 45 g bowfront with mixed aragonite fine & sugar-fine substrate to a depth of 3 - 4 in. There was a fridmanii pseudochromis in this tank on both attempts. The first time the fish borrowed constantly & ate frozen mysis well. After several months, it simply "disappeared". The second time the fish burrowed, but wasn't a vigorous eater. After a few weeks I found it in respiratory distress with it's right gill cover and gills ripped to peices. I euthanized it.

Figuring that the pseudochromis was my main problem, I decided to try this beautiful fish one more time. This time I put it as the first fish in a 60 g covered aquaria with a 3 - 5 inch sugar-fine sand bed that had been cycled with 90 lbs of live rock for 8 weeks before the fish was added and all water parameters were perfect. The fish chose a spot to burrow in the middle of my live rock that was difficult to view, but I could see sand being turned daily for a couple of weeks. I could not view the fish nor any feeding behavior. Now, it seems this fish has also perished as I no longer find any evidence of active burrowing in the aquaria.

As much as I'd love to maintain this beautiful fish, I am not willing to sacrifice another if they are impossible to keep. If I am doing something wrong, I'd appreciate advice from someone who is keeping them successfully.

Thanks,
Candy

 

[blue155]

I currently have two. One in a 24gallon nano cube and the other in a 12gallon nano cube. They are very hardy fish. They do dig quite a bit and will jump.

 

[jhemdal1]

Aside from some initial health problems that I attributed to handling issues, they are fairly hardy fish, but a high percentage jump out despite all precautions.

We have two right now - you'd think a 450 gallon would be big enough for them - but NO, they have to constantly evict each other from their burrows. It took us six to get these two - the other four bailed on us, despite proper covers (that would have kept a yellowhead jawfish in place).


Jay Hemdal

 

[Anonymous]

Funny thing is the live fairly close together in the wild

 

[jhemdal1]

Gresham,

Yep - and that's why I warn people to never over-extrapolate from non-captive data if they can possibly help it.

jh

 

[camaroracer214]

bsj's are horrible shippers and are often handled improperly. they also require colder waters, lower light, and deep sand beds with larger grain sand or at least some rubble to make their hole out of.

i tried one...and it got brooklynella and quickly died. i was very disappointed. it was doing great and built itself a nice little burrow out of rock rubble. it was eating well and looked healthy. i came home from school one day and it looked horrible. gills were covered in mucus and the skin was patchy all around. i also had to euthanize mine.

 

[Anonymous]

bsj's are horrible shippers and are often handled improperly. they also require colder waters, lower light, and deep sand beds with larger grain sand or at least some rubble to make their hole out of.

i tried one...and it got brooklynella and quickly died. i was very disappointed. it was doing great and built itself a nice little burrow out of rock rubble. it was eating well and looked healthy. i came home from school one day and it looked horrible. gills were covered in mucus and the skin was patchy all around. i also had to euthanize mine.

Cold waters? Low light? LOW LIGHT? Ever dive with them? Kindalotalightat 30' don'tchyahthink?

Sorry I've beg to differ on that part but I can attest to them being bad shippers *if* you don't know the tricks Having imported more then most will see in a lifetime our DOA/DAA averaged a whopping 1-2% on our worst days It's all in how the live, that's the secret to shipping them. The live in burrows, not open water so don't ship them like they are an open water fish. Hard containers often lead to loss of tail due to tail rub so something soft that allows water flow but impairs vision....yet still gives the feeling of being cozy as a sock. Ocean holding prior to exporting and knowing how to clean out the fish sorta helps as well, oh, and not driven across the boarder in a van destined for 104th st.

 

[clarionreef]

Longevity in captivity is historical fact already;
Scripps Aquarium, now Stephen Birch Aquarium had em so long they got to old to breed. For years they got a colony of em to the egg holding in the mouth stage but never got babies.

However, some old ones we collected for CICIMAR a marine science research group in La Paz, Mexico not only thrived, but bred true.
They chronicled the blessed event, grew em up to a full centimeter and ....and.........lost em all.
The story was disclosed in a Mexican fishery journal and at a conference in Vera Cruz a few years back. They grew em past the danger period and were feeding em well. The loss was all technical ie. a filtration oops...and one of the staff lost his job.
This original old stock grew big at CICIMAR ...and died after some 5 years in captivity. They bred after a year in holding and probably had passed their primes soon after they finally bred them. They bred often, yet just discovered how to raise the fry only once. That last time.


My long lost permit in the middle region of the Sea of Cortez, [ due to my pertners death] has just re-activated and we will once again fill them up with fresh broodstock.
As Gresham suggested, its not the fish, but the abyssmal handling by the amatuers of the recent collecting era in Baja.
Ruining their tails has killed thousands of em. They rub and whip them raw thru constant stress and exposure in transparent holding.
There is a wonderful way to avoid this and was never revealed to the ones who took over the scene after our time in Baja.

We will do it right again very soon.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

blue spot jaws are nearly bulletproof-any issues with them are due to user error

they're often one of the species we keep the longest (length of 'batch' time 'in house' and they ALWAYS have an unbelieveably low doa/daa, even long term

they ALWAYS eat like pigs within 48 hrs of tanking, and once settled, are quite the comical and boistrous critter

they should be kept with a very deep bed of mixed substrate-very fine sand will not enable a tunnel/burrow-these fish can engineer quite the long tunnel if the right type of stuff is around

i've never seen a jaw come in w/brook-brook is also easily diagnosable and just as easily treated

they do great at every temp i've seen them at-up to about 84°F

i fed 70 yesterday