3 jawfish on the way-here's my preparation

[salty joe]

Three pearly jaws will arrive tomorrow. Tank has a sugar fine aragonite DSB. I want them to live in an area that is in sight so I mixed in course gravel, rubble and small shells and fenced it in by gluing mesh to the bottom of tank. I'm going to sink these mesh tubes into the spot and release the jaws into the tubes. I'll put plates on top of the tubes in case the jaws get jumpy. Otherwise, I feel certain they will make a mad dash for the rocks and have a terrible time trying to dig a burrow in fine sand. Plus I might never see them again...

Hopefully, they settle in and I can ease the tubes out. We'll see. fingers crossed.

 

[Peach02]

goodluck. let us know how it goes

 

[salty joe]

Came home from work today and found one jawfish dead inside a tube, the other two are missing. Who knows, maybe the other two will show up someday. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Peach02]

Came home from work today and found one jawfish dead inside a tube, the other two are missing. Who knows, maybe the other two will show up someday. I'm not holding my breath.

I’m Sorry to hear that. Any idea what killed it?

 

[salty joe]

No, I just found it dead.

 

[Peach02]

No, I just found it dead.

did it have any marks on it injury wise?
how did you aclimate it?
did it eat?

 

[salty joe]

No marks on the body, his guts were intact. This morning, I saw one of the jaws hovering a few inches from the bottom and he looked good.
Yesterday, I released the three jaws, a couple stars, 3 urchins and a bunch of astrea in a bucket with 0.1 ml Prime. The salinity for all the bags was 35 ppt, the same as I keep my tank. The package weighed just under 8 lb. so I dosed for 1 gallon. It was a bit less than a gallon but Prime says you can safely up the dose. I floated the bucket for about 15 minutes then started adding tank water every 5 minutes. After a couple hours, there was about 3-4 times as much water as I started with. There were no signs of distress. Everything looked fine when I released them. The brittle star and sand sifting star disappeared but that's probably normal. It's a big tank with tons and tons of hiding places. I saw one of the urchins tonight and it looks fine. I have another urchin that I sometimes won't see for a few days at a time.

I offered a piece of earthworm last night but I don't think any of the jaws ate. I had a pearly jaw years ago that loved earthworms.

 

[Peach02]

okay the only other thing I could think that caused it is they were underweight when you got them and succumbed did they look underweight?

 

[salty joe]

No, they looked great.
I just found the sand sifting star dead. I wonder if my temp was too high. I had it at 81-82F, I just dropped it a degree. I've had banded Trochus snails breeding as well as a tuxedo urchin, peppermint shrimp, astrea snails and hermit crabs all summer at 81-82.
The box from Reeftopia had a small cooling pack but I didn't check the temp. I wish I'd at least stuck my hand in the water to see how cool it felt. Maybe thermal shock?
The new Astreas seem OK.

 

[Peach02]

S

No, they looked great.
I just found the sand sifting star dead. I wonder if my temp was too high. I had it at 81-82F, I just dropped it a degree. I've had banded Trochus snails breeding as well as a tuxedo urchin, peppermint shrimp, astrea snails and hermit crabs all summer at 81-82.
The box from Reeftopia had a small cooling pack but I didn't check the temp. I wish I'd at least stuck my hand in the water to see how cool it felt. Maybe thermal shock?
The new Astreas seem OK.

Seems a tiny bit on the high side to me but I kept my reef at 28 degrees Celsius for a while with not many problems until a bunch of coral died and that was one of the possible causes idk what happened to your jawfish tbh sorry

 

[motortrendz]

Thata temp is high. 77-78

 

[alton]

Large males will not get along. I had a friend who added three pair to a 210 and one of the males died very fast but the remaining two males and three females lasted for a long time until she took the tank down. I had two in a 40 gallon, one larger than the other. They got along fine until the one grew up and didn't want to leave its home the fight was on. I had to remove the one. I have had jawfish take up to three weeks before eating. It seems they had to build their home first before they would eat. If you put rubble in only one area, that is where they will build their home. The following picture is a pair I got from KP Aquatics. Enjoy your JF, they are fun to watch.

 

[salty joe]

Nice looking jawfish alton.
On a positive note, I just saw the sand sifting star sliding across the sand. I thought for sure it was dead last night and was upset and thought I'll get it out tomorrow.
I just dropped the temp another degree to 79-80.

 

[salty joe]

I have at least 1 living jawfish! It made a home not where I intended but in a great viewing spot. I can hardly believe it.
I think the one died trying to dig out of the tube. The other two managed to dig their way out. I feel bad but I thought they would dig their home, not feel trapped. Tubes were a bad move, what can I say...