How to get jawfish to pair up?

[Perpetual Novice]

I have a single pearly jawfish that has been doing well for several months now. It lives in a frag rack that I buried in the sand which it has dugout underneath. There are several holes to poke in and out of, and presumably a lot of space underneath (I have a deep sandbed and its a large frag rack). I think it would be really cool to get a second pearly jawfish to pair up or at least share the burrow. How do I go about this? Does it have to be a male-female mated pair for them to share the burrow?

 

[Dragon52]

Following

 

[Zoaologist]

Not sure on how to get them to pair but I have seen some pairs on live Aquarias divers den.

 

[pcon]

I have only had luck by placing a group into a medium large tank for a few days to a week and separating out belligerents and pairs.

 

[mort]

Even pairs like their own separate burrows, although I have seen them switch burrows with each other. They live in groups together naturally but like enough space to get away from each other if possible. I think about 2ft square was the rough territory of a pair.

As to pairing, you need to find out what you already have as you are unlikely to get 2 males coexisting close together (more an educated guess than fact) but two females might be ok. I had a trio in a 4x2x2ft and they all lived together but it was 2 females and 1 male. One female was the spare wheel but happily tolerated.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Even pairs like their own separate burrows, although I have seen them switch burrows with each other. They live in groups together naturally but like enough space to get away from each other if possible. I think about 2ft square was the rough territory of a pair.

As to pairing, you need to find out what you already have as you are unlikely to get 2 males coexisting close together (more an educated guess than fact) but two females might be ok. I had a trio in a 4x2x2ft and they all lived together but it was 2 females and 1 male. One female was the spare wheel but happily tolerated.

What do I do if my jawfish is always switching his home anyway? Usually, it prefers to live under the frag rack but there are two other burrows in the tank that it occasionally occupies for a day or two.

 

[mort]

That's normal behaviour from my experience. A network of tunnels is the sign of a settled jawfish.

 

[Onewolf]

I would play lots of Barry White and Luther Vandross to get them in the mood to 'pair'.

 

[KrisReef]

If your fish is happy there is really nothing to suggest that adding one more will make the one you have or the new one happier.

Double that if you have to play Barry White to get them in the mood for each other.

If your current situation includes multiple burrows with no competition that situation is pretty sweet for a single fish.

I've been married for 30 years and this week my wife is off by herself on a cruise. So maybe I'm just projecting but the jawfish I've observed in the wild were often alone in their own hole. They get a lot bigger in the wild than I've seen in captive tanks.