Is my Bluespot Jawfish dead? No body but nutrient spike

dimitrinivo

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Hey guys, I think my bluespot jawfish passed this week but i dont know for sure. He was eating well and doing fine up until a week ago, then he disappeared. he didn't jump as my tank is well sealed and i havent seen him since. I'm not going to go looking for him, but i tested my parameters and saw my nitrate jump from 5 to 20 days after he went missing and my phosphate jump from 0.03 to 5.0! thats quite a jump!

I replaced my phosguard and purigen and got the nitrates down to 10 and phosphates to 0.1, my theory is that the jawfish died causing the huge spike in phosphate and nitrate as my tank isn't stocked enough to raise phosphate that much and that fast.

I fear the worst, he was my favorite fish for the month that i had him, i wont be getting another one as this was my second attempt (first one jumped out before i sealed the tank). I'll be replacing him with either a yellowhead jawfish, mandarin dragonet or a royal gramma.

Let me know what you guys think, is he dead? my gut says most probably. (he was eating like a pig and would always come out for food, him being absent at feeding time was a huge red flag)
 

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Double check sump and floor around tank. Even with tight seal, they manage to find an outlet. They generally always come out for feeding
 
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dimitrinivo

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Double check sump and floor around tank. Even with tight seal, they manage to find an outlet. They generally always come out for feeding
I dont have a sump, but quadruple checked the floor, he did not jump out and he's not been seen for 7 days. he's probs dead :(
 

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Double check sump and floor around tank. Even with tight seal, they manage to find an outlet. They generally always come out for feeding
My orchid dottyback disappeared for ten days and didn't come out for feeding once. It then reappeared a few days ago, looking none the worse for wear. And this was in an Evo! I still can't figure out where it went, unless it was trapped in a burrow made by my diamond goby.
 
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dimitrinivo

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Im convinced he's dead, mostly because of the phosphate spike, I don't know what else could explain that massive spike
 

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Im convinced he's dead, mostly because of the phosphate spike, I don't know what else could explain that massive spike
plenty of things could explain the po4 spike....

but going to back to the bsjf,
i don’t know why they keep collecting these things? (rhetorical)
i’ve never heard of anyone keeping one long term.

somethings should just be left in the ocean...
 
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dimitrinivo

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plenty of things could explain the po4 spike....

but going to back to the bsjf,
i don’t know why they keep collecting these things? (rhetorical)
i’ve never heard of anyone keeping one long term.

somethings should just be left in the ocean...
Yeah I won't try them again unless I setup a temperate tank in the future.
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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plenty of things could explain the po4 spike....

but going to back to the bsjf,
i don’t know why they keep collecting these things? (rhetorical)
i’ve never heard of anyone keeping one long term.

somethings should just be left in the ocean...
What do you think caused the po4 spike? I fed the same amount as usual
 

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Gosh, I’ve had some bad luck with BSJF. We’ve had 2 and each time they Free Willy’ed out of the tank and we would find them the next day on the floor dried out. (One was like 15ft away from the tank on the opposite side of the room. No idea how that happened) terrible luck with them, and no idea how to keep them happy and not wanting to jump.

maybe yours jumped out too??
 
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dimitrinivo

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Gosh, I’ve had some bad luck with BSJF. We’ve had 2 and each time they Free Willy’ed out of the tank and we would find them the next day on the floor dried out. (One was like 15ft away from the tank on the opposite side of the room. No idea how that happened) terrible luck with them, and no idea how to keep them happy and not wanting to jump.

maybe yours jumped out too??
Very unlikely, after my first one jumped I made a custom lid that fits like a glove, I consider it escape proof for any fish over half an inch.
 

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I just got my BSJF a few days ago. I kind of knew what I was getting myself into. If he does not do well I will not be getting another one. I'll get a yellow head instead.

Has anyone ever done well with a BS jawfish? I read most threads and most are because the BSJF did not do well.

How can I tell if he's doing well? He's currently eating like a pig and build lots of tunnels around the large rock i place him next to. Also a made a small pvc tube home for him which he went in almost instantly.
 

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How big is the tank? Doesn't really pass the common sense test that a single small fish would have anywhere close to that magnitude of impact on either nitrate or phosphate unless the tank is really tiny. A month isn't nearly long enough to proclaim success with as tricky a fish as the bluespot unfortunately. Always possible it's back there ..... but unlikely.
 
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dimitrinivo

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I'm certain it's dead, the tank is 40 gallons and I haven't seen him in over a month. Not many places he could've gone either. He was eating like a piggy and tunneling until he disappeared so I wouldn't use those as a benchmark in successful bsjf keeping. This is an advanced fish and I won't be trying another one until I setup a temperate tank.
 

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I'm certain it's dead, the tank is 40 gallons and I haven't seen him in over a month. Not many places he could've gone either. He was eating like a piggy and tunneling until he disappeared so I wouldn't use those as a benchmark in successful bsjf keeping. This is an advanced fish and I won't be trying another one until I setup a temperate tank.
40G is not that big and you have not see a body?? That’s really weird!
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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40G is not that big and you have not see a body?? That’s really weird!
My guess is he died In one of his caves and got decomposed by my cleanup crew pretty fast. I know he definitely didn't jump, tank is escape proof
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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However in most tanks, they will jump, make sure they are well sealed. If they don't jump they might die from stress in tropical tanks, it's clear to me now that they truly belong in temperate tanks, same with seahorses.
 

Tchung23

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However in most tanks, they will jump, make sure they are well sealed. If they don't jump they might die from stress in tropical tanks, it's clear to me now that they truly belong in temperate tanks, same with seahorses.
What temp do you have your tank??
 
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dimitrinivo

dimitrinivo

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77 farenheit, that's on the colder side for a reef but on the very warm side of the waters around the sea of cortez where bsjf are caught, the water there is usually in the 60's and low 70's, rarely at the high to mid 70's, only in the warmest months
 

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