Isolated deep sandbed for jawfish

[SixlineRyan]

I'm in the planning stages of my next (larger) tank. I don't intend to keep a deep sandbed, but I would like to keep a jawfish, and wondering two things.

1.) Anyone have any experience isolating a deep sandbed? If so, what did you use / how did you do it?

2.) Would the jawfish naturally find that deep part of the sandbed or would I need to section off the tank until it made it's burrow there?

It's somewhat common in planted freshwater tanks to isolate a section of the tank for aquasoil so that's my starting point for the idea. I thought about a large diameter PVC ring that I would disguise with rock and fill with sand, but...?

Any feedback / advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Biokabe]

You don't need that deep of a sandbed for a jawfish. 2-3" is plenty for their purposes. If you're planning on going bare bottom other than a section for the jawfish... it's possible, but it is a little more difficult compared to freshwater because reef tanks tend to run much higher flow, which tends to defeat any attempts to keep sand isolated strictly to one area.

As far as the jawfish finding it... well, they tend to do what they want to do, which is usually suicide. You can prep what you think is the perfect spot for them, only for them to decide that the middle of the back of the tank is the perfect spot, especially if the currents in your tank never bring food to that spot.

My snarkiness towards jawfish aside, I have seen some people have luck with pre-building a burrow for jawfish (usually out of a combination of PVC, superglue and old snail shells) and dumping the jawfish directly into the burrow.

 

[SixlineRyan]

You don't need that deep of a sandbed for a jawfish. 2-3" is plenty for their purposes. If you're planning on going bare bottom other than a section for the jawfish... it's possible, but it is a little more difficult compared to freshwater because reef tanks tend to run much higher flow, which tends to defeat any attempts to keep sand isolated strictly to one area.

As far as the jawfish finding it... well, they tend to do what they want to do, which is usually suicide. You can prep what you think is the perfect spot for them, only for them to decide that the middle of the back of the tank is the perfect spot, especially if the currents in your tank never bring food to that spot.

My snarkiness towards jawfish aside, I have seen some people have luck with pre-building a burrow for jawfish (usually out of a combination of PVC, superglue and old snail shells) and dumping the jawfish directly into the burrow.

Appreciate the info! I've seen varying things online about the depth so i wasn't sure. Figured I'd have roughly a 2" sand bed for aesthetics, but would wall off a section for a deeper burrow, but if that's not necessary, I'm happy to not worry about it, heh.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

They are very curious fish IME, they move around and try a few different spots before they settle on one spot, IME they will reorganize the sand in a way that suits them.