Yellow head jaw fish trouble.

[lionfaceman]

Hey everyone I am having problems with my jaw fish digging under my rocks that are my man support for the rest of my rock. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to keep him from doing that. I'm just wait to hear a crash bang boom and coming down stairs to find out that he collapsed my rock and broke the tank. Please help. Thanks.

[gobytron]

your jawfish is trying to build a home for itself.

your best bet is to make one for it that is so ideal it will not want another.

try building a cave out of rocks and covering it with substrate...
most jawfish want to be able to have their entire bodies covered by thei hiding place, so this requires that the vertical height of the cave is as at least as high as your jawfish is long.

your jawfish will not stop as until it has a habitat, it will be very stressed out, and panicky....

[BlueWorldAquatic]

That's one of the difficulties of jawfish and other diggers.

He may now abandon it as unstable.

Let him pick his spot, which he will do because of flow, and try to figure out how to let him have his spot and rebuild your reef.

The benefit is that after he has settled, he will probably keep his burrow, but he may wreak havoc while he is creating it.

Ken - BWA

[MrsBugmaster]

My experience with jawfish is that they will continue to burrow tunnels all over your aquarium and use multiply homes at different times. The best solution I have found is to make sure your rock in sitting firmly right on the glass bottem of the tank. Then put the sand around the rocks. This way the jawfish will not be able to cause the rock to fall over. Make sure you have lots of little pieces of rock rubble around the base of the rock for the jawfish to use.

[gobytron]

I think if your jawfish is continuously moving and making new homes it is due to there not being adequate substrate or building materials for it to make one that it feels safe in.

[Myka]

Your rock should be placed on the glass of the aquarium, and be able to support itself. It that is not the case you could do one of there things:

- Redo your aquascaping.
- Make the Jawfish an artificial home.
- Remove the Jawfish.

Jawfish aren't the only fish that will dig, so it is wise to design your rock to be self-supporting without the need of sand to support it. The best way to keep the Jawfish in one spot is to give him an area near a stable rock that has at least 3-4" of sand and bits of rubble, crushed coral, and shell bits. Dig a little indent where you want him to go, and place him in the indent (best done when first introduced to the tank). If you do a good job picking the spot and making it suitable, 9 times out of 10 he will stay there "forever". If your Jawfish is moving around from hole to hole that means he can't find something suitable, and would be stressed because of this. Jawfish are easily stressed which makes them prone to jumping and disease.

Another thing you can do is take the domed plastic top of a slurpie cup (the one with the 1" hole in the top), and silicone a bunch of rubble bits and sand onto it so it is disguised. Once it has dried for a couple days you can place it in the sand pushing it right down to the glass close to your rocks, and introduce your Jawfish to it. It needs to kind of be tucked away near the rocks or the Jawfish will not like it. If it is pushed all the way down to the glass he won't be able to get out the bottom of it, and will keep his digging to the slurpie top.

Last but not least, if you can't provide a suitable home for the Jawfish you should find a new home for him. Jawfish need a certain type of setup, and if you can't provide them with a comfortable place they will die or carpet surf and die. They won't just get used to it.

[gobytron]

Another thing you can do is take the domed plastic top of a slurpie cup (the one with the 1" hole in the top), and silicone a bunch of rubble bits and sand onto it so it is disguised. Once it has dried for a couple days you can place it in the sand pushing it right down to the glass close to your rocks, and introduce your Jawfish to it. It needs to kind of be tucked away near the rocks or the Jawfish will not like it. If it is pushed all the way down to the glass he won't be able to get out the bottom of it, and will keep his digging to the slurpie top.

Nice 1.
:idea:

Am going to make one of these this weekend.
any concern for the "sharp" edge of the plastic slurpee cup hole?

[ALang]

I have had many encounters with these beautiful fish. I read somewhere about this tip, which I have used with great success. But the slurpie top sounds even better!
Build a little rubble-pile around the back of your rock-work, be sure that it has a variety of sizes of rocks, empty shells, and a few flat pieces laying flat on top of the sand, which the fish may use for the "roof" of the cave. Then I use a large mouthed bottle with the bottom cut off (Mott's Clamato Juice), and I shove it around said rubble-pile. (Of course you will have to re-scape your decor later to accommodate the new set-up).
Then I use a tube of clear up-lift pipe to fit around the mouth of the bottle. After acclimating the fish, gently pour it down the tube (that way, other fish will not bother it on its decent, causing it to jump out of the tank). You may have to be ready to keep pouring sw down the tube to help get the fish into the bottle. Leave it alone for a few days. It will build its cave in peace. Be sure to feed it in the meantime. Mine took to mysis right away.
Jawfish is great to watch, as it will pull a piece of shell over the top of its cave to "seal" the entrance when it wants to be left alone, or for a nap, after feeding time.
I usually do my re-scaping them, so as not to spook it. Do place a few large rocks around its new cave to further help it to feel secure. It will usually build a few more caves on its own later on as it feels more confident. HTH.:wink:

[noirsphynx]

Good idea with the slurpee cup lid! You could also try a jawfish house (http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=172053). This is what I want to build.

[lionfaceman]

I love this site. Thx everyone for your input. What kind of silicone did you use. And a slurpee lid hey that's a good idea concerns of sharp edges though

[gobytron]

Good idea with the slurpee cup lid! You could also try a jawfish house (http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=172053). This is what I want to build.

just make sure to read that thread all the way through..post 180 has some contradictory comments that I found very interesting when I initially read that thread some time ago and also why I recommend trying a natural setup before anything else.

I think the slurpee cup lid could offer the best of both worlds, other than i would be concerned about the sharp edge of the plastic...I know I have cut my finger straw fishing before...lol

Probably easy to just silicone the substrate right over the edges though.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=172053&st=160

[Myka]

When I have made the Slurpee lid houses I have used enough silicone that the edge is covered. I have also simply "buttered" the lid with silicone and rolled it in dry aragonite sand. I always use aquarium silicone. You can find large plastic barnacles in LFSs sometimes too which fit over the hole for a nice natural-ish look, and are usually cheap. If you use a barnacle, glue it on first and then glue the sand and rubble on around it.

I have taken a jigsaw to these barnacles making a bunch of Jawfish "doors":
http://s.petco.com/Assets/product_images/7/763926021107C.jpg

[gobytron]

exerpt from post 180 in the aforemetioned thread...

I also noticed that in the first video clip with the Jawfish living in the barnacle covered PVC condo that the fish was moving very gingerly when trying to grab at passing food. To me it looked as if the jawfish could easily receive a cut to it’s body trying to enter that barnacle at the normal lightning speed they usually maneuver in and out of their natural constructed homes. That jawfish seemed very uneasy and on one attempt completely missed the barnacle entrance to his man-made PVC home. Viewing this made me feel sorry for the poor jawfish.


just some extra food for thought about this.