Hi,
Having had a yellow-headed jawfish (aka pearly jawfish), I would just want to urge a tiny bit of caution with this fish. They can be very nervous and tend to jump when unsettled. So two things are important with this fish: an enclosed canopy (at least for the first week or so until the fish has an established burrow where he can be happy), and two, a decent spot where he can create a burrow where he can see 360 degrees panorama around him. If he can't see 360 degrees around him, there is the possibility that he will remain a little stressed (these are very nervous fish).
I guess there is a third thing (I never said I could count real good, eh. My English is more better.
). They need a deep sand bed, the deeper, the better, and a steady supply of larger (ie., 1/2" to 1") sized chunks of rock or crushed coral, as they are
constantly "renovating" their burrow.
They're fantastic fish. I wish I still had mine, but, my tank setup was not 100% correct for him. As such he was constantly burrowing and tunneling under the rocks and there was the occasional topple. I think that's what did him in, unfortunately. One day he was just gone, never to be seen again.
BTW, consider against getting any kind of burrowing fish if you have a plenum. My sand bed looks to be about 3"-4" deep but in reality it's much less since I have a plenum (I set this tank up in the days when plenums were still in fashion...
). Burrowing down to the plenum is a sure-fire way to defeat the de-oxygenated areas in the sand bed (thus reducing, or perhaps even eliminating, a tanks ability to reduce nitrates). My tank had
constantly high nitrates when I had this fish, as he had indeed, burrowed down to the plenum. This is probably a moot point nowadays since hardly anyone has plenums anymore. But still worth mentioning.
If you have the right setup for them, they can be a fantastic addition to your setup. Good luck, with whatever you decide.
