Jawfish Woes....

[LarryB]

Here is my story. my 29 gallon has been set up for a year now and looks great, Marshall island live rock, Aqua C skimmer, CPR hang on the back refugium, CF lighting, and a 5 inch deep sand bed for my jawfish. The other inhabitants are a firefish and a mandarin that loves frozen mysids. Some small zoo's and polyps, and a few hermits and snails.
Back to the jawfish, he is a blue spot, a beautiful fish that I spent 135.00 on. He is the same "jumpin jawfish" that I posted a few weeks back who I found on the floor one morning. He seems no worse for wear for his trip to the carpet.
I was on a waiting list at Saltwater City for about 4 months before I got him. He has tunneled under all my live rock and lined them with pebbles in a form of aquascaping that I could never do, I love that part.
Here is the woe part. My mandarin spends his days happily searching for pods in the live rock, the fire fish sits contentedly facing the current flicking his doral fin. Very peaceful. Now the jawfish seems hell bent on escape. Now that he has finished all his tunnels he spends the entire day staring at the top of the tank, constantly serching for even the smallest hole. I can almost hear him thinking "boy if there were just a little more room right there I could probaly get out of here" I thought jawfish were supposed to be happy comical critters that would entertain me for hours. All he really does is try to escape. I swear he looks at me with comtempt. It really harshs my mellow if you know what I mean. You give and you give and you give to these fish and this is how they repay you? I should have got a watchman golby.
There, I feel better, thanks for listening.

 

[wrightme43]

You might have to tie a cement block to the fish. Just make a little harness and use a tiny caribiner to latch to a nice gold chain.

 

[lizardarm]

i know that re-aquascaping is not entirely fun, but you might consider some small amount of switching things around a bit. maybe digging new caves will divert his attention from making the 'great leap'.

 

[GregM779]

You should feel extremely lucky, most of the blue spots die from an unknown cause, possible internal parasite. Me and a friend both lost one each 2 months ago, and another friend of mine has tried a total of 12, all dieing.
How deep is your sand?

 

[LarryB]

My sand bed is about 5 inches. At least it used to be, now its all over the place. That is intersting about the internal parasite, I once saw him cough up something, I have no idea what it was. He looks great, but is a bit skinny, he eats a bit (frozen mysids, formula one, flake) but not as much as I would like. How long did you guys keep yours?