Substrate for Jawfish

[hawker]

I'm going to be setting up a 24 Aquapod and I was thinking of starting with a Jawfish. I have been trying to decide what the best substrate would be so that it can build a proper burrow. I'm thinking of mixing sand and some Reef Substrate so that there are some shell bits for it to use.

Does anyone have any input / suggestions?

Thanks

 

[TJL]

Hey Hawker, as far as substrate goes that would be perfect using a mix as stated. IMHO On the other, a Jawfish would not be a great starter fish to put through systems early cycles. They have fairly sensative skin to nutrient spikes and require higher protien foods. Clowns or Chromis would be a safer first fish and are quite happy with flake foods.

Todd

 

[hawker]

Thanks for the good advice Todd. I was planning on only having a cleaner crew and a couple hardy soft corals from my other tank for the first couple months. Maybe I will wait a little longer. I want to make sure I have the correct substrate from the start so I can add the Jawfish later.

 

[jrgilles]

I'd second that you should wait a bit before adding a jawfish. They don't ship too well, so if you can get one that has been living in a LFS tank for a few weeks, would also be good.

Mixed substrate is good. I had one with sand substrate, and threw in a bunch of little shells for him to build with. I don't think he could burrow as well as he wanted though.

I had a black capped, and was cool, but then he vanished. Not sure if rocks fell on him or if he somehow found a way to bail ship. Never found a body.

 

[krisfal]

I think in addition to being concerned with the substrate you should put some thought into the rock colapsing issue. I use a rock rack (piece of acrylic with acrylic pegs) to keep the rocks from falling down as the sand is removed under them by burrowing creatures.

I aquired a blue spot jawfish earlier this year. One of my favorite fish but he is constantly creating new burrows, and he also will use a closed loop outlet at times (I have 2 CL pumps that run on opposite cycles pushing water in different directions-he has on nozzle he likes to hide in when the pump is not running). He likes to use pieces of rubble to build up around the opening.