tiger jawfish

[markak15]

i recently picked up a tiger jawfish at the LFS. He is pretty ugly, but he had a little hole dug in the sand and he was peering out at me wtih these big black eyes just begging me to take him home. For some reason, he isn't building a home in my tank. It's been a week and he just hides behind the overflow box and in the corners of the tank. I have a sand bed that varies from 2-3 inches (55 gal tank). does anyone have experience with this fish? I'm wondering if I need more sand or will it just take time for him to build his burrow? thanks

mark

[Pamsreef]

I love these fish but I've never had much luck with them. They like course rubble to build their home and are terrible to jump out of the tank if it isn't covered. I've always heard that they're kinda shy around other more active fish (always had mine in a solitary tank). He could come around if he's still eating but he doesn't sound real happy now if you've had him a week. 2-3" of sand isn't enough so if you knew where to put more sand in a particular area I would add a larger grain of sand (not sure if yours' is fine sand) but you definately need it to be deeper. The only problem is he could move to a different area after you add it. I would also give him some rubble.

Hope this helps.

Pam

[markak15]

interesting....I have a glass top so I'm not concerned about the jumping out. He seems to be eating fine. My substrate is a mixture of fine sand and crushed coral/shells. i also dumped a ton of extra sand in one corner hoping he would settle in there. oh well....guess I"ll just wait and see.

[Superman]

rubble is best to have, they are builders more than they are burrowers. They like to build a wall around a hole.