HELP... Yellow heat jawfish acting strangely

TexasReefer82 · Aug 4, 2020

For the last day or so my Yellowhead jawfish has been acting very strangely. I've had him for a couple of months already and up until this point he lived happily in his burrow underneath the Rock. Just the other day I noticed him struggling at the top of the surface and seemingly trying to jump out of the tank. All other fish in the tank including another Yellowhead jawfish are acting fine. Corals all look fine. This fish however is still eating has healthy color, but is not behaving correctly. I honestly don't have high hopes for him. Does anyone have any ideas what's wrong and how to fix it?

Jay Hemdal · Aug 4, 2020

It looks like its caudal fin is torn up, do you think the other jawfish could have attacked it and displaced it? I don't trust jawfish together, they can be territorial. It is also difficult to "catch them in the act", as they are very observant, and when you're watching the tank, they may decide to "play nice" and not fight...then when you leave, they start in again. I'm surprised that it's still feeding - when they leave their burrows like that, they usually stop feeding. I don't suppose you have another tank you can move it to? I've seen dealers put similar burrowing fish into plastic "critter keepers" with sand/gravel in them. That way, the jawfish can remake its burrow without hassle from other fish.

Jay

TexasReefer82 · Aug 6, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
It looks like its caudal fin is torn up, do you think the other jawfish could have attacked it and displaced it? I don't trust jawfish together, they can be territorial. It is also difficult to "catch them in the act", as they are very observant, and when you're watching the tank, they may decide to "play nice" and not fight...then when you leave, they start in again. I'm surprised that it's still feeding - when they leave their burrows like that, they usually stop feeding. I don't suppose you have another tank you can move it to? I've seen dealers put similar burrowing fish into plastic "critter keepers" with sand/gravel in them. That way, the jawfish can remake its burrow without hassle from other fish.

Jay

Thanks for the reply. I bought them as a juvenile couple in hopes that they'd pair up... and it appeared that they had as they shared the same burrow for months and seemed perfectly happy.

Yes it's fins were indeed torn up a bit. I have not witnessed any other fish in the tank chasing it.

As of yesterday (Wednesday August 5) the jawfish are back in their burrow together. Neither appear to be feeding at this point - which is strange since prior to this event they both were quite aggressive feeders.

I have no idea what these fish are up to. For now I'll continue to blast some food into their burrow and hope for the best.