OP
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VR28man
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Yeah, so this whole past month has gotten me to revisit how I feed my jawfish.
Formerly, especially when I first got her and her husband (mated pair), they were very skittish. For the first week they would not come out at all, by the second week or so they would only dart out and rush back when they were done. This is how they operated for a good year. During that time, I broadcast fed them, pouring in mysis or reef frenzy nano into a powerhead and letting it flow in the tank. They burst out, grabbed the food, and went back deep into their dens. But the amount of waste was of course enormous, and probably the cause of my high NO3 and PO4 for the first few months of the tank, and now algae problems.
I think the thing that turned the corner was the introduction of two clowns as dither fish. (previously their sole tankmate was a firefish goby, a fish that they oddly got along fairly well with, though they don't share burrows or jointly work together, it seems).
Now, (what I presume to be) the female goby almost always has her head poked out for most of the day (and "closes" the burrow at night), constantly on the lookout for food. Before, she definitely would have missed pellets floating by. I've also changed my feeding habits: not only do I turn off all the powerheads, but I put sinking foods to a small area. I also will allow the current to carry a pellet, or an edible size of reef frenzy nano. She eats more consistently now, and this is much cleaner. (unfortunately, her mate died several months ago for reasons unknown. He may just have been old; he was notably larger than her)
Finally, I don't think bristleworms are a heavy part of the yellow headed jawfish's diet. But if it comes across one, probably most commonly in burrowing, it seems it'll happily eat it. I still believe I have a number of larger bristleworms in the tank, mostly hidden in the rockwork.
ETA: videos
Formerly, especially when I first got her and her husband (mated pair), they were very skittish. For the first week they would not come out at all, by the second week or so they would only dart out and rush back when they were done. This is how they operated for a good year. During that time, I broadcast fed them, pouring in mysis or reef frenzy nano into a powerhead and letting it flow in the tank. They burst out, grabbed the food, and went back deep into their dens. But the amount of waste was of course enormous, and probably the cause of my high NO3 and PO4 for the first few months of the tank, and now algae problems.
I think the thing that turned the corner was the introduction of two clowns as dither fish. (previously their sole tankmate was a firefish goby, a fish that they oddly got along fairly well with, though they don't share burrows or jointly work together, it seems).
Now, (what I presume to be) the female goby almost always has her head poked out for most of the day (and "closes" the burrow at night), constantly on the lookout for food. Before, she definitely would have missed pellets floating by. I've also changed my feeding habits: not only do I turn off all the powerheads, but I put sinking foods to a small area. I also will allow the current to carry a pellet, or an edible size of reef frenzy nano. She eats more consistently now, and this is much cleaner. (unfortunately, her mate died several months ago for reasons unknown. He may just have been old; he was notably larger than her)
Finally, I don't think bristleworms are a heavy part of the yellow headed jawfish's diet. But if it comes across one, probably most commonly in burrowing, it seems it'll happily eat it. I still believe I have a number of larger bristleworms in the tank, mostly hidden in the rockwork.
ETA: videos
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