I believe this is the article:
Blu Spt Jaw Art
-Terry
Thank you! Here is the write up I did for MBI.org
Well, let's start a thread about pairing up the blue spot jawfish. I am not a great writer so bear with me while I tell my story.
I recently obtained 4 fish of this species in order to attempt to get a pair for breeding purposes. I will document my hopeful progress with this species to help others. I also hope this will encourage others to supply their input so we all can make some progress with captive breeding this fish. As far as I know there has been no successful rearing to date of this beautiful fish. I will post multiple questions at the end of this post to help discussion.
I obtained 4 blue spot jawfish from a great LFS, Preuss Pets of Lansing, Michigan. I was given a guided tour of the facility and noted their extensive quarantine systems. After watching each fish eat and watching them within the small reptile containers, I decide to take them all home. These reptile containers are the type you would see octopuses or mantis shrimps inside at your LFS. During drip acclimating them, I tried to noticed jaw structures because I have read that slight differences can be seen between males and females. Side note: pictures to come later to help ID the sexes.
System background:
I have 4x10g tanks, 1x20g tank plumbed into a 40B sump. TIGHT LIDS ON ALL TANKS!
Temp. 76F and standard shop lights(12on/12off)
Filtration: Reef Octo skimmer 200, about 60lbs LR and 60lbs. LS.
Food: Frozen shrimp, homemade mush, TDO C2
I plan on switching the bonded pair(fingers crossed) into a 28g nano cube, I can adjust the temp down farther into the lower 70s if needed.
So I took my top two candidates and put them into a 20g with a tank divider. I'll call these two #3 and #4. Both sides have plenty of rock work. Over the next two weeks both built their burrows facing each other, so I know they could see the other fish. Although, no interest, good or bad, was noted. The suspected female (#4) was very secretive and never came fully out of her den. At most she would poke her head out and fed very little from what I could tell. The suspected male, was at first, also very shy while getting used to the tank but progressed into showing about half his body length most of the time. After two week had pasted I decided it was time to remove the tank divider. Nothing really changed over the next 4-5 days. No aggression noted and it appeared they could care less about the other tankmate. Maybe against better judgement, I removed some live rock to encourage interaction. Within a few hours I noticed some puffing up, fin flaring by the male and even physical interaction. The male swam over to the female with his jaw open and went up and down her body length a few time. The "female" didn't challenge him and moved to another part of the tank. Nothing seemed to aggressive so I took a watch and wait approach. Over the next few days I have noticed that briefly they shared the same burrow but just as I went to look, "she" moved out. Although, I don't think she was forced out too badly. She built a new burrow in the front of the tank but it was quickly taken over by the male. The female is now in the original male burrow but they tend to go back and forth several times during the day. No real aggression has ever been seen between the two so I'm not sure what I have here. Are they male and female? female and female? or just a really sub-male living with a dominate male? I will update with pictures and physical descriptions later.
Pair #1 and #2 were housed separately for the same 2 weeks. I actually tried to pair these guys up first because they acted so different. #1(female?) was hiding 95% of the time and much smaller, #2 was out full bodied 90% of the time. Well I put the smaller shy jawfish into a reptile holder and placed her into the ?male's? tank. No aggression noted for 48 hours. So I took the lid off the holder and let the fish come out on her own. Within a day or so I noticed some aggression. The shy one would try to back into the burrow only to be chased out. Both would puff up and even lock jaws. I removed the smaller/shy fish and have not tried to mate #1 or #2 with any other fish at this point.
These fish are super aware and notice me from a mile away. So taking pictures will be a challenge. They also tend to be more worried about me than the other tank mate which makes it hard to observe them interacting.
Questions:
-General advice?
-Since #3 and #4 aren't trying to kill each other, this is my most hopeful match so far. Do you think two females would fight? Would a sub-male even try to tango or not at all? Switch burrows is non-aggressive so will a mated pair share the same burrow all the time or maybe just briefly during spawning?
-What are the challenges others have had in attempting to breed this species? I have only seen 2-3 journals.
-Any links to information would be great.
I choose this fish because it has always caught my eye and I will enjoy the process, even if I only keep a single fish. Thank you for and help or response.
