Jumping Jawfish: Need Advice

[ariellemermaid]

We’ve had bad luck with jumping Jawfish in QT to the tune of $500-600. I’m using a standard 20g tank with a full hood. There’s only a little gap next to the HOB filter and where the HOB flows into the tank if you count that.

The first time around I didn’t do anything special, I’ve never had a fish jump in QT before. The Jawfish have seemed content in their PVC pieces and fed aggressively. It didn’t work out well.

The second time I decided to use a towel to cover all the openings and weighed the gaps down with full Trident bottles. This time literally no gaps and yet somehow the second Jawfish managed to jump too. I couldn’t believe it!

Here’s my real question. These jawfish have been so intent on jumping that I wonder if, even if I could get it through QT, would it just end up jumping in the DT? My DT is fully covered by a tight mesh screen but I do have 2 Eheim feeding stations for auto feeders. The jawfish have been aggressive feeders so I could definitely see them attacking the food in the feeding stations and maybe accidentally jumping. Or, with a tank full of sand, would the jawfish just stay in its hole, eat food that floats by, and be less intent on jumping?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

We’ve had bad luck with jumping Jawfish in QT to the tune of $500-600. I’m using a standard 20g tank with a full hood. There’s only a little gap next to the HOB filter and where the HOB flows into the tank if you count that.

View attachment 2886146

The first time around I didn’t do anything special, I’ve never had a fish jump in QT before. The Jawfish have seemed content in their PVC pieces and fed aggressively. It didn’t work out well.

The second time I decided to use a towel to cover all the openings and weighed the gaps down with full Trident bottles. This time literally no gaps and yet somehow the second Jawfish managed to jump too. I couldn’t believe it!

Here’s my real question. These jawfish have been so intent on jumping that I wonder if, even if I could get it through QT, would it just end up jumping in the DT? My DT is fully covered by a tight mesh screen but I do have 2 Eheim feeding stations for auto feeders. The jawfish have been aggressive feeders so I could definitely see them attacking the food in the feeding stations and maybe accidentally jumping. Or, with a tank full of sand, would the jawfish just stay in its hole, eat food that floats by, and be less intent on jumping?

Sorry for your losses.

Jawfish are Olympic Carpet Surfers, and unfortunately it is a deadly hobby.

Jawfish are never content in PVC pipes... they seek deep substrate (I always found they preferred argonite and ran undergravel filtration to prevent dead zones) beds where they can build happy burrow homes. They like to play with the substrate around their homes, finding little shells and other rubble to drag over. I'm guessing at those quoted prices you've been trying to get blue spotted. As a young adult with my first real job, I just had yellow/pearly headed jawfish but would think same applies. When I came back to the hobby, blue spotted jawfish was one of my 'return to hobby must have fish' but the reality of their needs and mixed reef (what I have) are so different, so it's my only 'must have' fish I still don't have (and sadly might not ever have... though I did buy an undergravel filtration system for my reef tank... just in case ... lol). Jawfish have great personalities.

If jawfish becomes startled once in your DT where deep substrate bed exists, while usually it can dart into burrow ... but occasionally will dart up... and UP in an aquarium is way shorter than where it used to live...

Perhaps put screening around feeders so should they jump right there, they will bounce back in.

Once I had a royal gramma that had to swim against flow, and in a tiny area of HOB filter, if it leapt at just the right angle, it was out... and it did that nearly every single morning... It became a thing for my roommate to drink coffee and scoop my fish off the floor. One morning, no one walked into the room until afternoon... it was dead. There is a scene in Finding Nemo where the fish work so hard to get out... it made me sick because I remembered my royal gramma... perhaps lights turning on startled my fish but whatever the cause, can not come back.

EDIT: 99% time happy and not jumping... in 365 day year, that is at least 3 jumps...

EDIT #2: imagine you are a jawfish, used to rock nooks and crannies... what is a little hole to you... to me your picture shows huge gap. My royal gramma escaped thru a hole barely it's body size and on an angle to get past the sponge I wedged in after jump #1. We figured it got the 'lay of the land' during initial jump which is how it made so many later jumps thru same hole.

 

[AC1211]

Jawfish will jump. A thin mesh and a deep sand bed in a deep tank will help prevent this. I mean deep Sand bed when I say deep sand bed. I don't have experience with blue spotteds or anything that isn't a yellow head... well I've seen dusky's in store tanks a few times as well jump. Could you pull it off... yeah. They will likely jump more in a qt than a display. I think they are a fish that is prone to finding a way out... I had a flasher wrasse fit through mesh that kept small firefish in... so some fish simply find a way.

 

[LordofCinder]

I’ve had 2 jump on me despite a lid and I gave up. The longest one I had for 5 months. They are such great fish I would love to have one again but they broke my heart twice so never again.

 

[ariellemermaid]

I’ve had 2 jump on me despite a lid and I gave up. The longest one I had for 5 months. They are such great fish I would love to have one again but they broke my heart twice so never again.

Yeah that’s what I’m worried about. I’m sure I can jump-proof the QT but ultimately I need feeding station holes on my DT for auto feeders. Mine were blue spotted jawfish and were absolutely beautiful with so much personality, but end of the day it sounds like it would always be a risk not worth taking again .

 

[AydenLincoln]

You can make a mesh lid or cover that little section with mesh. I know how you feel unfortunately my goby jumped out a few weeks ago with a lid but like you I had a gap from my UV sterilizer.