Jaw fish need deep substrate?

After I showed my daughter the Jaw fish video from youtube, she really wants one. Does it really need 5-7" of substrate? We took a ruler out and measure it on our tank. 6" looks kinda ridiculous high since my 125 is only 22" deep.

 

No you dont need that much, they will den an burrow in 2-3 inches of sand. They do however need rubble. Shells and rubble are key to their dens and you will be AMAZED at the size of the pieces they will move.

 

I really don't want rubble to be all around the tank. I just went through a pain sticking process to filter out all the rubble from the old sand to put into the new tank. Do you think I could just put a pile of rubble in one small area? What the jawfish does with the rubble later on is not a concern.

 

Yeah you dont need a ton. Put in a handful if it uses it up put in another one. It'll move it all over the place.

 

nice!

 

You are going to always want to have some extra in the tank. They move burrows frequently. We arent talking crushed coral sized stuff either. You want regular rubble not tiny stuff. Dead coral skeletons work well but not pebble sized stuff.

 

Be careful! I know your tank is well "fenced" but they are big jumpers. Spastic at times.

 

+1 to DC

Jawfish are renowned for their jumping. They have a carpet magnet in them I think.

 

lol. I had a fence made for my 72 bowfront. The new tank doesn't have one. But since it's just a regular rectangular tank, the fence is easy to make.

 

Just saw another video on youtube. They sure are great construction workers!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgiSbnWxFCE]YouTube - Construction[/ame]

 

Cool video. Those are neat little fishes.

 

Wes I love jawfish. Picking up a pearly tomorrow lfs has it on hold for me. Been waiting about a year for one because of my substrate and finally added about 80 pounds of sand last week. Woo hoo!

 

that video was very entertaining. cool fish.

 

for some strange reason girls are always the ones who ask to buy stuff. on tonmo this guy had a dauter that begged for an octopus and then a squid and then a cuttlefish i mean what the hell. the guy shood of said go to the market and eat one

 

Wes, I will have to bring back pictures of our jawfish at the AQ. they have a network of small tunnels that go underneath the bottom so the public can't see it. they are quite a cool fish!

 

wow! network of tunnels! Sounds like it would need a lot more rubbles to build it.

 

yea, at the AQ the whole tank they are in is crush coral with a tiny bit of sand... theres about 30 jawfish in there its neat, at night they put a little "door" on the top of their hole and you wouldn't even know anything was in the tank!

 

My new tank only has the normal (0.2-1mm) sand. I'm going to crush a big dead coral with lot of branch into some smaller pieces and give the jaw fish something to build with. Hope it's enough.

 

I just ordered another 90lb of substrate. I'll wash them in salt water. Do you think they'll cause problem like mini cycle?

 

I think you'll be okay. Maybe a slight cycle but probably not.