pearly jawfish

Question
QUESTION: i just added a very small pearly jawfish into my 16 gallon biocube. along with a small damsel and a skunkback psuedochromis. o and a snail. but every since i have put him in there he has been scraping himself on the glass and and is mocing against the glass and rocks so rapidly that his tail has gotten a little torn! also he hasnt made a burrow yet even though i have about 4 inches of fine sand and crushed coral for substrate. he just hangs out in the corner by the magnetic algae scraper and he breathes heavily. also his sides are turning red from rubbing the glass!! and to make matters worse the skunkback this afternoon was just dead! i dont know why, the damsel was picking on him a little when he got near him but it wasnt that bad because the skumkback was in the tank before the damsel. and his fins werent ripped at all. my water quality is excelent i change 30 percent of the water every week. what could be doing this?!thanks in advance for your response.


Marineland Eclipse Aqu   ANSWER: Hi Marcus,

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having. To me it sounds like you have a parasite that is working it's way around the aquarium.

As far as I know the Yellowhead Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) are all wild caught. Wild caught fish are much more susceptible to carrying parasites, being caught and shipped in from various ocean areas of the Caribbean. For some wild caught fish, life in an aquarium is an extremely hard adjustment, and in the meantime if they do introduce parasites into the aquarium, they can quickly spread.

I'm not saying your Jawfish was the culprit, this is just one possible scenario regarding how certain parasites can be introduced into an aquarium.

*For now keep a close watch on everyone, you may have to treat them. Carefully follow the manufacturers dosing instructions on the fish medication packaging. Use caution as to not overdose the aquarium, as this can be fatal.

In the future may I recommend for you to invest in a small separate quarantine aquarium. While only about 5% of aquarium owners use a quarantine tank, they are one of the most important and essential pieces of equipment an aquarist can own. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It's a fully running temporary holding aquarium for new fish or coral just for a few weeks; this allows you to monitor the fish and make certain it does not have any ailments that it can spread, before adding them into your main resident tank.

It will yield results! Even though putting your new fish in a quarantine tank is not really what any hobbyist wants to do once they get them home.
It will decrease issues that may typically occur, to a very small margin.

One good inexpensive all-in-one aquarium that comes to mind is the Eclipse Aquariums 2 or 5 Gallon from Marineland.

See the link below from our web-store regarding a good small aquarium, which makes a great little quarantine tank.

http://www.ocreef.com/eclipse_aquariums

Regards,
Dave

All Experts - Editor

OCReef.com - Director




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: it couldnt have a parasite. the water from the aquariums is from my 110 gallon show reef and is awesome quality. also i just put the jawfish in yesterday. all the fish are very new i got the damsel and jawfish together yesterday. and the skunkback about a week ago. could it be the aquarium is too small??

Answer
Marcus,

You stated all the fish are new, with the skunk-back being only a week since being introduced to the aquarium, (that's not very long)... Again new fish can carry detrimental parasites, some of which are not visible to the human eye. This is why I recommended quarantining before putting them in any show tank of any size.

Even though a sixteen gallon cube aquarium is very small, small species of fish can successfully live in small tanks. Sure overcrowding can be an issue, but it didn't sound like you had to many fish for a sixteen gallon biocube.

In closing:  Again one possible scenario is: It could be from a parasite brought into the aquarium from one of the new fish; other than that, possibly it's being caused from poor water quality.

Best Regards,
Dave

All Experts - Editor

OCReef.com - Director