I've been thinking long and hard about what to do for my next tank. I want some sort of themed biotope and I'm thinking a jawfish biotope could be really neat. I was thinking about going with multiple pearly jawfish, but have plenty of questions. First, how large of a tank would I need for multiple jawfish. Would like to go with a 30, but I don't know if this would be large enough. I was thinking I would go with a pretty deep sandbed, around 5 inches and a tall live rock formation to maximize sandbed area. Next question would be what other livestock would be cool? It would be Caribbean themed, so I was thinking flower nems, gorgonia, and ricordea, but don't know about other inverts other than anemone shrimp. Final question, how would one go about introducing the fish to avoid aggression? Add all at once or does it matter?

all at once=) and depending on your actual tank footprint it sounds like 2-3 pairs would be your limit. maybe even less.

Ok, so I've been reading WWM and one pretty in depth response indicates about 1 per square foot or every 10 gallons. A 30 breeder looks like it would be too short, so a 29 would probably be the best bet. If added all at once it was suggested 5 may work out in 4 sq feet, so 3 might be ok in 2.5 sq foot tank. I was also thinking that with such a big sandbed and probably a pretty small bioload, I wouldn't need very much rock, and the jawfish wouldn't need it to hide or graze in anyway right? So maybe just 15 lb or so of rubble and shells? This should be cheaper, safer for the jawfish, and give them plenty of building materials.

have you considered the 40 breeder? its the same footprint as a 30 breeder, 4 inches taller.

You could also set up some pre-arranged holes for the jawfish made out of PVC pipe. There are a few threads on this board where some people have glued shells to the entrances. I would think this would help cut down on territory disputes.

For my current jawfish, I just sunk a 4 inch pvc tub in the sand near some rockwork, and the jawfish added rubble to his liking. You can only see a little bit of the top at the moment:

any more pics... this is an interesting tank... I've thought about doing something along these lines before

Me? Not at the moment ... will have to get some new ones. The jawfish has been digging out more sand lately, so I think he is tunneling under the live rock behind his PVC tube (which is ok, as the live rock sits on the bottom of the tank ... planned for a jawfish).

There's an aquarium in Oklahoma that has a jawfish species tank. They had quite a few in what had to be a 55g tank (or similar footprint).

The jawfish burrowed pretty close to one another but were constantly popping out and threatening their neighbor (open mouth). It was pretty humorous actually! I'd say 4-5 in a 55g tank with a 'patch reef' set-up would be a very cool tank. A 65g or 40breeder would look cooler since they don't look so tall and long.

Here are a few new pictures... I don't want to hi-jack this thread... I really want to see the original posters biotope

(Click for larger pics).

OMG they are so cute! I want another jawfish...the last one I had tried to jump hit my glass top and knocked himself out and died

I would love to see this biotope as well make it look like Florida reefs

Bumping to see if the original poster is still considering this biotope .... it sounded so neat.

For anyone interested in biotopes check out a book by John H. Tullock, Natural Reef Aquariums (shaky on title, look it up on amazon... it has an anthia & clam on cover). It is a great book that covers Floridian tidepool, "flower garden", sea grass bed, lagoon (includes Jawfish), grogonian forest, fore reef, and deep fore reef. Also goes over Pacific couterparts. Equipment section kinda out dated, but biotope section A+++, I've read it many times. Good luck

So cute They have so much personality. Once he gets used to you the fun begins. My jawfish is fun, but my anchor coral is on the floor of the sandbed, and it is stuck on to a rock by putty, right near his dens yup, he has 2 dens, so he buries them when he digs sand up Lol.

I miss my Jawfish.... I think a 65 would be incredibly awesome. 5 inch sand bed, 5-6 Jawfish, a couple of cardinal fishes, maybe a chalk bass, gorgonians, zoas, flower anemone, and some neat macro algae. It would be a really sweet tank.

LOL