I am going to be setting up a new tank and want to do a biotope. I've thought of a million ideas and have narrowed it down to a Jawfish biotope.

My new tank is going to be 30x22x20. Here's the plan...

Left side with only 6-8" of rock for a mix of LPS and SPS and then the other 24" just open sand bed. 3-5" sandbed with flat rock all throughout the bottom for their borrows and crushed coral/rubble substrate covering it. The tank will be rimless but I will have a mesh top to keep them from jumping.

4- Opistognathus aurifrons ( Yellow Head Jawfish )
1 - Opistognathus rosenblatti ( Blue Spotted Jawfish )

The only other fish would be a Clown fish, Red Spot Cardinals and a few Trimma's.

Feeding will be done twice a day. Lighting will be T5's, two MP10's for flow and I will be running ozone.

Can you guys see any problems with this? Has anyone else tried this out? I think this would be a fun tank to watch, jawfish popping up and down through out the day with the cardinals above swimming in the open.

-Dave

yes, i see many fights breaking out between the yellow heads and nluespot. i would just go all one species

Thats what I need. I may just got with 4-5 Yellowheads or if I'm feeling the urge 4-5 bluespots.....

-Dave

I've seen this done with yellowheaded jawfish exclusively. It was very cool to see them pop in and out of their burrows like prairie dogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ6T22OlD1U

Thanks for the link.

The only other thing I'm looking for are what corals are in this area? I've been getting tired of the same old stuff with our tanks with just a mis-mash of corals. I love them all but a specific type would be fun and different.

-Dave

i think a giant toadstool would look cool. or other branching leathers/softies like kenya trees or xenia

THis sounds like a really cool idea!

I see forsee fights between the bsj and the yhj. WHy not go with a Pearly Jawfish (Yellow Head Jawfish) only biotype with like 5-6 of them? It would be really cool!

How about a tank with just green star polyps and yellowheaded jawfish. It would give the scene of a grassy meadow with yellow headed jawfish popping in and out of sight. Just an idea..

how about just the YHJs and Cardnals no clowns?

Rehype - Very cool!

Animal - I'm going with all YHJ now.

I will draw a quick sketch of my aqua scape I'm thinking and see what you guys think. Maybe even add some turtle grass?

-Dave

Cool

Some Turtle Grass or some Eel Grass would look real nice!

Clownfish- I LOVE the idea of also having some cardinals for this tank!!! Bangii's would look really nice!

I see you decided to go with exclusively YHJs. That's what I would recommend for a reason that I don't think anyone else touched on: aquarium temperature. BSJ's are a cooler water fish, preferring temperatures around 74-76 degrees. I keep one and it's in a reef I have at 78 but I definitely wouldn't go warmer if you were keeping a BSJF. It would be neat to see a cooler water tank with BSJF's and Catalina gobies.

for anyone interested, bob fenner (from wetwebmedia) is putting out new species articles on both the pearly and the bluespotted jawfish in the near future. i'm not sure where they're going to be published, but just FYI.

just out of curiosity (i don't know any better/different), but why would a rosenblatti fight with a aurifrons, but the aurifrons wouldn't fight with other aurifrons?

Crazy thing is I have been keeping my tank around 73-74 degrees now

I am going to bump it up to 76-77. Anyways I will start my build thread on here to show everyone. I want it to be way different than your average tank.

I've been a little under the weather but I will try and sketch up a idea I have and how it would look.

-Dave

God Luck! HURRAY FOR TANK THREAD!!!!!!!!!

woooooooooo... I love your idea.

If it were mine...NO OTHER FISH at all...just YH or BS Jawfish (no mixing). Any other fish in there would seriously detract from the coolness of the jawfish IMO.

Well I am picking up the PVC bottom this week along with the ozone.

I've been thinking of doing the rocky side as a trimma goby section. This wont take away from the "cool" guys.

Just keep checking

-Dave

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will be hard to find corals that go with the jawfish, true atlantic coral are all protected. gorgs, rics and zoas can be found there though.

any updates?

May be a bit late but you could probably do a jawfish and pipe fish or (can't remember the name of it) sand dwelling eel biotrope.

Any updates?

Get a jawfish/gorgonian/ric biotope! It would be sweet!

bahh we neeeddd aaannnn update!!!!

+ 1 for multi yhjf

blue spots can need 3 feet between them to prevent problems.

Just keep watching guys

-Dave

BUT I WANT IT NNNOOOWWW!!!!

Get this going it soumds like a completely sweet tank. Cant wait to see it running.

Sorry guys. I am now doing a mangrove/seagrass biotope. I will start a new thread with the new tank. Its going to be a sand flat. I am thinking of adding a few cardinals and pipefish. Its going to be my three tank system that will work together, NPS, seagrass, shallow.

-Dave