Pearly Jawfish question

Pearly Jawfish in same den

I bought 2 Pearly jawfish the other day. They are both in the same den! I am trying to locate info on these wonderful, interesting, funny, Pearls. I just came across your post and registered in order to reply.

I actually took a video of both of them. One was doing all the work and the other supervised. I also observed that when the worker wanted help, it appeared the other one tried to headbutt him. The mouth went wide open and the worker went back to digging out the den. I will try to post it somewhere. I have to upload it off my digital camara. I love these fish. I also have Seahorses in a seperate tank.

 

Nice! Would love to see the video and Welcome to 3reef!

 

Very cool - definitely post the video when you can!!!

 

Hey guys, I was reading about this and found this thread. Here's my story:

I bought a couple of jawfish a while ago for my 55g and my 29bc. I have heard that it's better to keep one per tank as them might fight while keeping their own den. I decided to put them in the 55g together maybe hoping that they might do fine, after the QT I placed both of them in the tank and I dug a little bit under a couple of rocks away from each other on each end of the tank. As I put them in the tank, i kind of targeted these little dens I made for them and they stayed there each one in it's own den. They worked on their own dens for over a week being peaceful and all.

This morning I look at their dens and one is missing, I started looking everywhere for the missing one and even on the floor thinking it might have jumped, but the tank is fully covered! I kept looking for well over an hour nonstop searching the tank and then to my huge surprise all of a sudden I see 2 heads pop out of one of the dens! I watched them for well over 30 minutes and one hovers over the den while the other works on the den and then they switch places.

I've read about them that they're territorial and so far people say that even male/females like to keep their own den, unless they're breeding. I have no idea how to tell them apart from male/female them and I haven't found out anywhere how to.

Any ideas/thoughts on this?
Could they really be breeding?

 

I got a video of them, see what you guys think

Click here for video

 

VERY COOL!!

here is my other posts that had to do with these fish at a later date.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/2-pearly-jawfish-dead-within-month-each-other-52566.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/twice-here-proof-55191.html

I never updated so may as well here:

The 2 fish are doing great but no longer live in the same burrow. They do get along fine but every once in a while one will swim close to the others burrow, chase it out and start to hang in the burrow for a while. The other just hovers above and will not do anything until the one leaves. Then it will swim back in and it's business as usual again?!?! Who knows, I probably have 2 females or 2 males in the tank but whatever the case they are still cool IMO.

I would just watch how yours do for the next few days - if they stay in their together for a while, then they may pair up and you could have some babies soon! Good luck! K+