First Fish

Well its been almost five months the tank has been set up and I have finally decided on getting a fish. I got a blue dot jawfish, its been a week now and he seems to be settling in really well.

So far i have just been feeding him chopped table shrimp. I have an lps food that has mysis shrimp in it but he doesnt like it. I also tried feeding him the new era pellets that i feed my shrimp but he just spits them out. I could just stick with chopped shrimp but a varied diet would probably be better. Any recommendations would be great here.

Also I was wondering about in the future what would be suitable tankmates. I know that he requires a peaceful tank so I am planning on keeping it that way. Any other fish I get need to be reef safe and suitable in a 60 gallon tank. Suggestions would be appreciated.

 

very nice fish! you are absolutely right about a varied diet being better. when you have a few more critters i would seriously consider looking into making your own fish food. its not complicated nor expensive and you have the advantage of knowing exactly what you are throwing into your system.

should you wish so ill gladly pm you my recipe

 

Ever since I first saw one in one of the show tanks at my LFS i have wanted one. Their behavior is so much fun to watch.

And that would be great actually, any recipe can be scaled down. No pun intended

 

Nice pickup! I love mine They actually do just fine defending their territory, so don't worry too much about finding the most peaceful of tank mates. Not saying you should add Dottybacks and Damsels, but it will be fine with most any others.

For food, they should be fed Spirulina at least a couple times a week. I use OSI flakes and mine loves them. Otherwise, basically any larger meaty frozen or pellets. Mine loves Hikari Mysis, Reef Plakton, Marine Algae, Mega Marine Algae, NLS pellets (the larger ones, it won't eat the smaller ones), and Ocean Nutrition Formula One & Two frozen and flake.

 

I love mine too. They have so much personality. Theres something about that angry little face. How long have you had yours? I heard that they are a colder water species. What tempature are you running your tank at? Right now I keep mine at 78. And thats good to know that they will be ok with other fish. I really want to add a fairy wrasse in the future. Also would you think it would be ok with a firefish?

Thanks for the food suggestions.

 

One of my favorite fish. They nip at most fish that swim by them but usually harmless.
Biggest thing is make sure you have a tank where they can't jump out because they WILL jump.

 

I have had mine for over a year now. I keep my tank between 76-77. 78 should be fine as well though. A Fairy Wrasse should make a fine tankmate as long as it is not a more aggressive one. And yes, they will be fine with a Firefish. Here are the tankmates:

-Helfrichi Firefish
-Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse
-Tailspot Blenny
-Yellow Assessor

 

Well this morning at work I got a phone call. It was my girlfriend. She called me to say that Fred had jumped through the bird netting on my diy screen top. He didn't manage to get back into the water. I never though I would cry over a fish.

I can't believe he was able to make it through doubled up 1/2" bird netting. I know that it wasn't perfect but there were only a few spots where the gaps were larger.

 

I'm so sorry to hear that

 

I'm so sorry! The same thing happened to me with a peppermint hogfish...I thought my DIY screen top was foolproof...it wasn't. He managed to find an opening in an egg crate top that was reinforced with screen. It was my favorite fish. After that, we built a canopy.

In this hobby, we learn and move on. I hate that your fish jumped