Yellow Headed Jawfish
Opistognathus aurifrons

Yellow Headed jawfish, aka Pearly jawfish are one of the most commonly seen offered for sale of all the jawfish. Jawfish live in burrows in which they dig in the substrate. When aquascaping your tank you must plan accordingly if your future stock list includes a jawfish. Attention must be paid to ensure that the burrowing nature of the jawfish does not undermine the rock structure and cause it to topple over. A deep substrate and varying substrate size will be needed to ensure the jawfish feels at home. It will need some small pieces of rubble nearby in order to close off it's burrow when it turns in for the night.

Yellow headed jawfish spend more time out of their burrows than the other jawfish in the aquarium trade. They will hover just over it watching and waiting for food to come by. Should they feel threatened they will quickly retreat into their burrow.

Jawfish have a habit of jumping out of the aquarium at any time. For this reason it's recommended that the aquarium has a cover over it to prevent "carpet surfing". I have found that this happens most often when they are first added to the tank. This is a critical time for most fish and care must be taken not to spook the jawfish too bad or it will soon end up a dry piece of jerky on the carpet by morning. The jawfish may take a few days to settle into the aquarium and make several burrows before it finds one it that satisfies it's needs so don't panic if you can't find your jawfish in your tank, on the carpet, or being used as a play toy by the neighbors cat for a few days after addition.

Because of their tendancy to jump out of the tank jawfish should also not be housed with more agressive or active tankmates. This can cause extreme stress to the jawfish. Jawfish will also not travel far from their burrow for food. If housed with very agressive eaters the jawfish may quickly starve.

Got info to add about this fish? Give us a hand an email us with your experience!