Dead Yellow Head Jawfish

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

M afraid the death of my jawfish will remain a mystery. Hope someone can give me some insight as to what happened because both my LFS and I are completely stumped! Friday morning I noticed that my jawfish was acting weird; laying on his side against a rock; tail partially cover with sand, I blew him with water out of a syringe trying to get him to move- finally he moved and swam to the back of the tank very normally. I figured I just woke him up. He hid back in the rockwork and the next time I saw him(what was left) was today and the hermits had him almost completely consumed.... Btw I bought him last Friday(over 1 week ago).... He was eating fine, I had to spot feed him mysis and brine shrimp because I have two clowns that won't let 1 piece go near him.....
Tested water today:
Ph: 8.3
Salinity: 1.023
Ammo: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0
Temp is 78 degrees
Did a 30% water change this past friday(salinity was low)
Inhabitants are:
2 mated false perculas
1 Green BTA******
1 cleaner shrimp
15 blue leg hermits
15 various snails
0 jawfish...
Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

[mr_X]

my guess would be either how it was collected, or stress from tank mates.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

my guess would be either how it was collected, or stress from tank mates.

I pick "D" all of the above. Lol... I'm wondering if he didn't have enough space. But I never heard of problems with the size of my tank being an issue. Just crazy, you do your research, you have everything you need for it, water is good, tank mates are good, you pick a "healthy" fish, acclimate more than necessary, overall do everything right and the fish dies! It's like a slap in the face from mother nature. So here are some more clues anyway; I noticed Saturday afternoon it appeared he had been digging trenches around the sides of the tank in the sand. Found him dead Sunday a.m. Also noticed Sunday he had pulled a mushroom frag into his cave, and there was definitely new "rockwork" at the entrance of the cave. So he must have been busy all night, clowns stay in the anemone through the night so I don't think it was them. Maybe a possibility he got hurt either digging or trying to jump out? Maybe he got poisoned by the mushroom? Anyway, just a couple more clues... Btw this tank is a 29 gal. Biocube. Running 6 months.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Oops! Totally forgot to add the green BTA in the critter list and, temp is 78* Kinda important! Sorry.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Refreshing this thread because I'm thinking about trying to add another jawfish on Friday and want to know what you guys think in light of this thread.
I talked to the biologist at my LFS recently about reasons why the jawfish may have died and he concluded that it was most likely caused by a lack of Oxygen especially at night. He said that many "unknown" deaths occurring to bottom dwellers most frequently are at least in part caused by a lack of oxygen.
I also took into consideration that there may have been added stress from the clowns bullying him. Their aggression was heightened because they were hosting an anemone which I removed today for numerous reasons.

I'm wondering if the removal of the anemone in conjunction with creating more flow from the top of the tank downward and adding an aerator in the sump would give us confidence in entertaining the idea of trying again with another Jawfish.

 

[BallinCrew10]

Refreshing this thread because I'm thinking about trying to add another jawfish on Friday and want to know what you guys think in light of this thread.
I talked to the biologist at my LFS recently about reasons why the jawfish may have died and he concluded that it was most likely caused by a lack of Oxygen especially at night. He said that many "unknown" deaths occurring to bottom dwellers most frequently are at least in part caused by a lack of oxygen.
I also took into consideration that there may have been added stress from the clowns bullying him. Their aggression was heightened because they were hosting an anemone which I removed today for numerous reasons.

I'm wondering if the removal of the anemone in conjunction with creating more flow from the top of the tank downward and adding an aerator in the sump would give us confidence in entertaining the idea of trying again with another Jawfish.

I don't think it would be lack of oxygen since the clowns were fine. If it were though, you'd want to point your powerheads up rather than down. Pointing them up will give you better surface agitation and better gas exchange. I also don't see why there would be less oxygen at night.

It could be possible he injured himself moving some rocks.

I would personally be hesitant to add another fish if I had one mysteriously die.