Yellowheaded jaws

[mark97r6]

Hey guys,
Getting a group of yellowheads for my reef pretty soon.
Just a thought but as they are mouth brooders i thought i may have a go at breeding/raising them.

Anyone tried them? Any idea how i would go about pairing them before they go into the reef?

Cheers
Mark

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

I have 4 Yellowheads in my 110 gal tank, just put them in, they will eventually pair and perhaps start breeding, there is no way to distinguish the sexes, but there is also absolutely no aggression, so no problem. They are great fishes!
Mine have bread a few times, but never had any success, the eggs were gone after a day or two, don't know why.

Good luck

Jens

[mark97r6]

Thanks for the reply Jens,
My reef is 360g's so if i put them in there then i have no real chance of collecting any eggs or larvae. What i am thinking is monitor them in a smaller holding tank before going into the reef and hopefully distinguish a pair to put in a 'breeding' tank just for them.
I am aware that you cannot distinguish the sexes of individuals, but can you distinguish a 'pair' from behaviour like bagghi cardinals? Or is it just a case of seeing one fish with a mouthfull of eggs?

This may not be practable, just a thought.
What i may have to do is have the fish in my reef (i am thinking either 6 or 8) and just spend some time observing behaviour and then get some more to try with.
Or what sort of size tank do people think would be needed for 4 individuals? Maybe a 100g?

Has anybody tried these? It just seems an obvious choice being a mouth brooder that doesnt swim much!

Thanks again Jens
Mark

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI

I think that I know which ones of my 4 are the pair, as they sit closer together than the other two, but sometimes I find them in different burrows, apparently "visiting" each other. As they are mouthbreeders the juveniles must be rather large, so if you don't have a lot of big and hungry fishes in your tank, you may have a chance to catch the fry after being released. I don't know whether the fishes release larvae or fully developed fishes. I presume the latter, otherwise the mouthbreeding wouldn't be so effective.

As I already wrote, I have 4 in a 110 gal, but they all live in one corner, taking up max 1/3 of the tank. As long as they find spaces to build their burrows, you can add quite a few of them.
A group of 10 in a 360 would be awesome!
If you get them to breed successfully, please let me know.

Best wishes

Jens

[Peter Schmiedel]

Mark, Jens

I think you should also mention that not only tanks size is the limit for the number of fish but also availability of high enough gravel to built their borrows.

[FuEl]

From what I read Yellowhead Jawfish only brood their eggs for a few days. Then they release the fish larvae which are still pelagic.

[mark97r6]

Thanks for the help guys.
With the tank, i am aware of the gravel requirments, though still debating as to the best grain size, ideas?
My main concern with the tank is the footprint, ie how close the burrows will be! Jens Your comment about them only using a small portion of the tank is very reassuring.

The tank would be high with a deep sand bed.
Thanks for the heads up FuEl, i have read that they are larvae too.

From what i have gathered together they spawn 1 - 2 times a month. The larvae are about 4mm long, take around 21 - 28 days to settle from then on they start burrowing.

To me this seems like a reasnable larval stage, and 4mm isnt that bad either!

Cheers
Mark