Watchman Gobies and Jawfish

[DYIguy]

I have an adult 4+ inch pink spot watchman goby that has a cubby but patrols the whole 75g tank, I'm getting a small yellow head jawfish. From what I've read it needs a deep sand bed. Ideally I should set up home on the other end of the tank, adding sand and debris. The other option is is do the same on the other end of the tank which would be close to the pink spot, which I'll do. My questions are- will the pink spot and the jawfish get along either close or at opposite ends of the tank, is there anything I can do to get it to happen, does the jawfish need 5-7" of sand initially- I'll try by making shelves, but it will be only 2inches or so now

 

[ole farny]

three or four inches of sand is probably enough for the jawfish. i always let the ones i've kept to excavate their own lairs and they always seemed to try to incorporate some rockwork, like partially under a rock. i've kept diamond gobies and jawfish together without any issues that i recall. i do remember my tomini tang absolutely terrorizing the diamond goby at one point though.

 

[brokereefer]

3-4" should be enough for a jawfish. You may wind up with a problem with a pink spot and a jawfish though. They're the same body shape, but more importantly, occupy the same area (sand bed) in the reef tank. Both my jawfish and diamond goby in the past would periodically move from lair to lair at different times. Even if they started on opposite ends, there's a reasonable chance that that changes over time. It may work out but it may not.

If you want a jawfish, it's still probably best to have it in as one of the first fish so it can get comfortable and settled in. I've seen jawfish that never got comfortable, spent most of the time hiding under a rock, and eventually just slowly starved as they wouldn't come out to eat enough.

 

[DYIguy]

Guess I find out- have had the pink spot for a few weeks, has moved around the tank a bit, but has seemed to finally found it's cubby