Jawfish breeding?

[aqua_scaping]

I would like to purchase 2 jawfish and breed them but to begin with how do you know wether or not one is a male or female? Do they change ---?
also i would love to know the mortality of the babies. Thankyou

 

[aqua_scaping]

i would also like to know is jawfish anything like breeding sixlines?

now before u all ask me i have breed a sixline but NEVER was able to keep the fry they always died it was a shame too

 

[nicetry]

I had a mated pair that spawned a few times. The male was a bit larger. during spawning, the male developed a small dark spot on each side of it's head near the gill. This went away after a time. The male holds the eggs in his mouth. They become very secretive during this time and rarely come out, even to eat. I went several days w/o seeing them come out but you could observe the male with the eggs in his mouth. Never saw any fry, so my sense was that the adults ate them or the other tank mates did. A dedicated species tank is a must. I've often thought of setting up a tank just for a pair of these fish. Even if they don't spawn, they are wonderfully interesting to observe.

 

[aqua_scaping]

i have a personal refigum with sand and mineral mud for breeding like i said i TRIED sixlines at one point

 

[candycane]

With blue spots their head sometimes gets GIGANTIC. This is usually the male and supposedly happens around mating season. Does if have anything to do with mouthbroading? I have no idea but wouldn't be surprised. And the males body, about 70% of it turns white during breeding season. So really the only way to figure it out without them going at it from the get go would be to hold two seperate ones in two seperate tanks and introduce some water from the caving area of each one into the others tank pretty consistanly, most likely.

 

[teresaq]

you could always put a 4 way divider into a smaller tank,then buy 4. You might get 2 pairs out of the deal. Though, the divider would have to go all the way to the glass top or they would be jumping over into each others areas
T

 

[aqua_scaping]

thank i was jsut hoping to buy 3 or 4 and hope for the best XD and i heard something about jawfish liking fancy shells

so i bought empty cowrie shells 2 of them are hermits shells right now XD

 

[fmarini]

this will be a difficult fish to bred, i guess i should say it will bred readily, but its fry are extremely difficult to raise.
Martin Moe has a recent thread where he raised YHJF fry using wild collected plankton, might want to google search for this