Opistognathus rosenblatti (Temperate water)

Opistognathus rosenblatti, commonly known as the Blue-spotted jawfish, is a small jawfish with great personality. Their body shape is like a cross between a blenny and a Pseudochromis but with a larger head. Their base colour is yellow/orange on the head which gradually becomes darker towards the tail. Their entire body is covered in large bright blue spots which are closer to each other towards their tail. Their head is relatively large with a huge jaw which is build for excavating.

And excavating they do! They fill their mouth with more sand than you can imagine and throw it out just outside their burrow. Although fine sand should make up the majority of the substrate, make sure to mix in different sizes of coral sand/rubble and larger pieces like broken ceramic pots or tridacna clams (to keep it natural). This will make building a burrow much easier for them. In the beginning these fish may be very shy or even skittish and won't really leave their burrow, so make sure they do eat enough, or they may become thin very fast. Once settled they'll be always sticking their head out of their burrow and we promise their personality will soon attract your daily attention!

Although this is the most beautiful member of the jawfish family, it has one downside, and that is that it is a temperate water species. For a short while they can handle higher temperatures, but we advise not to keep them in a tropical tank year round.

These fish are usually not aggressive at all. Only when a fish comes too close to the burrow they might chase it away. Do keep in mind they're jumpers and if placed in an open tank a net cover is best used. They can be kept alone or as a pair and in a pair even breeding can be observed in a well maintained tank. They are carnivores and feed mainly on zooplankton when small. They can best be fed with live and frozen food like copepods, artemia and small gammarus, but usually will learn to feed on high quality flakes and pellets as well. As they grow larger, larger food can be given, although they’ve no problem sifting small food particles from the sand.