Bluespot Jawfish

Looks how to spot one

Scaled, elongated burrowing fish with large eyes

A slender jawfish with big eyes and a large mouth. Adults are yellow to orange or brown and covered in electric-blue spots, with yellow dorsal fins. Courting males turn stark white on the front half of the body, while juveniles are plain yellow with blue spots.2

Personality what they are like

Sociable with its own kind in loose colonies, but it will stand up for its burrow against intruders.2

Daily activity how busy a day looks

Active around its burrow; males dash up into the water above the burrow to court females, and the fish are busiest in the warmer months.2

Grooming and care the hands-on bits

A cool-water species from the Gulf of California rather than a typical tropical reef fish, so it needs a system kept cooler than a standard reef tank. Provide a deep sand and rubble bed for digging and a secure lid.32

Home where they are happiest

A tank with a deep sandy-rubble bottom for burrows. Wild colonies live over sand and rubble on reefs from the surface to about 12 m deep. Exact aquarium temperature figures were not found in reliable sources.123

Food basics what goes in the bowl

Carnivorous. It eats small invertebrates from the bottom and from the plankton; in captivity offer small meaty marine foods.12

Company who they like around

Naturally colonial, living about 1 to 3 m apart in groups that can number in the hundreds. Mouthbrooding pairs form during the breeding season.2

The story where it all began

Gerald Allen and D. Ross Robertson described the species in 1991, making it a fairly recent addition to the list of eastern Pacific reef fishes. Its name honours Richard H. Rosenblatt (1930 to 2014), an ichthyologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.21

Recognised by the official bits

IUCN Red List

Least Concern (assessed May 2007)1

Taxonomy

Family Opistognathidae; described by Gerald Allen and D. Ross Robertson in 19911