Wrong Sand for Jawfish?

[Query]

I purchased a Yellowhead Jawfish a few weeks ago. After a week he started to be visible more often, then went into hiding for a few days, to the point where I started to worry. Today I saw him again, but his mouth looks messed up.

My fear is that the sand I have in my tank is causing him problems. When I purchased my tank, I was told it was "pool filter sand". I am concerned it is wearing away his mouth, though I'm not sure if that is possible... He has red sores, his bottom lip looks strange, almost like it is worn away. There is a gap between two pieces of his bottom lip which almost makes it look like it is 2 feelers or something, but I don't remember seeing it that way before, and it doesn't look pictures I've looked at.

I ordered 40# of Caribsea's Arag-Alive Fiji Pink sand a while back (it arrives tomorrow) just to add to what I had, but now I am not sure if I should get rid of it all and add just new sand? I have a 75-gallon, so it would not be cheap, but the health of my livestock comes before my own monetary woes.

[izzy123]

Hey Query,

I'm not sure what caused this but I cannot believe it has anything to do with the sand you used.

If I remember correctly, that is sillicate sand you used, and there are plenty of reefers out there who use it with great succes.

Maybe you should shout out to "snorvich" he's the one that answers "please check your intented fish purchases here first" thread.

Or maybe contact sk8r, she's pretty smart too.

Hope this helps

Ivan

[Query]

Thank you for the response. I really don't know what it is, but I feel bad for the fish.
I will wait until this evening in case either of the aforementioned users come across this on their own, or someone else can give some input.

[AquaticFins]

I agree, it looks like his jaw is banged up.

I see that more often with sharp, coarse substrates than overly fine ones, but it is possible that the sand is the cause. I've never used pool filter sand, I'm not at all familiar with it unfortunately. It looks like your sand is fairly fine. If the sand grains are overly sharp, I'd expect fairly uniform irritation and abrasion across the jaw, not the couple of spots that your picture shows. It may be a contributing factor, but that photo makes it look more like he's banged his jaw against something than abrasion from overly sharp sand to me.

It's possible that he's banging his jaw against the bottom of the aquarium or against rocks - that is most common if he is being chased about the tank or if the sandbed is too shallow. Jawfish are often quite a bit more active at night than during the day; you may want to take a look at your aquarium after the lights are out to see if there are any aggression issues or if he's dashing about the tank.

How deep is your sandbed?

Keep a close eye on his jaw for infection...it looks okay at the moment, but he may need to be removed for treatment if any develops.

EDIT: I re-read your initial post again...you do mention that his lip looks worn away. I did some web searching on pool filter sand; it looks like most of it is indeed a silica sand. It seems about 50/50 as far as how sharp the edges are...some brands seem to have nice rounded grains, others are quite jagged. Most of the references I found as far as abrasiveness didn't sound good - it can definitely be quite abrasive if you've got one of the more jagged brands.

If it were my tank, I would definitely replace it.