Opistognathus randalli

Opistognathus randalli, commonly known as the Gold-specs jawfish, is a small jawfish. Their base colour is very soft pinkish-white which under most lights looks blueish-purplish (depending on the spectrum) with yellow to orange vertical stripes over it. The fins are yellow with a blueish rim around it and the head is brown around the eyes.

These fish are usually found hovering over or half inside a burrow. They can best be kept alone or as a proven pair. They cover the opening from their burrows in the sand every night and open them up again in the morning. It’s best to provide them with multiple grain sizes of sand and maybe some coarse coral rubble, so they can make a good burrow.

They feed mainly on zooplankton when small and 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.