Pearly headed or yellow-headed jawfish .... neat fish. I had one for about two years.
Be careful, they are nervous fish (i.e. startle easily) and are jumpers. The first week while mine was getting settled in he jumped out of the tank just about every day when I fed the tank. Open the canopy, squip! flop flop flop. Picked him up off the floor and threw him back in. He found his way into the overflow once too. So cover up any opening in your canopy and cover your overflow. Oh yeah BTW they can slip through eggcrate (my overflow had eggcrate over top ... NOWADAYS my overflow is covered with eggcrate and fiberglass window screening over the eggcrate!)
They tend to settle down after a few days to a week, assuming there are no tankmates that stress them out.
So that he won't be stressed, he should be able to make a burrow where he can see 360 degrees all around him. He needs a deep sand bed with various grain sizes as he will need the different pieces to make his burrow. He may even use a small pebble as a "cover" for his burrow and he'll clamp the lid shut just before lights-out. You will need a constant supply of small rubble on hand as he will use up what you offer in no time. They are amazing workers, constantly renovating their burrow. Amazing to watch them, skilled like a brick layer. They'll find the "perfect" spot for a rock and place it ever so. Then they'll adjust it. And adjust it again. Fix fix fix. Fix fix fix. Fix fix fix.
Make sure your rocks are resting on the bottom of your tank, and not the sand bed, as he WILL burrow under the rocks. If the rocks topple he can be crushed to death.
I hope you don't have a plenum (does anyone have a plenum anymore), if so, unfortunately it just got defeated.
If you have just a fine sand bed (sugar sized) you definitely need to get ahold of a bag of small crushed coral (1/4" size or thereabouts for the most part, but a broad spectrum of up to say 1" is probably best).
This fish has a LOT of personality and I hope he does well for you. Good luck!
__________________
-- Tony
My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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