Anyone Keep Box Fish?

[Eb0la11]

I like these fish a fair bit. Wondering if they are reef safe and compatible with tangs, clowns, fox face, mandarin etc...?

I know I could just google the fish but Im looking for first hand experience with the fish. Cheers!

[justinl]

no first hand experience here, the short answer is no. When stressed, they secrete a toxin that can quickly crash a tank. Unfortunately they are fairly easily stressed by fast swimming species like tangs; doubly so if said tang is an aggressor and decides he doesn't like the box fish. I believe they are reef-safe (in the right conditions of course) in that they don't pick on corals? I could be wrong about the latter.

[i have crabs]

they like to pick at some corals like zoo's,yellow polyps and stuff like that, they should be kept with calm fish in a tank with a low to med amount of flow.

[kien]

I used to keep one but when I started to collect SPS corals and cranked up my flow the poor little guy was having a really hard time keeping up. Got to the point where he was just surfing the current round and round the tank and not really swimming. Had to give him up. He's much happier in his new less turbulent home.

[my2rotties]

I have a cowfish that has more then doubled in size in a few months. At first I had to take a couple of powerheads out, but he is now fine. One thing you cannot have with a boxfish or cowfish is a cleaner wrasse. They pick at them and stress them out seriously. I had to trap mine and give him away. Now Norman is happily swimming around, king of the tank. He does not nip at anything, but I think each fish is different. I hand feed Norman, but not as often as I used to. When he first came he was a little low compared to my other fish and I had to make sure he was getting enough food. I do know they are toxic, but I am not really sure if they would bomb your tank or not. I have just made sure Norman has no worries and he does just fine. He is one of my easiest fish to keep and fastest grower.

One thing to careful of if you hand feed... their horns block their vision a little until they get used to being hand fed... he nipped me a few times and it freaking hurts!!! He is a voracious eater, which must support his very rapid growth, he is getting huge.

I have three K700s in my tank but like I said before I had to remove a couple until he grew out. I also have a wave maker which makes the powerheads kick on and off so he is not always being blown. He is now big enough that it does not bother him a bit.

I waited a very long time to get Norman and Colby at Elite got some larger then usual cowfish and I had him on hold for a couple of months. Then he stayed in a peaceful 90g in my basement so he could get used to things and I could get the cleaner wrasse out. The cleaner wrasses really do stress them out and you cannot have one, no exceptions.

Hope this helps, and if you get one, they really do become a pet.

[Treebeard]

I have had a yellow spotted box fish (Ostracion cubicus) for about 18 months with no problems. I think these are one of the easier species to keep. His more aggressive tank mates are a keyhole angel and yellow tang, but they all get along merrily.

A few months ago I tried to add a scribbled boxfish (Ostracion solorensis). He seemed to be doing well at first, but one day I came home and could not find him. After removing several rocks I found him dead. The tank suffered no ill effects, but it was very disappointing to lose such a beautiful fish.

[kien]

Personally I would limit putting anything in my tank that I knew could potentially nuke my tank, especially if new to the hobby. I have made that mistake already and continue to hear too many horror stories. We are all capable of deciding what level of risk we want to take on. If you know that there is a chance that animal 'x' can nuke your tank and you roll the dice and take that chance, then a year down the road it nukes your tank, it will be a sad story but you rolled the dice.

That's what's great about the internet and these forums in particular. You can ask these questions to help with your decision :-)