Anyone had experience with a cowfish?

[revgeoff]

So, I would like to add a cowfish to my tank. It is easily big enough to accommodate, and currently has several fish including a peaceful Queen angel, naso tang, beta, yellowtail damsel and some peaceful wrasses.

What I am worried about is the toxin release that I keep reading about - where it kills off the entire tank.

Has anyone kept one of these guys or know of any good or bad experiences?

[jay2x]

I had a cowfish before and yes it was too small that it got suck to the powerhead, it was my bad of me. If it get too stress it could die. When it died all of my fish and inverts started acting weird they seem suffocated. I did 75% water change two days and they all survived....I guess it depends on how big of a cowfish you'll be adding.

[revgeoff]

about 5 inches.

[ashr]

I dont know if I would risk it.. Just in case it did die.. there is a huge chance you could kill everything else...

If you want a cow fish, try a 25g FOWLR tank :)

[badfish!]

I've had 2 cowfish die on me, one in my first tank (a 45g), I was doing a water change and cleaning the sand and nicked him with the syphon (they are super curious and he was always right where I was in the tank). I didnt know about the toxin, and all of my fish died. I tried another one a little while ago with a porcupine puffer. The puffer got ich and spread it to the cowfish. I got up in the middle of the night one night and found the cowfish stuck hornfirst in the powerhead. I pulled him out and he swam around a bit, but he didnt look so good so I removed him from the tank to quarantine him. He ended up dying, but I wasn't sure if I had removed him from the tank in time, so I ran carbon and did a water change. Everything in the tank was fine. I think they are awesome fish if you can keep them from getting stressed. They have tons of personalilty, just keep carbon ready if you do plan on keeping one, just in case.

[fishoholic]

Ok now that I'm on my mac I will try this again (typed a long response yesterday and my PC decided to reboot suddenly and I lost the whole thing :evil:)



If you want a cow fish, try a 25g FOWLR tank :)

More like a 250g tank a 25g is way way way way way way way to small. Longhorn cowfish grow to 18 inches in size. In fact most boxfish grow quite large and with their messy eating habits they need a large tank to support them.

The only boxfish that stays smallish is a Tetrasomus gibbosus
otherwise known as a camel/helmet/thornback cowfish, they get 4-5". Even they need a minimum tank size of 70g. They are also the least likely of all the boxfish to release toxin into a tank. More info on them if you're interested http://www.freshmarine.com/camel-cowfish.html

The first cowfish (longhorn) I tried was 1 1/2-2" and I put him into my 230g reef tank. Not the best idea on my part, small cowfish can not handle much flow, bright lights or overly active fish. They improve on being able to handle it as they get bigger but you still have to be careful. After 2 months of having my 1st cowfish he got stuck in the rocks and died. Not sure if he released any toxin or not also not sure how long he was dead for, was alive the day before and discovered him dead the next day after work. I also have 600g in total (a few tanks tied in together) in that system so I'm sure that helped.

Note to self: try to make sure boxfish is big enough to not be able to explore tiny rock openings and get stuck in them, or try to ensure most openings in the rock work are large enough for boxfish to not get stuck in. Admittedly I'm still working on that with my current cowfish. He got trapped in an area a few days ago (in the 230g) and my friend (thank-you Steve from RCE) helped me to move some rock over to make an opening he could get out of, pretty freaky trying to move the rock without collapsing the whole thing on top of him.

So that brings me to my current longhorn cowfish. I got him March 2011 and put him in my 80g. My 80g had very low flow and had dim lighting and peaceful small tank mates at the time of adding him. Slowly over the next year I increased the flow in that tank and put brighter lights over it and I added a small yellow tang (Doug's fish which will be going into his 260g when it gets bigger or going up for sale) for a more boisterous tank mate for him to get used to. Then after a year of him being in the 80g I moved him to the 230g. In that year he went from 2" to 4" and I still get a bit paranoid that I moved him over to soon. He seems to be doing ok in the 230g but it's still more flow/brighter lights/larger tankmates, then he's used to. He got ich really bad shortly after moving him and I replaced my UV sterilizer bulb and re-homed my powder blue tang. I feed a lot to that tank (phosphates are though the roof partly because of it) and he still doesn't get as much food as he used to (cowfish are very slow eaters) but I think he gets enough food to be ok. He also broke his horns when I moved him over (bumping into rock) it is common for that to happen, but made me sad to see it.

Boxfish are my absolute favourite fish in this hobby and it took me a few years to work up the courage to add one. I know there is a chance that he could die and kill everything but I'm hoping that won't happen and it was a risk I took to be able to keep one.

My cowfish (I named him Hermie) when I fist got him
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/doug/P4020925.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/doug/P4020937.jpg

Hermie (also know as Mr. Moo moo) now in the 230g
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/DSC_0247.jpg