Almost lost my cowfish...

asylumdown · #1 12-02-2013, 04:29 PM

Yesterday morning I woke up late for brunch with my family so I didn't take a good look at my tank before running out the door. I got a frantic call from my roommate half way through brunch that Ferdinand, my 8"+ long Cowfish was missing.

There aren't many places a fish that size and shape can hide in any aquarium, let alone mine, so I got my roommate to get out the ladder and do a thorough top down inspection.

Somehow, between 1am when the last person to bed looked at the tank and the morning, my cowfish managed to get in to one of my overflows. The inside of the overflows are only barely as long as he is, and half the space is taken up by two 2" pipes. He was completely wedged between the back glass and the emergency drain. They couldn't tell if he was alive or not

I immediately came home, having a mild aneurism remembering all the stories I've read about stressed/dying cowfish releasing Ostracitoxin in large enough quantities to nuke a tank.

My roommate managed to fish him out just before I walked in the door and he was indeed alive. After zooming around the display like a frightened bull released from a pen for a while, he calmed down and started acting normally, he even ate within 20 minutes.

Today he is REALLY banged up. His tail is shredded tatters, his dorsal fin is more accurately described as tattered dorsal spines, and large chunks of skin on his peduncle are missing. I think for a time his tail was actually held out of the water and dried out.

Now, I'm hoping someone here can help me troubleshoot how this happened. He is by far the largest fish in my tank, both in length and mass. He's the least graceful swimmer in the aquarium, and moves slowly enough that I could easily reach in and pick him up any day of the week, My overflows are lined with teeth that rise well over an inch above the water line so for him to have made it in to that box he would have had to get his entire body more than an inch our of the water. I simply did not think that was possible.

The only thing I can think is that since I replaced two of my pumps I hadn't been running a night mode, and was leaving my 4 vortech's on tidal swell mode all night. He struggles a bit for the few minutes when all pumps are all on at 100%, and usually stays right in the middle of the aquarium where the water is calmest when that's happening. Could this have happened when he was 'sleeping' because the current at night was too strong? It still doesn't explain how he managed to get that much air, but it's the only thing I can think of. I've obviously changed to programming, the tank is only on Tidal swell for 5 cumulative hours in the day now, so two complete 'swell' cycles, but broken up by less intense flow programs in between. There's also a max 50% intensity night program now too.

jorjef · #2 12-02-2013, 05:10 PM

Things went too far after watching Free Willy and a bit too much to drink...

Skimmer Juice · #3 12-02-2013, 06:10 PM

that is kinda crazy to be honest, is there any chance of something attacking it? I use to have a small lawnmower blenny with mine and I noticed him give my cow a light nip on the tail and he shot accross the tank very fast . Cant really see a cowfish jumping into the overflow.

But anyways Im glad you got him out and he is doing good.

asylumdown · #4 12-03-2013, 04:57 AM

I did recently add a powder blue that has been aggressive towards my Copper band and my doliatus rabbit, but the powder blue has completely ignored the cowfish. He's not even reacted when the powder blue ambles over and vacuums up an entire 6 inch sheet of nori that the PB is nibbling on in a single bite.

I suppose it's possible that he did take a single run at him, but I still can't figure out how the cowfish got any air.

His tail is even worse tonight. There's almost no tissue left between the rays. I'm afraid that he might actually lose most of his tail.

Skimmer Juice · #5 12-03-2013, 03:59 PM

well there is a chance he could grow the damaged areas back, I recently took a chromis from a friend that was severely beat up no tail,fins were almost all gone . In a bout 6 weeks time he look great fully healed, so just hope for the best .

Like I said I never seen anything nip my cowfish until that one time and cowfish can generate some speed if necessary , and I could see him sliding up the side of the overflow due to there flat bottom's, kinda like if you drive a boat on land in will slide . That's the only way I could really see it happen . I don't think the cowfish would leisurely jump into the overflow. Just keep your eye on the other fish just to see if you can catch any fish beefing the cow.

And if you do catch another fish beefing him I got a 200g with 1 fish in it

asylumdown · #6 12-12-2013, 12:38 AM

soooooo, the bony rays of ferdinand's tail that were de-fleshed in "the incident" were very quickly colonized by diatoms and turned brown and fuzzy. Now they're also starting to sprout what looks like green hair algae. I'm really not sure what to do about this, should I catch him and cut the dead tissue off, or would that only make this way worse? So far he seems totally healthy, but having part of your body literally turn in to chia pet can't be good for you long term...

carfag · #7 12-12-2013, 12:56 AM

are you able to quarantine him?

i would not be able to sleep thinking he died and nuked the tank...

Coralgurl · #8 12-12-2013, 12:59 AM

I don't know anything about these fish so take this as you will. What about a dip in something medicated? Weird that he'd be growing algae on him but its finding nutrients there likely in the dead flesh. I wouldn't want to pick it off as I would think you'd risk doing more damage.

You should post a pic so others can help with diagnosing and ensuring you are getting proper advice.

asylumdown · #9 12-12-2013, 01:27 AM

It was REALLY hard to get good images, but here's the best of them:

I don't really have a way to QT him separately for any length of time without that being more of a risk to him than any injury he has. He's too big now for my QT system, which I only use for the tank transfer method. I'd basically be cycling it with him. He's acting totally normally still, it's like he's not even aware of it.

Coralgurl · #10 12-12-2013, 02:54 AM

Been doing some searching and can't find anything to really match what's going on, but this article has some good suggestions

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/18309...r-injured-fish

I've also read you could try a medicated dip and apply something like polysporin to the injury. Watch to see if it moves to its body.