Canreef, meet Ferdinand.

asylumdown · #1 03-15-2013, 02:45 AM

This guy is, without question, the coolest fish I have ever seen, owned, interacted with. Newest addition to my tank, and everyone in my house is firmly in love.

Yes, I know how big they get, and yes, I know their skin is poisonous. As you can see he's pretty relaxed, and I plan on keeping him that way.

He's been in the display for two days (after a 12 day tank transfer protocol and 7 day treatment with prazipro), and he has already decided that I am food. He bit me three times while I was feeding him. It was cute.

Delphinus · #2 03-15-2013, 04:10 AM

Neat!

He's doing ok in the current?

asylumdown · #3 03-15-2013, 04:18 AM

I was worried about him for the first couple of days because he was getting blown around pretty badly, and staying right up at the top in a corner where there wasn't much current. But I've had mesh socks on the vortech's and turning the pumps off at night to try and acclimate an anemone, and I think that gave him the chance to explore the tank.

Today he was all over the tank, at all levels, and didn't seem battered by the current at all, even after I took the socks off this afternoon. I have a really high flow tank (too high actually, I'm getting some weird growth patterns on corals), but he seems to have figured out where to be and when so that he's not working too hard. He actually seems to be taking a lesson from my trigger and intentionally rising up in to the current of on of the vortech's to get a boost from where he is to where he wants to go.

He seems to have found a sleep spot right in between two large colonies where he barely needs to move his fins to stay put.

lastlight · #4 03-15-2013, 04:30 AM

Sounds like someone's attached! Congrats on your new buddy.

mrhasan · #5 03-15-2013, 04:48 AM

Are you planning to feed it fruit shashlik like this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyuGTl6Bm2U

asylumdown · #6 03-15-2013, 04:52 AM

ah! I wasn't but man that was cute. I usually adhere to the 'if it doesn't live in the ocean, fish shouldn't eat it' philosophy, but that was a professional aquarium. I also note that they had lots of cowfish in the same tank. There were two in the tank at the store when I got mine and they seemed to get along fine, but the interwebs said that they wont' tolerate each other so I only got one. I had really wanted two. I'm wondering now if I should have gotten them both!

mrhasan · #7 03-15-2013, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asylumdown

ah! I wasn't but man that was cute. I usually adhere to the 'if it doesn't live in the ocean, fish shouldn't eat it' philosophy, but that was a professional aquarium. I also note that they had lots of cowfish in the same tank. There were two in the tank at the store when I got mine and they seemed to get along fine, but the interwebs said that they wont' tolerate each other so I only got one. I had really wanted two. I'm wondering now if I should have gotten them both!

Sometimes you just have to break some rules to get through

Since you got a biggy tank and two of them were buddies back in LFS; you could have given them a shot.

Use instincts

Heck I break all the laws in saltwater and keep 7 happy fishes in 20 gallon (soon to be 8)

fishoholic · #8 03-15-2013, 04:59 AM

I love cowfish but I will tell from experience high flow tanks are a big NO NO with cowfish. He might look like he's doing ok with it but the reality is high flow stresses them out! It makes them work twice as hard as normal to try to swim in the currents and causes them a great deal of stress when trying to navigate around the tank which greatly shortens their lifespan. Also cowfish are notorious for getting stuck in the rock work (I've lost two this way, sadly one I had for over a year).

The more flow in the tank the more the cowfish will seek areas with lower flow. The more the cowfish seeks lower flow areas the more likely he his to get stuck in the rock work. I was lucky once with mine and was able to move the rock so he could get out, but sadly 2 weeks later I wasn't so lucky and he got stuck between rocks in a different area of my tank and died. He didn't take anyone out with him (but I do have a 600g system) but once they get stuck (dam horns get in the way and only break off so much) it really stresses them out trying to get free. The stress kills them fairly quickly too if you can't free them in time.

They are an awesome fish and very personable but IME high flow = inevitable death.

asylumdown · #9 03-15-2013, 05:19 AM

hmmmm, I'll take that in to consideration. I have been meaning to reduce the flow overall for a while, so this might be a good occasion. In retrospect, 2 MP60's and 2 MP40s on a 6ft tank was like nuclear bomb styles overkill. I've already got the MP60's turned down to a max speed of 60% to prevent a sand hurricane, but I'm still getting corals that are growing weird because of the current. I have even been considering selling them to replace them with MP40s.

kien · #10 03-15-2013, 05:29 AM

Ferdinand is getting around alright. He has his own thread!