Reef safe cowfish?

[ShAgMaN]

Has anyone had success with a longhorn cowfish in a reef aquarium? I really want to add one and I'm wondering what my chances are.

Note - I know they aren't "reef safe", but either are mushrooms with puffers, and they are doing fine in my other tank.

At least he would be easy to net if he started munching...:rolleyes:

[allan]

Hey Shaggy,

I'm not an expert and you know how it comes to what works for one doesn't necessarily works for all, but here is my situation.

I've got a long horn cowfish called Sponge Bob. He currently resides in my 190 gallon tank. I recently found out that I have a mixed reef. I wasn't really sure what I had only that I put in what I thought would look cool... oh, and what I could afford. I do know I have SPS, LPS, and softies.

No issues. I got SB as a button sized fish no more than four horns, two eyes, and a small mouth that belied it's ability to eat substantial amounts of anything I put into the tank.

Some of the precautionary measures I take are never feed the coral while SB is watching. I got this tip from someone on MAAST who fed his coral during the day and once the fish got an idea of where the food was going they started munching on his coral. Forgot what kind of fish it was though.

The second thing I do is keep the guy fed well. I typically gauge my feeding routine around his first catch of a large chunk of food. After that it's open season for the hoard. Under care for the cow fish it's recommended that you turn off the pumps since they are such slow movers... too much work. I will slow down my food through the baster and he will come right up to it and eat right out of the spout, and so much for his much vaunted intelligence, sometimes he will attempt to eat out of the side of the baster itself. It's a small wonder he hasn't put a hole in the side yet.

I've had him now just under a year, about nine months really. One of the reasons I may be sucessful is because of the cleaner wrasse... he hates the cleaner. The cleaner will go to the top of the tank but it prefers the middle to the low parts of the tank. When SB goes deep to poke around the cleaner typically tries to help him lose his white spots which freaks him out. Litterally shaking SB will go back to the surface. On the occasions that SB remains unmolested by the cleaner at the bottom of the tank he does little more than blows at the sand looking for stuff to eat.

I think that's it in a nutshell. If you like I can show you my tank and you can make up your mind as to whether or not I'm doing something right or wrong.

It should also be noted that SB is still relatively small (about three inches) and may develope into a real nuisance as he gets older/bigger. But catching him won't be a problem. I've put the glass that I thaw the fish food into the water only partially submerged and SB has managed to bypass my fingers and jump into the cup to get first crack at the food.

Truly an awesome fish!

Hope this helps, and sorry so long winded but it's either this or I get back to work. :)

[ShAgMaN]

Thanks for the info allan,

Funny you should mention the cleaner wrasse, as I've been doing a little research on the cowfish and most recommend no cleaner in a tank with them...and I have one.

However your making it work, which gives me hope. Additionally I have yet to see my cleaner actually clean fish. In fact, the wack job actually eats off the algae strips I hang in the tank.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna take a crack at it, and like you, I'll start with a little guy.

[ErikH]

Umm, they release toxins when they die. It will kill everything in your tank.

[allan]

Dude, I have the same problem with mine. He will 'look' like he's trying to clean the tangs, but only one allows him to do so. The algae strip and the food that I feed the fish are all fair game to him.

I've heard about the problems associated with the cleaner and cow fish... and I guess I've seen it first hand. I believe I got him after I got SB, primarily because I was told he (the cleaner) eats ick... yeah, I was a bit disappointed in how that turned out. :)

Make sure you have an alternate plan for either the cleaner or the cowfish in the event that the relationship turns out poorly. Jose (Z28PWR) has a cleaner that was relentless on his cowfish and he is now trying to get the cleaner so he can put the cowfish back into the large tank. His cowfish is the size of a football... well, maybe not quite that big but he is rather large.

I got mine at Alamo Aquatics, and I've seen them there since. AD has them every once in a while, but the only one's I've actually seen there were quite large. Definitely a small one though. I wonder it the size difference between your cleaner and new cowfish would play a part in compatibility. It doesn't mean anything to the cleaner, but the cowfish might be more accepting of the cleaner if it has the upper hand as far as mass.

[allan]

Umm, they release toxins when they die. It will kill everything in your tank.

Erik, isn't the carbon a safeguard against the toxins?

I knew about this going in, but I also face the same threat with anenomes and power heads. What's the timeline for a dead cowfish and deadly toxin levels in the tank? I also wonder if water volumn affects toxity as well as far as dilution time.

[ShAgMaN]

Umm, they release toxins when they die. It will kill everything in your tank.

I know I know...years ago I had one croak and was stressing it.

[allan]

Hey Shaggy,

I just wanted to reiterate that I've only been doing this for a short time and would have refer to folks like Erik when it comes down to the 'real deal'. My particular scenerio might just well be a fluke.

[ShAgMaN]

It's cool, thanks allan. I was just asking for some input on experiences. I have been doing this for a while and one thing that’s helped me is getting multiple accounts from aquarists and putting them together.

I actually havn't decided yet, but it's good to hear someone has been sucessful.

[ErikH]

Mine died in a 47g and within 2 hours everything else tanked. We were at a Spurs game, came home, everything was dead. Never again! :) Well, maybe in a fowlr. :p

[Europhyllia]

47g sounds really small for a a cow fish?
I have no experience with them but I loved meeting Mrs Z28pwr's cow fish. What a personality!
Definitely seems worth the effort if you can make it work.

[ErikH]

47g sounds really small for a a cow fish?
I have no experience with them but I loved meeting Mrs Z28pwr's cow fish. What a personality!
Definitely seems worth the effort if you can make it work.


It was a baby. :)

[z28pwr]

I would get the cleaner out before adding the Cowfish. The cleaner seems to like the way the cowfish tastes and was practically eating mine to death. The cleaner was around 3" and the Cowfish is close to a ft. I really like our cowfish, he has a great personality, it's almost like a swimming puppy.. I saw some tiny one's at Aquarium Designs, those may be good for a 75 or 90 gallon tank.

[ErikH]

I would get the cleaner out before adding the Cowfish. The cleaner seems to like the way the cowfish tastes and was practically eating mine to death. The cleaner was around 3" and the Cowfish is close to a ft. I really like our cowfish, he has a great personality, it's almost like a swimming puppy.. I saw some tiny one's at Aquarium Designs, those may be good for a 75 or 90 gallon tank.

No doubt they are wicked! I want another badly, just scared. Maybe we can get a LARGE fowlr one day!

[allan]

has a great personality, it's almost like a swimming puppy.. I saw some tiny one's at Aquarium Designs, those may be good for a 75 or 90 gallon tank.

I wanted to comment on this. Last night when I got home to feed the fish I had the top of the canopy open and I heard a frightfull sound of splashing at the surface... kind of like a small kid splashing around... and that's when I saw it. Sponge Bob had his entire head portion out of the water, that's both eyes and almost the entire mouth. I thought it was the cleaner at him again but no, it turned out that everytime I got close SB wanted to check me out because either I'm soooo AweSome... or he knew that I was fixing to feed him.

The cleaner does stress him now and then. Hasn't affected his appetite and he has never seemed to suffer for it. That being said I wouldn't mind getting rid of my cleaner wrasse if it were possible to get him out without overly stressing the rest of the fish. Interestingly enough I've seen the cleaner shrimp approach and clean the cow fish on occasion.

[ShAgMaN]

I've decided not to get a cowfish for now.

I don't want to take the chance and my cleaner would be next to impossible to catch without disturbing the heck outta my rock and corals.

[jlh81]

2 hours WOW that would suck

[jennabee]

Can you keep a cowfish in a biocube?

[corruption]

I think wikipedia puts it best:


...can grow up to 20 inches long. Whilst badly suited to the home aquarium, the cowfish is becoming increasingly popular as a pet.


No, it can't :)

-Corruption

[allan]

20"??? I would have to take it to the zoo if/when it gets that big. :)

[msmith619]

As to the toxicity issue. I do not think all boxfish/cowfish are toxic. Some seem to be more toxic than others. I have not seen any posts about longhorn cowfish giving off toxins.

[corruption]

Again, from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhorn_cowfish):


If severely stressed, this species may be able to exude deadly toxin, ostracitoxin, an ichthyotoxic, hemolytic, heat-stable, non-dialyzable, non-protein poison in the mucous secretions of their skin. It is apparently unique among known fish poisons; it is toxic to boxfish and resembles red tide and sea cucumber toxins in general properties.

All boxfish carry the toxin -- just because you haven't seen posts about it doesn't change that... As beautiful of fish as they are, IMO, they belong in the sea. :)

-Corruption

[allan]

Hey C,

Question regarding the cowfish. Once in the home, I assume that it's far to late to release back into the wild, correct? Just wondering. I doubt very much that I would have the opportunity to release SB back into the wild. Especially since their natural habitat is so far away. That being said I plan on checking into the local zoo or like institute when he gets very large.

On that note, and primarily because of the cleaner wrass, I've noticed behavior not cow-like. CF like to spend their time in the depths in their natural habitat, blowing sand and looking for worms and other invertabrates. Bob hovers near the top of the tank during the day. It's because of the cleaner. When he ventures into the depths of the tank the cleaner assumes that this is an open invitiation to pick at him. Bob hates this and will do a dolphin act across the surface of the tank to get away. Now in the morning when I'm feeding the night corals he swims around the bottom. The cleaner is typically holed up inside a piece of rock at that hour.

I'm thinking aside from that the reef (mine) is moderately stress free for Bob. Could be the feedings though. :)

[corruption]

I wouldn't call any aquarium-kept species something that could be released back into the wild -- once they have been in our care, theres too much possibility for minute biotia that doesn't normally exist in habitat being communicated into it. The show Ace mentioned the other day about Caulerpa is a prime example of this -- reintroduction can introduce far hardier, not-quite-native, far more invasive species into the waters.

As far as the cleaner wrasse goes -- honestly, if Bob is that reactive to the cleaner Wrasse, its probably more stressful on him than its letting on.. I'd keep an eye on things just out of fear, myself :)

-Corruption