TarantulaLover
New member
My boyfriend bought a baby longhorned cowfish (maybe an inch long, if even that) about 4 days ago. He did the slow drip, then placed it into the tank with the others... he has a red-banded shrimp, green brittle starfish, and a debelius reef lobster in there, it's a 14 gallon Biocube tank. I had researched prior that cowfish need HUGE tanks to live in, but the LFS said being as how we have a 75 gallon that we're already going to set up, the cowfish being currently tiny should be okay temporarily in the 14g.
I was a bit spooked with that information, because I know from tarantula and reptile keeping that you can't readily trust pet shop people... so at first, the tiny cowfish appeared to be doing fine, but yesterday night we noticed not only was he (I call it a "he" however I actually have no idea what sex it is.) no longer a bright yellow coloring, but rather was very dark, his eyes appeared extremely dilated (almost completely round circles), and he wouldn't eat. So I told my boyfriend that the little guy should be quarantined immediately. He won't eat and he doesn't even swim... he's just at the bottom of the tank. He's still alive, just not doing much of anything and I'm EXTREMELY worried about him. Though he's not my fish, I really don't want him to die OR be suffering. I keep tarantulas and reptiles and attach pretty quickly with animals.
He's now in a small tank with an air filter. We had read that cowfish are very susceptible to "ich"... he appears to have a tiny white dot on his top fin and on his back... but I'm not sure if that's "ich" or we're just being overly paranoid given the state he's in. Nonetheless, we put Kordon Ich Attack in there today around 10:30am (central time). The salinity level in the water is 1.025... not sure if that detail helps... I just would really, DEEPLY appreciate some advice. I was scared he wouldn't make it through the night and he did, so now I feel we're on borrowed time.
I was a bit spooked with that information, because I know from tarantula and reptile keeping that you can't readily trust pet shop people... so at first, the tiny cowfish appeared to be doing fine, but yesterday night we noticed not only was he (I call it a "he" however I actually have no idea what sex it is.) no longer a bright yellow coloring, but rather was very dark, his eyes appeared extremely dilated (almost completely round circles), and he wouldn't eat. So I told my boyfriend that the little guy should be quarantined immediately. He won't eat and he doesn't even swim... he's just at the bottom of the tank. He's still alive, just not doing much of anything and I'm EXTREMELY worried about him. Though he's not my fish, I really don't want him to die OR be suffering. I keep tarantulas and reptiles and attach pretty quickly with animals.
He's now in a small tank with an air filter. We had read that cowfish are very susceptible to "ich"... he appears to have a tiny white dot on his top fin and on his back... but I'm not sure if that's "ich" or we're just being overly paranoid given the state he's in. Nonetheless, we put Kordon Ich Attack in there today around 10:30am (central time). The salinity level in the water is 1.025... not sure if that detail helps... I just would really, DEEPLY appreciate some advice. I was scared he wouldn't make it through the night and he did, so now I feel we're on borrowed time.