Cow fish attacking my puffer

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Pufferbaby

New member
Hello everyone,

I am a new aquarist I started about three months ago and I love it. I am having a problem with a new addition to my tank. I just added a large cow fish to my tank. I currently have small sized porcupine puffer, yellow rand and a Huma trigger. My problem is very rare I think. My cow fish continues for the third day to try and eat my puffers fins. She was not defending her self and then finally puffed up and bit back but not enough to make him stop. She is very scared and stressed. Once a social butterfly now she is terrified and I can not let this go one anymore. Please help any suggestions or reasons why this is happening or solutions. My next step is getting a breader tank for the cow fish to give my puffer Mia a break and maybe he will stop, but I am not to sure. Can anyone help. I think that he thinks her find look like the shrimp he eats and is just hungry.. Because as far as I know they are no aggressive, he does not go after the yellow tang at all. He tried the trigger but you all know how that went the trigger put him in his place very quick. Thank you !
 
Im not sure but I think if your puffer was genuinely scared It would be able to handle the cowfish. They have beaks that can cause serious damage, and he would be fully puffed up.
 
That's what I though but she just hides in the corner and doesn't move. We were wondering why she wouldn't puff up it is weird. I have a 75 gallon. Thank you .
He really grabs a hold of her and sand goes everywhere and he has done some damage to her tail. I'm lost at this point. Maybe because the cow fish is way bigger than the puffer?
 
Pufferbaby said:
That's what I though but she just hides in the corner and doesn't move. We were wondering why she wouldn't puff up it is weird. I have a 75 gallon. Thank you .
He really grabs a hold of her and sand goes everywhere and he has done some damage to her tail. I'm lost at this point. Maybe because the cow fish is way bigger than the puffer?
Click to expand...

Those poor fish...
 
I don't have any experience with these fish so I can't say for sure, but the reason I don't is because they all need big tanks. Humus, porcupines, and cowfish require like 200 gallons of space, and the tang needs 100. Even when they are little, so it looks like plenty of room on the tank, they have wild animal instincts about how much personal space is theirs.

I would guess that since a unpuffed puffer looks sort of like a cowfish, he sees her as a threat, even more so because the tanks overcrowded. As opposed to the tang which is a very different shape. IDK why she doesn't puff, but I doubt it's because she not scared to death. Also, iirc cowfish can release a toxin if they get really mad, that would be bad news for everyone.
 
Well, honestly you aren't going to be able to keep all those fish in that tank for long anyway. It might be a good time to start rehoming those that are fighting the most and working toward having appropriate sized fish for your tank.
 
The cowfish is a very complex fish to keep, they can be highly toxic and if not provided the optimum habitat can cause major problems in the tank. My recommendation is to return the cowfish to where you bought it and not do business with that establishment again because they should know that is a fish for the advanced aquarist and not something to sell to a beginner. In regards to the other fish although they may be fine at this point they will quickly outgrow their habitat once they progress beyond their juvenile state. You may want to rehome these fish. There are many colorful wonderful fish that are appropriate for a 75 gallon tank, you can have a lovely tank without having fish that are too big for it. A little bit of research before you buy fish will lead to a happy and enjoyable experience. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
 
mcozad829 said:
The cowfish is a very complex fish to keep, they can be highly toxic and if not provided the optimum habitat can cause major problems in the tank. My recommendation is to return the cowfish to where you bought it and not do business with that establishment again because they should know that is a fish for the advanced aquarist and not something to sell to a beginner. In regards to the other fish although they may be fine at this point they will quickly outgrow their habitat once they progress beyond their juvenile state. You may want to rehome these fish. There are many colorful wonderful fish that are appropriate for a 75 gallon tank, you can have a lovely tank without having fish that are too big for it. A little bit of research before you buy fish will lead to a happy and enjoyable experience. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Click to expand...

This is very good advice. I agree with this poster. For the benefit of the fish and the long term success for you in this hobby, it's best to return all these fish and get ones more appropriate for your sized tank. Before I started the hobby I thought a 55G tank was a large tank but how wrong I was.

A very good guide for a quick reference is liveaquaria. No waiting for forum responses. But you should do some additional research and come up with a list of fish and we can help make recommendations.

Steve
 
Also to the OP. I got bad advice and put an atlantic blue tang in a 40G breeder. It felt daunting to return him, and figured "Id upgrade". Well he became very aggressive to the point he would have killed my starry blenny. This only took 2 months. So I returned the fish and I've stocked up appropriately with no deaths and no aggression.

Also if you ever did plan to upgrade those fish will be readily available. So it's best to have the proper sized fish for the proper sized tank.

Good luck
 
Thank you everyone for your feed back. Up until my rent addition my 3 fish have been very happy.. With perfect water no Nitrate spikes, and all other levels great. They are all eating well and being very playful and active. Note: to house a cow fish you mug make sure they are of adequate size so they do not get picked on and stressed because it will kill them, your water must have cycled and be perfect because any spike in nitrates may kill them. Other thank that they are very awesome, no stress in transport, ate the same day and loves attention. As far as poison if they are to die it important to remove them quick because they will release a poison.
Update..
Last night I took the cow fish out and re entered him about 45 mins later and he began to finally swim around and not obsessively look for my puffer Mia. I have herd of this, re entering a fish if they are being an agressor, and it seemed to have worked great. I got up ealry this morning and my cow fish was in the other side on the tank and everyone was happy!! Yay! Although I am new to this I do a lot of research and try and get as much information about the fish I have from people with experience with them. I have started my tank very very slow so it doesn't not crash and I do not kill any fish as some beginners may do because they stock their tanks way to quickly. I am learning a lot from everyone on this site and thanks again. I will look more into everyone's advice.
 
It's not about good parameters, it's about good husbandry.

Would you keep a great dane in a 300 sq. ft apartment? A Greyhound?
 
I cant comment on the fish you have as i have never kept them but have seen the porc puffers reach a foot and half in size so they do get huge.

But in the end, yes parameters are one part of the matter, the other part is knowing the fish is their habbits. I can put 50 fish in my 75 gal and still keep good parameters with good husbandry but it doesnt leave enough space for the fish. You can buy hippo tangs that are the size of a quarter and while a 40 gal tank seems like plenty for that size tank, you must look at how they are in the ocean, they swim a hundred miles a day searching for algae, this is why a 8' long tank is reccomended for them.

Hope you understand what im trying to say. But i do wish you good luck, this is a great hobby with great rewards.
 
To the OP

No one here wants anything more than the success of our fellow reefers. We are giving you this advice bc we care about the critters and the fish. There is nothing personal to gain by telling you those fish need more room except that we care.

If you go in a LFS right now you may see 2 hippos in a 40G or 10 juvenile clownfish in a 20G swimming around looking happy. Those are very temporary and short term situations.

In your case it may appear these fish will do well for a while but then very suddenly that will change. You are already seeing aggression from the cow fish and it will only get worse.

Just google the fish you own and you will see the recommended tank sizes. If you keep the fish you will understand the consequences as they get bigger.
 
Liveaquaria says you need a 250g tank for a cow fish.

Wow. I fear things will just get worse for you and the fish. Consider rehoming them.
 
Cow fish and puffers are one of the most intelligent fish I have ever seen the reason there is agression between the two is because they are similar looking and share the same niche in your tank. Like everyone has said above your tank is way too small for all those fish

I think a 75 could house a single humu, could being the key word and alone

The reason you're getting aggression is because of the cramped tank I'm willing to bet that these fish are juveniles give them a year and you'll see just what agression is. I've seen porcupine puffers slice fish twice their size in half same with triggers

As people have mentioned trade your fish all of them into a lfs and get some more appropriate inhabitants if you like the aggressive fish you could do a dwarf lionfish, a small reef angler, you get the idea

Best of luck to you
 
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