CowFish Help

[MNorton456]

A friend of mine just rescued a 1 foot longhorn cowfish from an LFS that was being housed in a 20 gal tank. This was an unexpected thing and we know very little about them. He is in perfect condition and is being housed by himself.

Anybody have any tips?

What is the best thing to feed them?

If he becomes sick from this horrible situation can he be treated?

Please help!!

:worried:

 

[bmcelhinn]

pics? How much was he?

I would only feed him food from a grocery store. I have a 1' long puffer and they are related. I buy clams and split them open a little and let the fish get the insides out himself. Also uncooked shrimp, scallops, etc and most of it is cheap there. You could try enriching it with vitamins and things like that.

Does he seem like he has a particular problem that needs to be addressed?

 

[Petstorejunkie]

make sure he has some room and no nippy or overly active tankmates for starters.... Where does your friend plan on keeping him? (size and tankmates)

feeding is easy (at least w' mine) who eats literally almost anything but focus him on a puffer's mixed meaty diet (shell on shrimp, mussels, clams, squid, silversides, etc) and throw in some seaweed. If he doesn't touch the seaweed don't force the issue but certainly offer/make available.

don't go nuts w' tank flow... he'll be more comfortable with a lower flow environment since he has the hydrodynamics of the proverbial "barn door".

they are truly awesome fish but have some quirks.... keep us posted on his progress

 

[MNorton456]

Well I'm sad to say that it looks like he is getting ick.
The story on this fish is that somebody brought him into an LFS in a 5 gallon bucket and dropped him off. The LFS had no tanks larger than 20 gallons and had no idea what to do with him and he could barely turn around in there. They gave him to my friend for free. She had set up a 76 gallon bow two weeks ago and was trying to decided what to put in it. When we saw him we knew that he had no chance of surviving there and had to take him. The poor thing has been through so much stress in 3 days we fiqured that he may not be able to handle it, but we had to try to save him.
If we can get him comfortable and get him to pull through he will be housed alone.
My friend and I only have experience in nano reefs so having something his size is new to us.
Any suggestions on the ick would be of great help!

 

[Monkeyfish]

Cowfish have no scales and are therefore susceptible to Ich. You need to be careful if you use copper as a treatment for the same reasons. My longhorn got a mild case of Ich. I added selcon and garlic to his diet (add to his food before feeding) and this seemed to help as he got better without any other treatments (though it may have just been coincidence).

From what I've read and been told cowfish NEED greens in their diet to prevent blockages. I feed mine Omega Super Veggie flakes with a few drops of selcon and he gobbles them up.

Cowfish have small stomachs (relatively speaking) that don't stretch the way non-boxfish stomachs will and need to be fed several times a day. bmcelhinn's post is a great list of meaty foods.

Also, a 1 foot cowfish really needs a 150 or 180 gallon tank for long term happiness.

Good luck!

 

[bmcelhinn]

Yes, putting him in a 72 Gallon tank that has only been set up a few weeks and probably isn't cycled yet wasn't the best choice.

 

[LRS078]

but a better choice than keeping him in a 20 gallon tank...

if you are running his tank like a QT and doing daily or every other day water changes you can buy some time...

If you are committed to getting him a proper sized home you are talking 150 gallon ballpark but remember....he is not a tang so you need a "chunky" tank versus a long tank. I would prefer to see him in a more square 140 gallon than a narrow 200. They eat and poo like puffers when healthy so make sure you have some protein skimming and sufficient filtration.

As for the ick....be careful with copper but if you have a copper test kit and some patience it can work. (SeaCure and FasTest have worked for me) Avoid the formaldehyde (formalin) as that seems to be too harsh for cowfish in any concentration. My cowfish experience (about a year) is that if they get ick they are better off in QT with medicated dips in something harsh, than medicating the snot out of the tank. Give him 1-2 hours in a copper dip at recommended concentration on a regular basis and let him have downtime in normal water.

Keep up the water changes and let us know how things are go....

 

[bmcelhinn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7073592#post7073592 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LRS078
but a better choice than keeping him in a 20 gallon tank...

If it were a 20 gallon tank that is permanent I would agree, but being it was at the LFS, and free at that... odds are somebody with a big tank would have taken him in.

Not trying to debate over something irrelevant anyways but that's just how I see it.

PS! I still want to see some pictures!

 

[MNorton456]

I feel bad for causing a small debate so I will explain more of this story...

Well ok, I used to work for this LFS, so I know their practices and can assure you that you wouldn't belive the things I've seen them do if I told you. The salinity in their tanks usually swings between 1.019 and 1.024 in the SAME day because of how they top off the tanks. Anyway, I could rant for hours about them....

A woman known very well for animal hording and neglect told them that she was going to come pick up the fish in the morning. So it was between her and us and I think that the fish would agree that we made the right choice.

I do admire all of your concerns over this! My friend and I teach about animal cruelty at local schools and I'm not used to other people understand that fish arn't just a dispensable object with no feelings.

He does seem to be doing much better though!!!

When he gets better she does plan on going to some local fish meetings to find a better home or upgrading.

One more question do they prefer sand or CC?

P.S. I'm new at this, so I trying to figure out how to resize the picture she took.

 

[stykthyn]

they dont really care about substrate, i am glad to hear it is doing better. I have had success treating them with hypo salinity. Does it have any other tankmates? I say this b/c they have the ability to release toxins into the water and foul the tank killing everything in it. They also do this when they become ill, if you ever see the water start to become cloudy start doing water changes. Carbon also helps to remove the toxins. If you dont already I would run some in the filter for as long as the fish is in your tank.