HELP my pale longhorn cowfish

[mstr.limpet]

Hi, as you can probably tell I am new to the forum set-up. I have a 55 gallon tank that has been set up for about a 1.5 years it has 2 Kessil sky blue lights, a Emperor 400 that has porcelain rings in both baskets, a CPR BakPak 2 with protein skimmer and a bag of Purigen, and a ZooMed Powersweep 270. For a heater I have a Fluval E200 set at 83 deg. As for livestock I have 2 occelaris clowns, panther grouper, vilangii tang, black and pajama cardnial, 3 bar damsel, blue linckia star, chocolate chip star, green bubble tip, mushrooms, daisies, torch coral, a few aiptasia, about 25-30lbs live rock, and finally my latest edition the longhorn cowfish.
Here is what happened. I bought my cowfish about 2 weeks ago, everything was great no one was picking on him. He was eating Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, Flake, Scallops, seaweed sheets from Omega One, and just yesterday I got some reef plankton that everone loved. Later that day my Purigen bag got sucked in to the outlet for the BakPac and caused it to overflow. I lost maybe a gallon, It was also time to top off the tank, so I added 5 gallons of RO water(thats all I use) and moved the Purigen to under the protein skimmer. This morning when my lights turned on the cowfish was and is very pale and would swim to the food just not eat it. He swims as normal, eyes are clear, there are no signs of ich or labored breathing. I tested my water and there is no change from the time I introduced him to the tank. pH@8.2, Ammonia@0ppm, Nitrite@0ppm, Nitrate@10ppm, and SG@1.021.
Also noticed it seems as though his mouth beak is not opening, but I never paid attention before. Hopefully I gave enough info, please help me help my once green friend.

 

[billsreef]

[welcome]

Too start with, you were already quite overstocked before adding the cowfish. I'd find new homes for the Panther Grouper (gets about a foot in size and will eat the other fish), the Vlamingi Tang (gets about 2 feet in size), and the cowfish (gets about 1 foot in size). The fish I mentioned all get far too big for a 55.

As for the current condition of the Longhorn Cowfish, they tend to ship hard and often come in with a variety of infections (flukes and velvet quite commonly) that are hard to diagnose in time to their skin structure making it hard to see the problem till it's fairly advanced.

 

[mstr.limpet]

I know later down the road I'll have to get rid of the panther, I plan on getting rid of him when he turns black. The Vlamingi I would like to keep forever. The cow started to eat and color is slowly coming back. He is still not as bright green as when I bought him. is this normal?

 

[billsreef]

Panther groupers don't turn black. They will eat anything they perceive as the slightest bit smaller then they are. They also grow quite fast. So even if it's currently too small to be eating your clowns, cardinals and damsels, it won't be for long. As for the Vlamingi, your going to need a bigger tank, much bigger.

Longhorn cows are normally yellowish, not bright green.

 

[mbingha]

Your tang is going to be longer than your tank is wide. Hate to break it to you, but he will outgrow that tank. Everything bill said is correct. Also take note that if the longhorn cowfish does, he has the potential to kill everything in your tank.

 

[mstr.limpet]

awesome thanks

 

[mstr.limpet]

So.... if I understand what you guys are saying; get rid of the panther and the tang and the cows color will come back. Because that was my initial question **what can I do to help bring back the color of my cowfish**

 

[Deinonych]

So.... if I understand what you guys are saying; get rid of the panther and the tang and the cows color will come back. Because that was my initial question **what can I do to help bring back the color of my cowfish**

No. What folks in this thread are saying is that none of the fish mentioned above are suitable for your tank size (including the cowfish). A 55-gal tank is suitable for smaller reef fish like basslets, firefish, clownfish (some species), small wrasses and the like. LiveAquaria.com is an excellent resource for researching fish, as they provide recommended tank sizes for every fish listed on their site.