LongHorn CowFish

[ryguy886]

Hi All,
I have just set up my new 285 gallon reef tank. I want to add a longhorn cowfish but I've heard that they can be toxic to a reef tank??? Does anyone have any experience with this. I've had my previous 150 gallon reef set up for 4 years and I've never had any issues with it. I run a carbon reactor in my sump, will this catch any toxins released by the cowfish? I really want to get one of these fish but I don't want to risk the whole tank to do so.

Any experience with these fish is greatly appreciated. I did a search for this topic but it didn't really return many results?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[slief]

I have one that I've had for over a year and love it death. We call it the dumb blond. I've never had one die in my system to comment on the toxins although being in the boxfish family, they are indeed toxic. How dangerous that is would be relative to the size of the fish, the size of the system, flow and filtration.

That said, I have to hand feed mine every day and feed it well to insure that it doesn't pick on corals. It can't compete with my other fish for enough food so I have to hand feed it. I've had others that I had to get rid of because they picked at my corals. They are hit and miss as far as being coral friendly and if not extremely well fed, they will become a problem in a reef. My tank is a 480 too. In a smaller reef, it could be a bigger problem.

One last bit of advice. They can be kind of sensitive and aren't very hardy. I'd wait several months until your tank is well established before adding it.

 

[ryguy886]

Thanks,
My new tank is a 285 gallon very heavily stocked with SPS and LPS corals. I feed multiple times daily, and my Emperor Angelfish eats from my hand too.

Thanks for the info!

 

[sc50964]

LongHorn CowFish

Thanks,
My new tank is a 285 gallon very heavily stocked with SPS and LPS corals. I feed multiple times daily, and my Emperor Angelfish eats from my hand too.

Thanks for the info!

It is a amazing fish and I'm a big fan of cow and box fish. I have had quite a few of them in the past, and currently own a male blue box. They indeed can nuke the whole fish population if frightened and enough toxin is released. 285g is a lot of space so it would reduce the possibility of such catastrophic event. Make sure to keep your carbon fresh at all times, and make sure it's established without being bullied by the emp, then it should be fine. It loves high current flows but need spots within your tank to have low steady flow to stabilize itself when it gets itself in trouble. It will spit water out of the tank when it settles down in your tank, and that's their sign of begging for food. It's quite cute but troublesome at the same time bc all the water on the floor. I had one cow fish that loved eating soft corals like leather. Strange I know but it just couldn't resist the slimy soft tissue and dashed it's clumsy body over the length of the tank and attacked the leather coral.

 

[ucanbyteme]

I had 2 cow fish, down to one at the moment, he's about 12 years old. They can live up to 20 years in the wild I read somewhere. They are unlike any other fish you will have. They are very smart, more interested in what happens outside the tank then inside it. They are very playful and puppy like, will fallow you around the room if they could. They do lots of tricks to get attention, like spitting water out up and over the tank, making splashing noises in the morning when they want to be fed, and the latest trick is spinning in circles just before I lift off the hood to feed him.

The only hard thing about them is feeding. They need to eat twice a day which makes it hard to ever leave town without a fish sitter. They have skin instead of scales, so if you ever need to medicate them, some meds will be too harsh. Very similar to seahorses in that respect.

As for food, I swear by PE Mysis. Its more expensive and oily, but it has 80% protein as compared to say Hakari which is only 20% and my cow spits them out. Just make sure you rinse it well with fresh RO, add vitamins, and vary the diet. They eat some algae too. FYI they can bite and draw blood, but its only happened once by accident when I was holding food and he went for a charge type of byte.

The one that died never nuked the tank. Someone else was doing a water change for me and they didn't check the temp or salinity. Poor thing went into shock and had a hart attack. Took him out right away. I was heartbroken. He was about 10 years old, totally healthy. They really grow on you.

If you get one, just keep that in mind, they are a long term commitment like dog or cat. They are very social and really need daily interaction or they will start tearing apart the tank just like a dog stuck in the house all day without anyone to play with.

The one I have now is really showing some signs of getting old. He has some kind of eye problem right now which I posted about with pics on 3 different sites including this one and not a single response from anyone about what it might be.

 

[sc50964]

I had 2 cow fish, down to one at the moment, he's about 12 years old. They can live up to 20 years in the wild I read somewhere. They are unlike any other fish you will have. They are very smart, more interested in what happens outside the tank then inside it. They are very playful and puppy like, will fallow you around the room if they could. They do lots of tricks to get attention, like spitting water out up and over the tank, making splashing noises in the morning when they want to be fed, and the latest trick is spinning in circles just before I lift off the hood to feed him.

The only hard thing about them is feeding. They need to eat twice a day which makes it hard to ever leave town without a fish sitter. They have skin instead of scales, so if you ever need to medicate them, some meds will be too harsh. Very similar to seahorses in that respect.

As for food, I swear by PE Mysis. Its more expensive and oily, but it has 80% protein as compared to say Hakari which is only 20% and my cow spits them out. Just make sure you rinse it well with fresh RO, add vitamins, and vary the diet. They eat some algae too. FYI they can bite and draw blood, but its only happened once by accident when I was holding food and he went for a charge type of byte.

The one that died never nuked the tank. Someone else was doing a water change for me and they didn't check the temp or salinity. Poor thing went into shock and had a hart attack. Took him out right away. I was heartbroken. He was about 10 years old, totally healthy. They really grow on you.

If you get one, just keep that in mind, they are a long term commitment like dog or cat. They are very social and really need daily interaction or they will start tearing apart the tank just like a dog stuck in the house all day without anyone to play with.

The one I have now is really showing some signs of getting old. He has some kind of eye problem right now which I posted about with pics on 3 different sites including this one and not a single response from anyone about what it might be.

Is it in a reef tank?