Thornback Cowfish and Corals?

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I'm going to be setting up a new 60 or 80 gallon tank in about a week or so and I am currently trying to decide what direction I want to take the tank in. Due to its small size I'm probably going to go with a reef community or a semi-aggressive reef set-up; basically I find the tank is rather small to house any of the more advanced and interesting predators.

Currently I have been researching the Thornback Cowfish (Lactoria fornasini). Cowfish have always been favorite of mine and from what I've read this species seems to be the most compatible for my situation. However, I'd like to keep a variety of corals in the tank and I know some cowfish have a habit of chewing on corals and invertebrates. I was wondering if anyone has any personal experience or advice on the compatibility of a Thornback Cowfish and corals?

 

[stunreefer]

I worked at an aquaculture facility that saw these pretty commonly, and first off I'll say that a 60 or even 80 is too small for them. These fish get BIG. Reef safe.... not really. Most of them appeared to be OK, but they would eat the corals' slime if the coral even remotely slimed up (which they do a lot). This led to corals being mad down the road because they were constantly having their slime pulled away by these fish.

Actually eating the corals, I know we had a couple that would eat zoas and/or mushrooms.

For that size tank you could get some awesome predators though! Dwarf/fuzzy lions, smaller anglers, etc.

 

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Are you sure you're thinking of the right species? According to all the books and web sources I've looked at, these species (Lactoria fornasini) only grow to about 6 to 10 inches, very rarely approaching the latter.

But on the flipside, I was thinking of possibly doing some of the smaller predators, possibly a fuzzy lion or something.

 

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I've been searching the web but there seems to be little information on most species besides the Longhorn. From what I can tell they will nibble on soft corals but generally leave hard corals alone?

 

[Clownfish29]

The cowfish seem to only like the meaty corals, so you should be good with the hard corals