is it difficult to keep longhorn cowfish in a home tank?

Arothron Junkie · Post by **Arothron Junkie** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:48 am

I've had a longhorn cowfish for almost two years now. He went from not much above fingernail size to about 5-6" (not counting horns). He out-eats my puffers per capita and eats EVERYTHING. If nobody else will eat it, he will.... Awesome personality even for someone used to puffers.

Just be mindful of the ostratoxin which they can release (voluntarily) upon stress or death which will quite handily wipe out a tank to the point you have to take things "down to dry", give a scrubdown, etc.

As long as you have filtration and skimming on par with the messiest of puffers you will be okay. Don't keep him with anything that pesters him. Don't keep him with anything you will freak out if he "nukes". Feed him usual puffer meaty fare and plenty of greens. ESPECIALLY when small they need constant access to food. Best way I've found is to drop a clam or mussell into the tank (opened up for him of course) and let him graze on that. Anything not eaten is conveniently attached to the shell which is easily tossed. An algae clip (or hairband on a piece of rock) with some nori will do fine for greens.

Hope this helps...

PS He is currently in a fairly open (has LR but not cluttered) 75 gallon tank that he shares with a 4" powder blue tang and a (seemingly) stunted 2" niger trigger that we inherited from a contact's tank breakdown project.

Tihsho · Post by **Tihsho** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:03 pm

The petco I just went to today (hate those places) had a carcass of one stuck to the intake of their overflow system... If only I remembered that they released their toxins, guess the anger and frustration got the better of me.

Arothron Junkie · Post by **Arothron Junkie** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:49 pm

Petco is about as close to fishy Auschwitz on a mass scale as I have seen.... Had to buy a small bag of salt there one night to finish a water change (they were the only store still open) and they made the mistake of giving us the number/code to a "feedback survey".

To this day I don't think I've heard my significant other rail on anything as vehemently as she did the Petco policies and practices. (she's in vetrinary pharm. and has been involved in the fish/animal industry for nearly 20 years)

Tihsho · Post by **Tihsho** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:03 pm

I hate petco's but dad insisted on going in...

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:50 am

I think Petco's there are as bad as PJ's here. So sad...

perek · Post by **perek** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:32 am

My Petco isnt too bad, but then again its a new store. Only ~1 year old.

OraLacerta · Post by **OraLacerta** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:07 am

Hate to go off the Petco rant and back on topic

but I think cowfish are absolutely adorable! That pic of the juvie was too much... I know I have to get a boxfish someday far in the future for my dream tank.

BTW- I had never heard they released their toxins into the water; that's really scary! Would regular tank maintenance (ie. rearranging decor, etc) be enough to stress to trigger that defense mechanism?... What type of stress are we talking about?

perek · Post by **perek** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:33 am

BTW that 1' measurement is including the VERY long tail of these critters.

Also, I have heard that this fish doesnt do too well in captivity, growing wise.

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:38 pm

Where did you see a 2' long measurement?

perek · Post by **perek** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:48 pm

Myaj wrote:Can they really fit in a 90 gallon tank comfortably? I read they get up to 12" and with their box shaped body, they would have to be HUGE. I never really watched one move around much though, maybe they don't dart or swim fast.

Oops it was only 1', but the same holds true, their body would'nt exceed 8".

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:58 pm

That's not true, nor is it relevant. They easily grow to 18" if housed properly, and most of that measurement of an adult is it's body. Besides, when looking at tank dimensions, it's horns (front and spikes at it's rear end) do count, as they are still part of its body and need to be counted when thinking of housing, so they can turn properly.

Tihsho · Post by **Tihsho** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 7:58 pm

Putting it in too small of a tank is gonna make the fish feel stressed, like grabbing a cow by its horns

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:09 pm

Haha, very puny

Tihsho · Post by **Tihsho** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:13 pm

Pun where? :15:

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:40 pm

Something I heard (which never occured to me, but which makes a lot of sense) is that cowfish and boxfish are difficult because you can't so easily tell how they're eating just by looking at them... like other fish start to look emaciated and I guess because of their odd fullbody structure, you don't notice caved in bellies, etc....

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is it difficult to keep longhorn cowfish in a home tank?