The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone.

I am picking up my box fish and cow fish next week. I have the tank all set up, and the food all ready. I just want to make sure I know what im doing first. This is my first marine tank. What's the best foods for them? I have marine pellets, frozen brine shrimp, frozen marine and marine green food, plus live brine shrimp. What other treats can i give them? I hear people talking about molluscs and clams. Where would i be able to easily get these foods? Are freshwater tank snails edible food for a marine fish?

What is the best food for new corals? Live corals. I have been told that you can simply place some frozen brine shrimp in the centre and they will take it, yes? Or is syringe feeding better? And what foods are best for syringe feeding?

I will post photos as soon as i get them?

Not being terribly familiar with this type of fish, I can't be of much help but since I'm sitting here putting off getting ready for work, I'll just say that whatever you feed them, make sure it's in tiny pieces as they evidently have small mouths. I would think you can add fortified mysis shrimp to your list. As far as mollusks and clams, these should be purchased live at your local fresh seafood shop. The official line is that you should freeze them for a week to kill off any parasites, however there is still a risk because freezing will not destroy any toxins that might be present in them due to harmful bacteria or algae. It's rare, but poisoning can happen: I believe Dadof4 had an episode a while back where he lost some fish because of this. Freshwater snails are probably OK, but then again you're going to have to be selective because of your fishes' mouth size.

I'm new to reef stuff, and I have to admit I'm confused on the whole feeding thing. At work we never feed our corals, even our display reef tank, and if you could see it, you'd figure we must be doing something right because it's a beautiful tank with soft, SPS, and LPS corals in it, and it's been running well for six years. I don't feed mine at home, either, and yet all my corals are doing very nicely: in fact, my cabbage leather has gone from about the size of your palm to darn near dinner plate size in about six months. I think lighting is more important than introducing nutrients into the system, but someone like PP or another reef-acquainted person will have to chime in and help us out.

Uh oh, now I"m going to be late, better start getting ready for work. Welcome to the forum, by the way!

Feeding corals depends on the type of coral.. some need meaty foods directly fed, others live off photosynthesis and need special lighting for it, others do a mix, etc etc.

What size is your setup, its got to be HUGE with both a box fish and a cow fish, a couple hundred gallons?

IMO, you are jumping into this waaaaay to fast! You have never kept a marine tank before & are attempting to keep 2 extremely high-maintenance, difficult to keep species &that are very toxic when stressed & can easily wipe out every single living thing in the tank, including themselves, with this toxin.

Corals are another whole issue... What corals were you interested in? They are not a good idea to keep with most puffer/box/cowfish species. They need specialized lighting & filtration, with many additives to keep most of them alive. Most corals will be picked at by either of the species you are considering. I also highly suggest against keeping these 2 species together.

Please, I urge you to do much more research than you have:
-What size tank?
-How much live rock is in there?
-What skimmer are you using?
-How big is the sump?
-What lighting do you have?
-Have you researched the adult sizes of these fish?

Cube boxfish and longhorn boxfish? Please check out there requirments here.

I guess I wasn't awake enough when I wrote my above post - it didn't even register that these would eventually be huge fish. You're going to need a swimming pool! I must've been thinking of the tiny little yellow longhorn I saw a few weeks ago, and its even tinier mouth.

But even that tiny guy grows into a monster.

I agree with PP, these are not fish for beginner marine aquarium enthusiasts. They do get huge and are rather fragile. Size aside, when these guys die or even become stressed they release a toxin in to the water as a self preservation method. This toxin, even in small amounts, will wipe out your tank in a serious hurry. We have a PetCo in our area that got their hands on a mid sized, absolutely beautiful Whitspotted boxfish and placed it right in the front display tank. Stressed it out and it wiped out all the fish that happened to be on that central filtration system, even killed itself.

Pufferpunk wrote:But even that tiny guy grows into a monster.

Oh, I know, that's why I was kicking myself for not thinking of that when I wrote my first post! I researched the yellow longhorn when we first got it in, and was surprised to learn that cute little guy would turn into...well, a cow. It would be really cool to see a full grown one swimming around in the ocean.

I've seen many.

You're lucky, it must be an amazing thing to see.

I wonder what happened to the OP? Only posted once here...

Dado only white spotted boxfish commonly release their ostracitoxin if at all since that is their primary defense. They don't have horns or size on their side. The only time the other species release it at all even is during death. I hope that people on TPF will start to recognize that. Some species such as the t. gibbosus have never release their ostracitoxin in recorded history.

If carbon is cycled through the tank and large water changes are made than you can reduce the death of tank mates and corals. Ostraciids are not necessarily a "advanced" aquarist fish but more of a fish that the person needs to know what the fish can do.

Pufferpunk wrote:I wonder what happened to the OP? Only posted once here...

Attention Deficit Disorder?

It's a shame, he never came back...