Cow Fish/ Box Fish?
Answers:
We had a cow fish when I wa growing up- He was such a little pig! He would follow us whenever we walked by the tank- begging.
We had him in with a clown, a fire fish, feather dusters, and mandarin fish. Keep in mind I was a kid and these are the fish I can recall- we may not have had them all at the same time.
Ours never had a problem getting food- he certainly beat everyone else to it. Ours may have been unusual for the species though.
sorry honey ive never heard of them ..
I have a stuffed one.does that count as well ?
Ive had a few when i kept a marine system, quite hard to keep in fact.
The belong to the same family as the puffer fishes, but can secrete a type of toxic juice from their slime when/if the get stressed in a tank or in the wild, a defence mechanism i suppose, which can pollute your tank and kill other fishes.
Very sensitive to nitrites and phospahtes so if your gonna keep one.....good luck.
They grow very large, around 16" if I recall, and as the previous poster said, if they feel like it, they can kill everything in the tank, including the clean-up crew and live rock.
very long lived if given good conditions 15+years.
feed on molluscs, krill, and other meaty food
prone to intestinal problems (usulaly resulting from bad storing of food)
can release toxins if stressed
slow moving nature attracts unwanted attention from cleanerfish
don't mix with simalar sized fish well.
small specimens often lose out in competion for food to faster swimmers
highly intelligent and will learn to recognise owners face which adds to their charm.
Cow fish are really interesting to own. I kept one in my last tank, but there are alot of limitations to placing them in your tank.
The most commonly available cowfish require a tank of at least 75 gallons. This is the bare minimun. 125 gallons is better.
Cowfish are best kept with slow moving, non-aggressive fish, much like themselves. Although boxfish do not do well with species of their own species, there are few problems when they are kept with different species of the same Ostraciid family.
So it is possible to create a community tank of various, single Ostraiciid species. A successful community tank with other species of fish is possible as well. These fish are of the same gentle, non-aggressive of disposition as boxfish. Hence, aquarists may keep a beautiful variety of species in one tank that will be compatible with their boxfish as well.
Enjoy!
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