box fish comments

[Pensky]

I am restarting my tank after the lose of everything due to a large ice storm and the power was out for a week. I really like the look of a box fish, but I understand they have the potential to wipe everything out with their poison. I am considering make this the first fish to go in the take so he can get established. What has everyone's experiences with the box fish been?

[cristhiam]

I have a cowfish for about 8 months now and it's in my mixed reef, no problems at all. You might need to pick a smaller species of a boxfish if it's going in a 55, the longhorn grows big. About the poison it's possible but it's rare that happening, when I was doing a research on RC I was able to find one case, I asked a few owners of cowfishes around about their behaviour and needs. I got one after seening that Randy Holmes had one for about 2 years in his mixed reef without a problem. They eat a lot all kinds of food, I have a total of 13 fish in my tank most of the small gobies, damsels, the only two that will get big is the cowfish and the sailfin, I love the cowfish very cool personality, mine spits water when hungry wich is most of the time. You can see a couple of pics of my tank with the cowfish.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=998825

[cristhiam]

A cool video at feeding time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEwVS9f9kjE

[Domboski]

Boxfish do well in an established tank. I have two yellow and a black spotted (female). The main thing you need to watch out for (besides great water parameters) is micro bubbles. Too many of those and you have a potential fatal situation. Feeding them at the surface can be a problem too becuase they may ingest air.

[jbittner]

IMO the is no box fish that will live out it's entire life in a 55. Most get to at least 18 inches.

[cristhiam]

Kind of an outdated website but some good info in it, a good candidate for a 55 would be the helmet cowfish.
http://www.cowfishes.com/

[Pensky]

Thanks for the great advise and as far as tank size I acutally have a 75 now. I decided since I lost everything it would be a good time to upgrade

[Domboski]

Good link! There is some beautiful cow / box fish out there.

[cristhiam]

Some of them are cold water too and it will not make it in a reef.

[davocean]

My experience w/ a cowfish was definitely not as possitive as the others stated .
Mine ate EVERYTHING!
A nonstop eating machine.
Ate 3 tridacna clams the first day I put him in tank($50each)
Ate corals, live stuff, dead stuff, you name it.
I had to pull so much stuff out of my tank.
Then he chewed on algae on intakes and kept getting stuck(it doesn't take much flow to trap them)
And thats how he finally died.
IMO not reef safe.

[cristhiam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8903365#post8903365 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davocean
My experience w/ a cowfish was definitely not as possitive as the others stated .
Mine ate EVERYTHING!
A nonstop eating machine.
Ate 3 tridacna clams the first day I put him in tank($50each)
Ate corals, live stuff, dead stuff, you name it.
I had to pull so much stuff out of my tank.
Then he chewed on algae on intakes and kept getting stuck(it doesn't take much flow to trap them)
And thats how he finally died.
IMO not reef safe.

What type was this one?

[davocean]

It was yellow w/ blue dots, don't know exact name.
Fairly small.
A GF "surprised" me w/ it.
It was cute, and everyone loved it, but I was kinda glad when it was gone so I could start adding all the stuff that REALLY wanted.
I had powerheads w/ quick clip intake covers and it still got stuck.
At least 5 times I came home from work to find it stuck, and I'd have to release it.
Any other fish of mine would have never gone near those quick clips again after 1 or 2 times.
Not my brightest fish.

[cristhiam]

yeah I had to cover the moded MJ for the first months too, now it's strong enough to pull him self out. I kind of wonder if you had a puffer and not a boxfish. It's 50/50 chance, like putting an angel fish in a reef.