boxfish long-term success

[joe_franco]

about 6 months ago I upgraded my setup to a 125 gallon mainly softies dominated tank. Been looking into getting a boxfish but i am yet to find a long-term success story on keeping them (any kind). On bluezooaquatics.com, i read that the horn nosed boxfish is hardier than the other ones, but I haven´t found anyone who has kept those. Can anyone tell me your success stories, and how did you do it? also aquarium specifics, like which corals and fish would do best with it. If I were to really buy one, I would plan on keeping it for at least a couple years... thx!!

 

[blaxsun]

I would love to have a boxfish - I'm just too paranoid of it poisoning my entire tank if it gets stressed or dies.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I haven't kept them, and the only real info I can give on keeping them at this point is that their wild diet primarily consists of benthic inverts like worms, shrimp, and crabs, but they will likely eat some algae as well (so supplementing with nori would probably be wise).

That said, here are some quotes that may be relevant (one about the toxin and one about the longevity in captivity):

No experience with keeping them myself, but, for boxfish specifically, these guys aren't toxic when they die, they're only toxic when alive and stressed (they have to be alive to produce the toxin, and they only produce it when stressed). The toxin they produce is a potent ichthyotoxin called Ostracitoxin or Pahutoxin (ichtythoxin meaning it's a toxin that primarily effects fish, though this toxin has been demonstrated to slowly affect a wide variety of inverts too). In small quantities, the effects may be mild as long as the toxin is promptly removed, but the effects of it on fish are irreversible (meaning the fish - if they heal from it at all - will recover over a long period of time, and they will only recover if the damage is mild and the toxin is no longer present in their environment).

When the toxin is present even at 5ppm in the water (the equivalent - if my math is right - of ~3.4ml of the toxin in a 180 gallon tank), 50% of the following species of fish died within the following times*:
Abudefduf abdominalis - 6 minutes
Acanthurus sandvicensis - 8.5 min
Kuhlia sandvicensis - 10 min
Mugil cephalus - 12.5 min
Mollienesia litpinna - 15 min
Bathygobius fuscus - 30 min

Given that the damage is irreversible and lethal even at relatively small doses (and that boxfish themselves aren't immune to the toxin, though they are more resistant to it than other fish), I'd guess it's probably not an overblown risk (though it is something you could likely try to prepare for by running carbon and having a water change and QT ready at all times).

That said, I don't know how fast these guys produce the toxin, but as long as the fish doesn't get too stressed, it should theoretically never produce enough toxin to cause an issue (though I'd constantly run carbon on the tank just to be safe).

* The study I pulled the data from:

Toxic Stress Secretions of the Boxfish Ostracion meleagris Shaw on JSTOR

Donald A. Thomson, Toxic Stress Secretions of the Boxfish Ostracion meleagris Shaw, Copeia, Vol. 1969, No. 2 (Jun. 3, 1969), pp. 335-352

www.jstor.org

I’ve kept various box fish over the years. The only time I’ve had issues with toxins were with boxfish I had just caught myself and placed in buckets on the boat.
That said, this is one of those fish that appear to do fairly well, but asking who has kept one longer than two years, not many hands in the air. The only ones I have had long term success with were temperate Australian species.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

about 6 months ago I upgraded my setup to a 125 gallon mainly softies dominated tank. Been looking into getting a boxfish but i am yet to find a long-term success story on keeping them (any kind). On bluezooaquatics.com, i read that the horn nosed boxfish is hardier than the other ones, but I haven´t found anyone who has kept those. Can anyone tell me your success stories, and how did you do it? also aquarium specifics, like which corals and fish would do best with it. If I were to really buy one, I would plan on keeping it for at least a couple years... thx!!

I sold them at my LFS and they and cowfish should not be sold. Often they start out ok but soon shut down from eating and with no warning signs quickly deteriorate and are found on tank bottom dead. Boxfish are More stable than cowfish but I would not deem to be long term.
Longest I know of was 11 months

 

[thumbsy]

Lost him about a year and a half ago. I think I had him for about 6 years or so.

Reticulate Boxfish - Ostracion solorensis

You don't see too much info on these guys, so I figured I'd share some info on my reticulate boxfish. Boxfish feeding I've had him for several years. Bought him when he was a little smaller than a quarter. I initially kept him in an in-tank refugium until I could get him eating. He took to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[lion king]

That sounds pretty classic to some of the fish I keep in the Scorpaenidae, in my case I found it to be nutritional deficiencies. I would be interested to see if someone would decide to include live food in their diet, and see how they would fare.

 

[Kait_DeBoer]

I have had a horned-nose boxfish for over 5 years. I purchased him for my reef, but quickly learned he is not a reef-safe fish and ate a lot of my LPS before moving him to a friend's tank. That friend, despite my cautions, kept adding fish to his tank and eventually everything got velvet including my boxfish. I took him back on the brink of death and treated him until he was cured of it. Since then, he has changed tanks a couple times and now resides in a 125 fish-only with anemones as he still has a voracious appetite for corals. While moving him into his forever home, he was in a bucket with his fish friends and launched himself out of the bucket in fear. Since he was scared, he released his toxin killing the beautiful copperband butterfly fish in the same bucket along with another small angelfish. He did not kill himself with the toxin though. To this day, he remains issue free in his tank with a large angelfish, pufferfish, engineer gobies, and 2 clowns in with him. He is still very food driven and watches me from the tank whenever I go to the freezer hoping I will pull out frozen food for him. He wiggles his tail like a dog waiting for a treat. Very personable fish and the toxin thing does happen, but not has often as people think. He was in a 5 gallon pale when it happened and out of his comfort zone.