Cow fish and salt water set up

[Mattthew]

Hi!
My name is Matthew and I have been interested in getting cow fish for pets for over 20 years. I am now able to afford this endeavor but have zero knowledge on the setup, what type of saltwater tank to get and supplies. I ONLY want cow fish so I would greatly appreciate any and all advice as I want to take really good care of these little beauties. They are so amazing!

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!! My limited experience with cowfish is that they can be a challenge to transport and quality water parameters are even more important than with most saltwater fish. While, I understand that you only want to keep cowfish, it may be worthwhile to develop some experience keeping other saltwater fish while you dial in your experience and understanding of saltwater tanks. I wish you and the fish the best with whatever you choose!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi!
My name is Matthew and I have been interested in getting cow fish for pets for over 20 years. I am now able to afford this endeavor but have zero knowledge on the setup, what type of saltwater tank to get and supplies. I ONLY want cow fish so I would greatly appreciate any and all advice as I want to take really good care of these little beauties. They are so amazing!

I agree in exploring other fish for both experience and enjoyment of hobby. I sold many of these at my LFS and stopped. I assure you- you do not want this fish as they rarely survive especially long term with a disadvantage of being slow swimmers and often noy getting food with tankmates present. Often they may or may not eat up front and eventually starve. They in addition have honeycomb plates that make up their body and those plates can inflate and release toxins which rarely happens but can.
They are susceptible to ich and bacterial issues due to stress and need for Good water quality in captivity and do best on live foods which is not always available.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Just John]

Don't know anything about cowfish, but welcome!

 

[zheka757]

welcome to R2R

 

[Reefer Matt]

My name is also Matthew! Good luck, and welcome!

 

[Mattthew]

I agree in exploring other fish for both experience and enjoyment of hobby. I sold many of these at my LFS and stopped. I assure you- you do not want this fish as they rarely survive especially long term with a disadvantage of being slow swimmers and often noy getting food with tankmates present. Often they may or may not eat up front and eventually starve. They in addition have honeycomb plates that make up their body and those plates can inflate and release toxins which rarely happens but can.
They are susceptible to ich and bacterial issues due to stress and need for Good water quality in captivity and do best on live foods which is not always available.

I heard they do well on “reef tanks”

 

[Mattthew]

I heard they do well on “reef tanks”

I also am not interested in other fish so they would not have tank mates.
Thank you for your reply though.
I still plan on giving it a shot. I’ll keep at it until I get it down. It may take awhile but I am determined and will not give up. I’m aware of the cow fish price and I am fine with that as well.
Thanks

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board!

 

[1112-425XL]

 

[MDAquatics]

Welcome! I would take it slow. Maybe start your tank with other fish that would be easy to re-home until the tank is fully established. From there you can re-home them and move on to your cowfish endeavor. Takes a while to get a tank fully settled in and everything I read puts cowfish in the tricky category.

 

[Nano_Man]

 

[cabinet pumper123]

Dang I never heard of a cow fish, is it hard to maintain?

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Matthew. Some great advice given.

 

[tharbin]

Welcome to R2R! I've never kept cowfish for all of the reasons mentioned above so I can't give any advice, but, good luck. There are lots of people that have successfully kept 'difficult' species before.

 

[ReeferHD]

welcome to reef2reef! cowfish care is pretty straightforward after you learn how to run a saltwater aquarium, they can be finicky with eating and are susceptible to diseases so a UV sterilizer is a must, i also recommend asking your LFS to feed it before buying to make sure it's going to do well, ive had a few cowfish, if you have any questions i'd be happy to answer them!

 

[sc50964]

I have had a few cow fish. They are more of on the sensitive side but aren’t hard to get it to eat if you get a medium one. Ones that are very large seldom do well in captivity. Tiny to small ones eat but they get spooked too easily. Even when kept in its own tank, it’s best to find a place away from foot traffic and room light so it doesn’t get spooked by any sudden motion or brightness. You also need to basically keep your tank scape as simple as possible as they don’t maneuver too well. They do better if the flow is slow & constant which means they don’t need a big tank to begin with. They do get ich quite easily. You also don’t want to have any HOB type of device as the intake can get them stuck. I had one love eating my leather coral but left LPS untouched. They would develop the habit to beg for food by coming to the surface to spit water if you feed them food like flakes. It’s best to just feed them non floating pellets for most of the time.

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!

 

[Buckster]

Hello Matthew and Welcome to R2R! I don't know anything about cow fish