Longhorn cowfish

[BellaCoop]

I came across a Long Horn CowFish recently and really wanted more information on it. At my LFS they did not even really know a tun about it. Anyone have one in their tank or know much about them? Are they Reef safe? How is their attitude? Any information on them would be awesome!

Thank you.

 

[RUNVS]

I have heard that they need to be a tank with docile fish as they can release a toxin and nuke your tank if ever too upset but in the same breath I have also heard anecdotal evidence that this rarely or doesn't happen at all, I was thinking about getting one myself and trying it as I dont have the most docile fish just not sure I want to risk nuking the tank either lol

 

[BellaCoop]

Dang... Yeah see I heard nothing about that... Because all my fish are docile so I am not worried about that but dang.. I will have to look more into that. It seems to be a fish not many people have a lot of information about.

 

[eatbreakfast]

I've kept them numerous times in numerous tanks. They can be delicate and prone to parasites until they settle.

Cowfish do not compete well for food, so need tankmates that are calmer. And they really benefit from being in tanks that get heavily fed.

Most fish ignore them, but nippy fish can ne problematic.

Cowfish have trouble navigating high flow.

They may nip some corals.

I've only ever seen 1 cowfish release their toxin, and that occurred while in a bucket being moved during hurricane Sandy.

 

[BellaCoop]

Thank you @eatbreakfast !! I have 6 Chromis in my tank and 2 Clowns. Would they work? I plan on keeping the Chromis in there for a bit just because their colors go awesome with my lights and them being Super active! I feed the tank regularly, (Probably more then I should) I was thinking of making the CowFish one of my main display fish along with my clowns.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Thank you @eatbreakfast !! I have 6 Chromis in my tank and 2 Clowns. Would they work? I plan on keeping the Chromis in there for a bit just because their colors go awesome with my lights and them being Super active! I feed the tank regularly, (Probably more then I should) I was thinking of making the CowFish one of my main display fish along with my clowns.

A group of chromis can outcompete a cowfish for food.

 

[BellaCoop]

So if I took out 3 Chromis so I only had 3 in the tank would that be better? Or still to competitive?

 

[dlockert]

We have a cowfish and he is more entertaining than I ever thought a fish could be. He bobs up and down, spits water at us (not a problem - we have a canopy), follows us around, will eat out of our hands, etc. He came with the tank we bought so that's how we ended up with him.

With regard to the issue of being delicate, getting sick, nuking the tank, etc. maybe our fish is exceptional but we don't find any of those things to be true, and believe me, if a cowfish were going to die, or nuke a tank, it would have been this one over the last 2 weeks.

2 weeks ago, our 240 gallon tank cracked along the front from corner to corner and all the water came out. The cowfish was laying on the floor along with some other fish. We scooped them all up and got them in our 20 gallon QT - roughly 30 different organisms between fish, crabs, anemones, etc. Way too much for such a little space. they were all in there for about 4 1/2 hours until we could get most of them moved to our LFS until we could figure something out. He was fine.

We kept the cowfish and a few other fish at home in the 20 gallon. Still way too many fish. So, went and picked up a 39 gallon to have as a backup and got it set up. While we were doing that, we wanted to use as much of the existing tank water as possible - as we were siphoning it out, he first got stuck on the siphon and then panicked when the water got too shallow. I'm talking full-on panic. I scooped him out in a pitcher I had handy, hoping he wouldn't kill all the fish and himself. Put him in a larger bowl until we could get the water all moved into the new tank. Still total panic until we got him in the tank.

Since then, he has been subject to every rookie mistake we could have possibly made. Every water quality issue you can imagine. Still going strong.

Then the tang that was with him got Ich, and so did he and 2 other fish. Wanted to get them into QT tank with no sand, etc. so we did that, in a 10 gallon tank this time (the 20 gallon got dropped and broken in cleaning). We did everything wrong that you could do to eliminate Ich and whatever the black spots were on a different fish. Hypo, prazipro, Ich treatment., all kinds of things we probably shouldn't have done. Of course, no biological filter so we're doing water changes every day to keep the ammonia down, etc... 2 of the other fish in the tank died, which honestly is not a surprise considering how crazy it has been.

He is currently bobbing up and down happily spitting water, tail all fanned out as I write this. So, I'm going to respectfully suggest that the risk of a cowfish nuking a tank probably exists, but I would call it possible, not probable.

So, if you want a super entertaining fish with a great personality, this one should definitely be considered!

 

[00Barracuda00]

We have a cowfish and he is more entertaining than I ever thought a fish could be. He bobs up and down, spits water at us (not a problem - we have a canopy), follows us around, will eat out of our hands, etc. He came with the tank we bought so that's how we ended up with him.

With regard to the issue of being delicate, getting sick, nuking the tank, etc. maybe our fish is exceptional but we don't find any of those things to be true, and believe me, if a cowfish were going to die, or nuke a tank, it would have been this one over the last 2 weeks.

2 weeks ago, our 240 gallon tank cracked along the front from corner to corner and all the water came out. The cowfish was laying on the floor along with some other fish. We scooped them all up and got them in our 20 gallon QT - roughly 30 different organisms between fish, crabs, anemones, etc. Way too much for such a little space. they were all in there for about 4 1/2 hours until we could get most of them moved to our LFS until we could figure something out. He was fine.

We kept the cowfish and a few other fish at home in the 20 gallon. Still way too many fish. So, went and picked up a 39 gallon to have as a backup and got it set up. While we were doing that, we wanted to use as much of the existing tank water as possible - as we were siphoning it out, he first got stuck on the siphon and then panicked when the water got too shallow. I'm talking full-on panic. I scooped him out in a pitcher I had handy, hoping he wouldn't kill all the fish and himself. Put him in a larger bowl until we could get the water all moved into the new tank. Still total panic until we got him in the tank.

Since then, he has been subject to every rookie mistake we could have possibly made. Every water quality issue you can imagine. Still going strong.

Then the tang that was with him got Ich, and so did he and 2 other fish. Wanted to get them into QT tank with no sand, etc. so we did that, in a 10 gallon tank this time (the 20 gallon got dropped and broken in cleaning). We did everything wrong that you could do to eliminate Ich and whatever the black spots were on a different fish. Hypo, prazipro, Ich treatment., all kinds of things we probably shouldn't have done. Of course, no biological filter so we're doing water changes every day to keep the ammonia down, etc... 2 of the other fish in the tank died, which honestly is not a surprise considering how crazy it has been.

He is currently bobbing up and down happily spitting water, tail all fanned out as I write this. So, I'm going to respectfully suggest that the risk of a cowfish nuking a tank probably exists, but I would call it possible, not probable.

So, if you want a super entertaining fish with a great personality, this one should definitely be considered!

My wife wants one in the worst possible way. I'm still in the planning stages of running my first tank, and she's already named this imaginary cowfish we don't have. This post helped calm some of my fears.

 

[davocean]

The biggest issue I had w/ a cowfish is it tried to eat anything it could, corals, clams, anything.
While they look slow and clumsy mine had no problem w/ other fish or decent flow, but I won't have one in a reef anymore

 

[dlockert]

The biggest issue I had w/ a cowfish is it tried to eat anything it could, corals, clams, anything.
While they look slow and clumsy mine had no problem w/ other fish or decent flow, but I won't have one in a reef anymore

Our cowfish will also pick at anything/everything. He's very curious and needs to always be in the middle of everything which also includes investigating everything in the tank. Like a baby, he wants to put everything in his mouth. Love him anyway!