Cow or Box fish

[clown-lover]

I'm trying to see some pictures of cowfish and boxfish when they become adults. I've seen how cute they are when they are about 2", but i hear that they can get big and that the appearace of them can change dramatically.
if anyone has any pictures of these fish, small and large, please post and tell about how old they are.
thanks

 

[ross]

I dont have any pics but i have seen adult ones and they are ugly!!!!

 

[fishtanker]

here's my yellow boxfish...he's about 6-7", had him over a year

 

[lovethesea]

hmmm, I still think their cute...
I would love to have one.

 

[clown-lover]

wow, he is cute, thanks for the pic
how big was he when you first got him a year ago?

 

[azonic]

I've got a Longhorn Cowfish. I only got him about a month ago and he's about 2.5 inches...has .5 inch horns on front and back. Really cute fish.
Also has a LOT of personality...I can hand feed him after only having him a month and I can pet him and touch his horns whenever I want. He swims to my fingers as soon as they touch the water.
Great fish...but they do get quite big.

 

[ozadars]

nice cowfish fishtanker!
btw whats the difference between cowfishand boxfish. I think boxfish is a cowfish

 

[lovethesea]

the cowfish has little horns on his head. Very cute too!

 

[ozadars]

ok i m complicated.
So they are all boxfish and cowfish is also a kind of boxfish
cowfish are also called long horn boxfish
am i right?

 

[lovethesea]

hmmm, let me do some reading in my handy dandy fish book.

 

[lovethesea]

ok I'm back....yes, they are of the same species. cowfish/boxfish. the cowfish have little horns and the box fish don't. fishtankers is considered a Cube boxfish (ostracion cubucus) or yellow boxfish.
The thing I learned is they are not reef safe and need pretty large tanks. It also said to avoid floating food as they my ingest air into their stomachs and cause byouancy problems.
I still love them especially the long horn he kind of looks like a flying saucer.

 

[clown-lover]

so that's the difference!! thanks for clearing that up!!!
any more pictures of adult or young box/cow fish???

 

[mightyoxjuice]

9" cowfish in the National Aquarium in Baltimore

 

[ross]

Those guys are really cool! The adult one in "The consitous marine aquarist" is really ugly.

 

[dugan]

My LFS had a few tiny cowfish today... they were about 1/2" square (LOL) and it made me regret my decision to downsize my tank. They were so freaking CUTE!!!

Katie

 

[fishtanker]

Originally posted by Ross
Those guys are really cool! The adult one in "The consitous marine aquarist" is really ugly.
Yea i agree on that...there are different types of (ostracion cubucus) aka yellow boxfish i hope mine doesn't turn into that.
BTW thanks for all the kind words. The fish grew about 3-4" in the year or so that i've had him. Awesome fish with great personality.
here's a pic of him sticking his head out the water. SOmetimes he'll spit a jet of water at me

 

[clown-lover]

OMG, I love that picture of him eating.....
you know, i have that book, and that one is ugly, that's one of the reasons that i posted this thread, i've never seen any other picture of a boxfish that has looked that ugly and i wanted to see some pictures of other adult boxfish/cowfish....
thanks for the pictures guys

 

[azonic]

The "Not Reef Safe" comment is not very accurate.
Mine and several others I know of are housed in reef systems with no problems.

 

[lovethesea]

The book makes that statement with every box/cow fish explaination.

 

[clown-lover]

yeah, that book says a lot of bad things about fish. it's almost as if he doesn't even want people to have them.
i've done a lot of reasearch on these fish though, and everywhere i read, it tells me that they are not reef safe.
Guess it all depends on the fish