Cowfish owners.
- Thread starter scotts
- Start date
broncofish
Active Member
Hey Robb did it kill your tank like all the rumors say?
broncofish
Active Member
By the way robb everytime I log ontoSWF my kid(4yrs old) asks to see the dancing skeleton, when I was four I would have ran away scared?
moorishidol
New Member
I have always been attracted to cowfishes, not necessarily boxfishes but cowfishes and they will always be interesting to me. However, My tank was killed and it was twice that this was done. The tank was thriving very well till I got these fish and then everything was dead in a matter of days to less than a week. The only explaination.... cowfish did it but I will not know for sure. All i can say is try it and see what happens. I loved the small cowfish. He was funner to watch to me than the big ones but I had a filter problem with him so he had to go. Dont you love when you get them and they come with the little cork things on their horns?
broncofish
Active Member
I took a bunch of pictures of my new cubicus diggin his new pad and freinds, I'll post them here tommorow
battlecat316
Member
As hard as it may be to believe, I watch th ecow rip at the puffer with my own eyes, the tang and blennies that were eaten were speculation, but i think he is to blame.
broncofish
Active Member
Say What?
travis truman
Member
but I think cowfish are the ugliest things in the ocean........for real.........cows are ugly.........so they put cow in front of fish...and tagged it on an ugly fish
sorry for all the cow lovers......but it had to be said
sorry for all the cow lovers......but it had to be said
broncofish
Active Member
truman capote was a hack writer with no individual style, so they put a bland name like travis infront of it...and wah lah you get a mean spirited post about a cute little fish. 
lol jusyt kidding travis, and truth be told I actually like truman capote
lol jusyt kidding travis, and truth be told I actually like truman capote
A
alti
Guest
pass it to me too
nice avatar kimkissyfish. where did you get it?
nice avatar kimkissyfish. where did you get it?
broncofish
Active Member
with out further adu my new yellow cubicus
broncofish
Active Member
Originally posted by sammystingray
battlecat316, what are you smoking? pass it around.
Cowfish are so slow, even in nature you can catch them by hand.....tore apart all those fish?!?!?! Are you sure you had a cowfish?
Maybe it was an evil government altered genetic experiment cowfish? In reality boxfish are designed like a box by nature so the don't fit easily in a mouth because they are S-L-O-W. I agree sammy could not be a cowfish
ophiura
Active Member
Too bad they don't stay cute and small for long. They get very large and will eat a variety of things, including (according to Fishbase) fish (as well as a variety of inverts). They fall into the "panther grouper" class of fish- cute and cuddly, but become huge and not as cute.
My LFS also will not stock them, after the having the same experience moorishIdol described happen at his LFS. I also had a customer have a kill off in his tank (he bought one at another LFS), and came to us for answers on what to do.
They won't all die (or live) and poison a tank, but it is a possibility and a reality. Hopefully we don't ever see a post from anyone on this.
I remember a post from a guy who was sure he could learn a bunch by keeping a sea apple in his tank. Wrote a long post on how they are SO misunderstood and beautiful. The thing spawned (though he didn't know it at the time) the next day (if that) and freaked him out. Went back to the LFS ASAP. Nothing died, but he realized how easily he could have lost all his fish by playing with fire.
Keeping in mind that many people avoid them, and many people who buy them don't visit boards (or know what happened if their tank died anyway considering LFS don't usually tell them things are poisonous), it might be a rather limited dataset to have confidence in or draw many conclusions from.
I have come to adopt this philosophy for the hobby: your experience has very little impact on my success. Even if no one in this thread has had a poisoning event, it does not mean that you won't, it is a scientific fact that it can happen...and as soon as you have the greatest fish in the world, it probably will. Murphy's law. But you are more than welcome to take that risk.
But I would be wary of being too confident. Dolphins are really cute too, with those smiles and happy go lucky attitude. But scientists are learning that they are rather mean critters in their own right. There is something to learn from that. It is risky to be too anthropomorphic.
Best of luck.
My LFS also will not stock them, after the having the same experience moorishIdol described happen at his LFS. I also had a customer have a kill off in his tank (he bought one at another LFS), and came to us for answers on what to do.
They won't all die (or live) and poison a tank, but it is a possibility and a reality. Hopefully we don't ever see a post from anyone on this.
I remember a post from a guy who was sure he could learn a bunch by keeping a sea apple in his tank. Wrote a long post on how they are SO misunderstood and beautiful. The thing spawned (though he didn't know it at the time) the next day (if that) and freaked him out. Went back to the LFS ASAP. Nothing died, but he realized how easily he could have lost all his fish by playing with fire.
Keeping in mind that many people avoid them, and many people who buy them don't visit boards (or know what happened if their tank died anyway considering LFS don't usually tell them things are poisonous), it might be a rather limited dataset to have confidence in or draw many conclusions from.
I have come to adopt this philosophy for the hobby: your experience has very little impact on my success. Even if no one in this thread has had a poisoning event, it does not mean that you won't, it is a scientific fact that it can happen...and as soon as you have the greatest fish in the world, it probably will. Murphy's law. But you are more than welcome to take that risk.
But I would be wary of being too confident. Dolphins are really cute too, with those smiles and happy go lucky attitude. But scientists are learning that they are rather mean critters in their own right. There is something to learn from that. It is risky to be too anthropomorphic.
Best of luck.
A
alti
Guest
i agree that alot of people dont visit the board and just buy them without doing any research.
however, i think the chance of a cowfish or boxfish killing your tank if you provide them with the proper home and tankmates is extremely slim. no fish is going to release a deadly toxin if there is no reason for it. i think the vast majority of the poisonings that occur happen to people who do not treat them properly. ive also seen the boxfish blamed as the scapegoat. its alot easier for someone to say "my boxfish killed my tank" and alot harder to admit that they have a hugely overstocked tank with incompatible fish and have not done a water change in 6 months. the stores have to tell people about the chance of them spewing toxins so that people dont come back to the store screaming about how the box fish nuked their tank.
however, i think the chance of a cowfish or boxfish killing your tank if you provide them with the proper home and tankmates is extremely slim. no fish is going to release a deadly toxin if there is no reason for it. i think the vast majority of the poisonings that occur happen to people who do not treat them properly. ive also seen the boxfish blamed as the scapegoat. its alot easier for someone to say "my boxfish killed my tank" and alot harder to admit that they have a hugely overstocked tank with incompatible fish and have not done a water change in 6 months. the stores have to tell people about the chance of them spewing toxins so that people dont come back to the store screaming about how the box fish nuked their tank.
