My Cowfish don't wanna eat. What do I do??

[gabeufl]

Hello everyone,
A friend of mine gave me this really big cowfish, it's about 5 to 6 inches big, I never seen one so big. I've putted him in my 80 gal tank a week ago and he's not eating at all. I've tried tenera algae, silversides, brine shrimp (flake and frozen). Please help me!!! Any idea I would really apriciate.
Thanks a lot,
Gabe

 

[pyro383]

search for my posting on how to make your own food, this should get him going, as this was recommended on a cowfish site. Also garlic could work on his food to entice his appetite

 

[clarkiiboi]

First Welcome to the board!
I dont know a thing about cowfish, but saw you were new and an easier way to search for that post is to go under pyro383's name on this post and click search there, that'll narrow it down more and show you exactly where to go. Good luck.

 

[peasly1]

is there anything else in the tank ? sometimes fish need a little time to feel comfortable ?maybe try some krill...

 

[sistrmary]

That's the problem with cowfish. Well, that and the fact that they can kill your entire tank because they're having a bad time. If it's housed with aggressive fish, remove the aggressive fish. Cowfish are notoriously timid, which is a huge problem because they need to eat three or four times a day. **DO NOT FEED IT FLOATING FOOD** Sometimes they'll swallow air and it causes some serious problems with them.
Try krill, squid, dried seaweed, mysis shrimp...etc. Just offer it a bit of everything...and get it eating since they don't cope with stress well. Cowfish are cool looking, but they're floating timebombs.
I'm hoping, for your sake that it's a thornback cowfish as they only get 6" or so long. The longhorn and scrawled cowfish get over 18" long and require 180-200gal tanks. Not to mention thornbacks aren't as likely to poison your tanks as the other two are.
What all do you have in the tank with it?

 

[gabeufl]

Thanks everybody for all your help.
The cowfish it is by itself on the right now. It doesn't have long horns like I saw a few on web sites. I'll try all kind of food, I just don't wanna it to die. The dried alge, squids and frozen brine shrimp it didn't eat. Please give me a few more options.
Thanks again,
Gabe

 

[sistrmary]

Try literally everything. Go to the LFS, credit card in hand and pick through their freezer for one of everything. Then go to an asian market (Or a health food store, something along those lines) and pick up some unsalted sushi nori. If you can't find it, tell them what you're looking for.
Try some live ghost shrimp, just to initiate a feeding response.
What was your friend feeding it? Or did he give it to you because it wouldn't eat?