stuck cowfish

[tselios]

this morning when my lights turned on, i found that my cowfish was stuck to the powerhead intake filter. I nudged him off and he's swimming right now. the fin that was caught isn't moving much, but he uses it when he has to and his tail looks a little beat up. what should i do?

 

[robchuck]

Keep a close eye on it. Chances are it will be alright, but you may need to QT the fish to give it time to heal.
Cowfish are clumsy swimmers to begin with and have a knack for getting caught on powerheads. I had a cowfish that would get sucked up against powerheads (even with prefilters attached). Unfortunately, it got caught one too many times and died in QT.

 

[tgill]

My Tang did the same thing. The first time I was able to save him the second I was not.

 

[hewetton]

The lesson has been learned. Cowfish/Boxfish are clumsy swimmers. You have to make sure the powerhead is not too powerful or you have something like sponge arounf the intake so that it won't get sucked into it. Your cowfish will be fine, just a bit shaken up. You can add some medication to prevental bacterial infection if you're concerned and be sure to feed him well.

 

[tselios]

thanks for the support. usually he's pretty good about staying away fromt he intakes. i think he just floated too close to the intake when he was sleeping or just swimming in the dark. thanks again.

 

[gilpil]

You may want to qt for sure if you have other fish in the tank, because if he is stressed out enough about this ordeal, he may be releasing toxins into the water. I wouldn't want my other fish to die. Just a thought, I don't know if you have any other fish in this tank.

 

[ophiura]

I really do not recommend adding any medication to a main tank. This can have catastrophic results in some cases. I do recommend thinking about the placement of your powerheads and whether there is a way you can protect them better so that the cowfish can't end up near them.

 

[nc2tarheel]

my cleaner shrimp did that when i first got him. I put my hand in and cleared him away and the retard went right back to it. So i said screw it, he'll learn. Left him there for 2 mins or so and he got loose on his own. I haven't seen him back since.