Ornate cowfish(*New*)

[bawater]

Have u seen one of these?- There are 3 strains that come from the Aussie regions.

Care for these species is similar to tropical cowfish; however, these species are from temperate waters and require tank temperatures between 50 to 65 degrees F. This is much cooler than the temperature requirement for tropical species. Hence, a chiller may need to be installed onto an Australian cowfish tank to keep temperatures within an acceptable range.

These fish feed on shrimp, crustaceans, and other invertebrates in their natural habitat. Shortly after breeding season, fishermen are menaced with juvenile specimens who steal bait from their fishing hooks.

Tankmates should be docile and of similar disposition. However, these species may be housed with seahorses, unlike tropical species. The Australian cowfish do not have the tendency to nip and pick on the slower moving seahorses, as the Longhorn species, for example, will. The Barred cowfish Anoplocapros lenticularis is more globular shaped than tropical cowfish. More spectacular specimens are bright orange or red with clearly visible white striping. They reach approximately 15 inches in length, so they would require an aquarium near 125 gallons.

[Achilles Tang]

Interesting... looks like a red tennis ball!

Aint' gonna keep any cow or boxfishes because they are poisonous and I hate to be not around to fish them out immediately if they die coz they'll leach toxic slime poisons out into the water.

Heard that you have to really wash down your tank thoroughly coz of one incident where a LFS in the states livestock in that one particular tank kept dying mysteriously.... coz it used to house boxfishes before.

They had to throw out everything... and give the tank/filtration system a good acid wash or something... heh!

But I must say that they are really cute!

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Hi Bawater...

Very beautiful specimen....I have seen it blue Australian cousin b4....on the internet.

Sadly they r not sold in SG....prob quite ex if it ever gets imported in.

[bawater]

i think it looks like a cherry with eyes! AT, had one vanish(or maybe eaten) on me before...no effects or maybe it was too small. My big one so far no problems- The most frequent poisoning is from the hawaiian kind(the blue/black spotted)- these sometimes avail in sealife abt $40.

The other type- white or yellow(yellow being the most common$8-$12) don't usually pose problems- if they are not harrased of course!

That's why i had to thin out my fishes & only keep the peaceful ones.

But the toxin threat is still there- they are labelled the "Neutron bombs of the Aquarium"

Bluecarpet- Yeh, they from Aust. & shipped to U.S, so we never get to see them- cause ours from indo. & phillipines. I think we just at the perile of the importers/exporters- sadly that's the way the major ornamental fish trade has been done for the last 30yrs & will be done for the next ....yrs

[B|uEc@rpEt]

SO sian rite bawater? Nice fishes only available to other countries.

Sometimes I really hope there r LFS willing to ship in certain species for us....and of cos at a reasonable price lah....

I spoke to someone b4 who claimed he could ship in a seadragon for $2.5K. Think such rare (& endangered) stuff r best left in the wild...

[Chris]

Bawater, the red cowfish looks delicious! Ha ha. I used to have a common cow and kept it from 2 cm to about 15 cm. Very cute and can be hand-fed. But it grew too big and my Hog-fish started harassing it, so I gave it to a farm and it was exported to Turkey. Hope it's happy there.