Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

[wuvmybetta]

I think he/she is gorgeous He's got a bit of the crud on his back, and slight cloud eye. But I think a stable enviroment with lots of good food will help that better than anything. He looks 100x better than he did yesterday already. And he eats like no other, taking seaweed right from our hands.

cute, huh?!

 

[33moths]

That's the cutest, coolest, and funkiest fish ever! I love it!

 

[wuvmybetta]

I do too! He's way awesome in person, friendly ,cute and poisonous! I'm in love

 

[Pheonix]

excellent example you have there!!!

what else do you keep im the tank with it?

 

[wuvmybetta]

right now it's just him in a 100 gallon with four damsels and some crabs. I plan to go ahead and make it a reef tank around him in the future. I'll see how much I can get away with with him.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Their skin. Apparently startling them, or severe stess makes the excrete a toxin which usually kills everything in the tank, including themselves. But from what I have read this is not a common action, and from what I've seen they seem fairly laid back. I even picked him up with my hands to move him from the bucket to the tank and he just sat there- no thrashing or fit throwing. He did grunt though! Which was way cute!@

 

[andywg]

They contain poison in their bodies, and a number of boxfish have the ability to dump it to the tank when the conditions become pretty nad for them, thus nuking the tank. Lovely fish, but I would be very nervous about one with other fish, let alone a reef.

You are brave though Wuv, and I wish you the best of luck with the little fish.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks Andy! I read a thread on reef central where someone had his in with corals and fish, and it had been harmless to date. I figure that if I keep him well fed he will steer clear of the corals. We shall see! If anything he may wind up keeping that tank as fowlr and I can do a reef in another tank. For now my nano keeps me happy as far as corals go.

 

[andywg]

It's not the damage to the corals that would worry me so much as the possible damage if it gets upset. I would have more expected a boxfish to be like a puffer or porcupinefish and take off clean up crew before polyps.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Indeed, I won't be adding any additional fish or stock for quite a long time. I'll test him out and see. This morning I woke up and couldn't find a damsel in sight, which is a first since they usually rush right up when I turn on the lights. I really thought he ate them/killed them over night but they were just hanging out in the newly arranged rocks
I weighed all of these factors in for weeks before deciding that I would take him. If it boils down to him living alone in the tank (with maybe some mushrooms) that is fine by me. I already have two large tanks set up to house one fish (midas and red devil) and honestly, I like one fish in a huge tank a lot. Watching my midas cruise his 120, at the moment, is like the perfect tank, imo And watching the cowfish is awesome, too. My daughter said last night "I can't stop watching him! He's better than TV" Especially when he grazes along the sand blowing at it, he's awesome.

 

[ZeeZee]

OMG! What a cute little fishy!

 

[demonmagus]

they are awesome, saw some at a public aquarium and they were tiny

 

[blookah]

He did grunt though! Which was way cute!@

Awww! How beautiful and fun to look at!

 

[SPLiSH]

Aw! It's so cute! In a devil-horned, destroy-the-tank kind of way.

 

[Kuhni]

Great Fish, A Restaurant in the Harbour near me has 5 saltwater tanks and they have a cowfish, One of the loveliest fish to have because it's so unique