[Unlved]

are these community fish? will they attack my inverts? cant find much information on them and im considering getting one.

thanks

[greenbean36191]

They will go after most inverts. Crustaceans and worms are potential meals, and they might occasionally even go after snails. They can also get nippy towards corals, clams, and fish with long fins. There is also that nasty (though pretty rare) habit of releasing their toxin and nuking a tank.

All in all they are pretty similar to puffers as far as community suitability goes. It can be done, but you're taking a risk so you have to keep a close eye on them and be willing to lose a few inverts.

[dave00gt]

yes he is right.. he is like a puffer in a way.. supposebly nippy, although i do have my pufer in a reef tank , and he is not nipping anything . i guess it depends if he likes certain ones.

they say they are nippy but my puffer hasnt really nipped at anybody..in fact he evens gets poked a lil yellowtail damsel ..and he doesnt do anything but tilt to the side .

i would try him out.. they are cool looking.. but watchout for their toxins theyve been known to release when they die or stressed.. :slap:

[almostdiva]

Unlved,

Which boxfish are you considering? How big is your tank? What fish do you already have in residence?

Boxfish can be community fish, depending on what you have in your community. You CANNOT keep them with aggressive and aggressive feeding fish. No triggers, puffers, bold wrasses like any of the Thassaloma sp. , aggressive pseudochromis, etc. They will stress the boxfish and out-compete it for food. Boxfish are extremely peaceful fish that will eat worms, featherdusters, etc in a reef tank.

I would also highly recommend you quarantine the fish for a full 3 weeks before putting it in your main tank. They are somewhat delicate. Also read up on this fish -- they are scaleless, and have bony carapace (sp) instead for protection, so you can't treat them with certain meds (greenex, anything with malachite, etc). Meet the fish's living requirements in captivity, and they are great fish (smart...) with lots of personality. It's no joke about the toxin.. my best friend lost an entire 75G aquarium when she added a non-quarantined fish, got ich and tried to treat by dipping the boxfish -- which she had kept successfully for 3+ years, including having it survive a move from Colorado to PA. It was about 5 inches big. It got stressed, released its toxin and killed everything in the tank, including itself.

[SKRIZ]

I had one in college. A yellow boxfish, that is. it was an amazing fish with tons of personality. loves to be seen and very active. mine didn't touch a thing, no nibbling at all! didn't bother corals or anything. it would eat from my hand everyday..felt like it was my mini dog it is a very peaceful fish, so i would be careful if you have some aggressive guys.

[Dean812]

I just got a medium Longhorn Boxfish myself. I did a search here for some tips about it. I have him in a 30g thats been set up for 2 yrs and hes alone in the tank except for one Dogface puffer about equal to his size.

Im slightly worried about the toxic release talk. I wonder if anyone can tell me how often this can happen. is it a rarity or something thats very real and will happen at some point.

[greenbean36191]

It's pretty rare. It only happens when the fish is extremely stressed (as in it's on death's door). Even when they die, they usually don't release the toxin. The few times I've heard of it happening they had either been getting nipped at by other fish or got sucked onto a pump intake.

[almostdiva]

You can't keep the cowfish (it's a cowfish, not a boxfish, although they are in the same family) with the puffer long-term. The puffer will out-compete the cowfish for food. Keep with generally peaceful tankmates. And you NEED a bigger tank. both these fish will outgrow a 30g in less than 1 year. Consider ocellaris clowns, gobies, wrasses (fairy) things like that.

Good Luck!