Almost lost my cowfish...

asylumdown · #1 12-03-2013, 04:57 AM

I did recently add a powder blue that has been aggressive towards my Copper band and my doliatus rabbit, but the powder blue has completely ignored the cowfish. He's not even reacted when the powder blue ambles over and vacuums up an entire 6 inch sheet of nori that the PB is nibbling on in a single bite.

I suppose it's possible that he did take a single run at him, but I still can't figure out how the cowfish got any air.

His tail is even worse tonight. There's almost no tissue left between the rays. I'm afraid that he might actually lose most of his tail.

Skimmer Juice · #2 12-03-2013, 03:59 PM

well there is a chance he could grow the damaged areas back, I recently took a chromis from a friend that was severely beat up no tail,fins were almost all gone . In a bout 6 weeks time he look great fully healed, so just hope for the best .

Like I said I never seen anything nip my cowfish until that one time and cowfish can generate some speed if necessary , and I could see him sliding up the side of the overflow due to there flat bottom's, kinda like if you drive a boat on land in will slide . That's the only way I could really see it happen . I don't think the cowfish would leisurely jump into the overflow. Just keep your eye on the other fish just to see if you can catch any fish beefing the cow.

And if you do catch another fish beefing him I got a 200g with 1 fish in it

asylumdown · #3 12-12-2013, 12:38 AM

soooooo, the bony rays of ferdinand's tail that were de-fleshed in "the incident" were very quickly colonized by diatoms and turned brown and fuzzy. Now they're also starting to sprout what looks like green hair algae. I'm really not sure what to do about this, should I catch him and cut the dead tissue off, or would that only make this way worse? So far he seems totally healthy, but having part of your body literally turn in to chia pet can't be good for you long term...

carfag · #4 12-12-2013, 12:56 AM

are you able to quarantine him?

i would not be able to sleep thinking he died and nuked the tank...

Coralgurl · #5 12-12-2013, 12:59 AM

I don't know anything about these fish so take this as you will. What about a dip in something medicated? Weird that he'd be growing algae on him but its finding nutrients there likely in the dead flesh. I wouldn't want to pick it off as I would think you'd risk doing more damage.

You should post a pic so others can help with diagnosing and ensuring you are getting proper advice.

asylumdown · #6 12-12-2013, 01:27 AM

It was REALLY hard to get good images, but here's the best of them:

I don't really have a way to QT him separately for any length of time without that being more of a risk to him than any injury he has. He's too big now for my QT system, which I only use for the tank transfer method. I'd basically be cycling it with him. He's acting totally normally still, it's like he's not even aware of it.

Coralgurl · #7 12-12-2013, 02:54 AM

Been doing some searching and can't find anything to really match what's going on, but this article has some good suggestions

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/18309...r-injured-fish

I've also read you could try a medicated dip and apply something like polysporin to the injury. Watch to see if it moves to its body.