Cowfish laying on sandbed?

mochaclowns · Dec 7, 2020

I have had a longhorn cowfish for about a year now, and have never encountered any problems with him. When I was feeding today I noticed that he was trying to swim through a rock(pushing upwards), I didn't really know what he was doing but thought that he could just be stuck so I moved the rock. He then went spiraling around the tank and hit the bottom staying upside down before rolling again. He was fine about 3 hours prior to this when I first got home. I've had to remove him from the tank and place him in a quarantine bucket(with a heater and bubbler) because I do not have a quarantine tank available. He's very dark in color when he's typically a burnt yellow shade. He's resting on the bottom of the bucket, his fins and gills are still moving. I saw him swim for about 5 seconds a minute ago before going back to resting at the bottom. I don't think it's ICH because he doesn't have any abnormal white spots, and none on his fins. I'm not quite sure what to do, I can't put him back into the main system for fear of him poisoning everything else. Does anyone know what's happening?

(this was the best image I was able to take, he's the dark blob, not the rock)

vetteguy53081 · Dec 7, 2020

Just made a posting about an hour ago on Cowfish.
Theyre unpredictable and once fed will soon starve or simply fall down. Theyre particular on water quality and quickly become lethargic without warning. If you see its' eyes appear sinking in, its almost the end.
Typically this type of response may be due to pH rising too quickly or a type of dusting on the fish which indicates a respone to disease.

Jay Hemdal · Dec 8, 2020

Sorry, I can't make anything out in the photo. I'm guessing the fish didn't survive the night - it sounds like it was moribund last night.

Cowfish are really strange in aquariums. As @vetteguy53081 said, they often seem to do well, and then, a year or so in captivity, they just drop. It happens a lot with cowfish. I also see this with anglerfish and boxfish. Nobody knows why this happens.

Jay