HELP please - reticulate boxfish - anyone with boxfish experience?

[LisaD]

I received a male reticulate boxfish, Ostracion solorensis, to pair with my female yesterday. I usually acclimate, but put this one directly in the tank with the female. I took my time acclimating, and the fish seemed fine Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday, it was swimming strange - sort of laboring in place, not going far. Sort of like the shimmy disease you can see in freshwater fish. I don't know what it has, and I'm also afraid it's going to poison my tank. I can isolate it in a QT, and will do so soon. I don't see any other signs of disease/distress.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on with this fish? It is from LA, and seemed in good shape when it arrived. It has not shown much interest in food, either.

I've had my female for quite some time, got her last year. She's never had a problem.

Please help if you have any ideas at all.

[LisaD]

update, boxfish is looking better, swimming more normally. I've had some good feedback from Kevin Kohen at LA. keep your fingers crossed for me.

[Mentat]

Glad it's better Lisa! Do you know what caused symptoms?

[rssjsb]

Hope he continues to improve.

I'd love to see some pictures - was this fish on DD? I always miss the good ones.

[MatthewLaw]

glad to hear he is doing better. did you move him to QT? treat with anything?

[Umbriel]

Wow, a male o. solorensis! I usually check LA DD every night...how did I miss this one? Oh well, it just means like everyone else, I'll ask for pictures. I imagine it's just as beautiful as your female. :)

Keep us updated on his progress, and I hope things continue to get better for him.

[namxas]

glad to hear it's better Lisa-dee...*crossing fingers*

[LisaD]

Umbriel,
I have to check on it, still at work. This was not a DD fish - it was more of a pre-order, but was shipped from LA in Wisconsin. I have never seen a male solorensis before. I think many are lost in the collection chain due to stress and killing themselves with the toxin.

Mentat,
Kevin thinks it was stressed from travel and acclimation. If all is fine when I get home, I think we will be out of the woods. My skimmer went nuts, possibly from the toxin.

Matthew,
I separated it from the other fish in the tank, though I saw no sign of harassment. I did not have time to set up an appropriate QT. My established QTs are full of other fish right now (they are waiting for some reshuffling to happen).

Thanks for the kind thoughts and concern, folks. I am hoping he is fine. I will know in about 30 minutes, when I get home.

I will post pictures soon. He is not bright blue - I'm hoping he is changing. Even if he stays on the dullish side, I am delighted to have him. The fish is about 3.5"

[fish stalker]

Whew! Glad its doing better , toxin in the tank ...... My biggest worry with my cow fish too. Let us know what happens. keeping fingers crossed!

[rssjsb]

How's he doing?

[LisaD]

I'm still at work, sigh... will check on him soon and check in.

[LisaD]

got home really late from work - happy to report that the male reticulated boxfish is doing great!

[Mentat]

Updates? How's the boy doing?

[LisaD]

He's doing great! Here's a picture from LA:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/ldarmo/malereticulatedboxfish06-09.jpg

I'm hoping he'll develop more blue as he gets older. There's just a flush - more than shows in the picture. But even if he doesn't become more blue, I'm really happy with this fish.

I'll try to get a picture from my tank soon.

[LuvAngels88]

Very nice, Lisa!

[rssjsb]

Yay! How big is he?

[Terryz_]

It is still changing to male.. a fully transformed male is really nice.. but not a easy fish.. the male is more difficult den the female imo..

[LisaD]

rssjsb, he is not full sized. As Terryz_ said, he is changing. He is about 3.5". The two of them swim together, a really delightful pair of fish. I hope the male makes it. He looks good right now, but it's too early to tell for sure.

[namxas]

great news, Lisa!

OT: since you have that big tank, there's really nice-looking S. brasiliensis on DD. we'd love to get it, but just don't have room for another foot-long scorp.

[LisaD]

thinking about it... I am getting one of my holy grail fish soon, and at this point, I'm not sure if there is room for "one more" or not...

I also just got eight Hippocampus fuscus from a breeder at the ORG. You know him. :) These were a few "special" seahorses in need of a home, with minor defects that made them unsellable. They are wonderful, healthy, lots of personality.