Longhorn Cowfish Somersaulting?

[rjbrooksjr]

I fell in love with and purchased a longhorn cowfish today. He was welcomed well enough by the other inhabitants, and has seemed to do well. Before going to bed though I noticed he was swimming around and doing a bit of a barrel roll or somersault. Is this something I should worry about? He doesn't seem otherwise sick or distressed, but obviously I have to watch him closely. I took a video:

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=anndo5ex9H8&list=UUz0_32EPrYy_fmUlGF_U-tw&index=1&feature=plcp

He was near a powerhead while doing this, but not directly in its path...

 

[lljdma06]

What are you tank stats? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, calcium? Also size of system and age of system?

Some fish have unusual swimming habits, but I'm not an expert on Cowfish.

L

 

[ALW]

That doesnt look too good. Can you QT it? If it is going to die it will wipe out the whole tank, as boxfish exude a deadly poison when they are either stressed or dying.

 

[rjbrooksjr]

Thanks for the replies. I posted that before I went to bed last night, and today he seemed to be a little worse. He was still acting fine, swimming around, but as the day went on, he wasn't even keeping his body straight any longer. I called the LFS I got him from, and they took him back for a full refund. They agreed he wasn't acting "sick", but sure was swimming oddly. Anyway, he's back there being taken care of.

 

[-Nemo-]

IME, when they start doing flips like that, I've been told they're releasing toxins into the water due to being stressed. I would do a water change just in case.

 

[kj23502]

and run carbon.

 

[rjbrooksjr]

Late follow up, since I've had some messages too.

I took him back to LFS. A few days later I noticed a pretty huge nitrate spike... in a week or so it went from my normal 20ish to 80. After much messing around, it turned out my filter's output wasn't much more than a trickle. Still recovering from that madness.

The good news is I went back to LFS the other day, and he's doing just fine. They still have him and he's swimming around and looks healthy again. No more spinning.