Box Fish

Some of the box fishes are so cute that they simply cannot he ignored they are also known as yellow box fish. These fish are cube or cuboids in shape, and have a hard exterior (though not a retrospection). The hardened skin is only softer around the eyes, mouth and fins, so these fish swim as though in a straightjacket. They are very slow swimmers, though quittance, and settle down well to aquarium life, although they are obviously not adept at battling for food. Smaller species fit well into invertebrate systems.

One word of caution - many box fishes species give off a poison if severely threatened. This does not occur very regularly, but in the confines of an aquarium the result is invariably total wipe-out, so choose their companions carefully. It may he best to introduce the box fishes to the aquarium first before adding other fishes. Box fish release toxic gases after their death also, it happens automatically from their body so after the death of box fish just remove its body as soon as possible otherwise it can be harmful for other fishes in the aquarium. They are generally kept alone in the aquarium. Therefore breeding these fishes is not as successful as breeding other fishes. Box fish prefer to eat live blood worm, algae, sponges, crustaceans, mollusks etc, for this they put their mouth in the mud-covered or sandy bottom.

Box fish includes cowfish and trunkfish, both of them have squared body. If you are keeping box fish with other fishes in the same aquarium than you have to be very careful because they can be stressed very easily and you have to minimize that stress. Therefore it is necessary to avoid them to mix with aggressive species. Some small fishes of different species can be very violent to the box fishes such as goby species. You have to take a lot of care of the box fish because they require extra care. Due to care there will be some sort of increase in their popularity. Two species are very famous Long horned cow fish and Lactoria cornutus.

Box fishes are found in Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans including Indonesia, New Guinea etc. We can get the box fish in the depth of 2m to 40m. They grow up to the 45 cm in length. Box fish is also found in Australia and there it is known New South Wales. Box fish belongs to the family of Ostraciidae which actually mean hard, box type protecting the whole body. They are very rigid from the exterior; they can take any shape like square, pentagon, triangle etc. There is one more species related to box fish which is known as keeled box fishes. These fishes have keel around their body and on the fins. Keeled box fishes are found from Australia to Japan.

The porcupine fish (Dodo hysteric) is covered with sharp spines but is suitable for most set-ups. Many varieties of the sharp-nosed puffer (Antimatters.) also make good general fish. The hush puppy (Marathon ingrown) is normally seen at 10-13cm (4-Sin) but grows to about double this size.