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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing cowfishes. From tree frogs to sand fleas - we’ve talked about plenty of animals with seemingly inappropriate common names on this show, but today’s subjects have a couple common names and they all actually make a lot of sense. Cowfish are also known as boxfish and trunkfish. While they most certainly are fish, they’re definitely not cows, but they do, however, somewhat resemble cows. Well some species do anyway. They also appear quite boxy in shape, and we’ll be discussing more about their resemblance to cows and their boxy physique later on in the video.

There are approximately 25 living classified species of cowfish and they can be found swimming in coastal marine waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. Cowfish are benthic animals meaning they spend most of their time at the bottom of the water column. They may be found in lagoons, rocky or coral reefs, and seagrass beds. Generally, cowfish don’t swim deeper than 328 feet (100m) below the waves, and really they aren’t strong swimmers at all, but we’ll come back to that. In size, cowfish can reach upwards of 20 inches (50cm), though smaller species may not reach even half this length. They come in a slew of colors and often they sport intricate hexagon patterns across their skin. These patterns come from the scales that form a cowfish’s shell.

A cowfish’s body is nearly completely encased in a carapace made up of thickened and enlarged bony scale plates - think kind of like a turtle’s shell - except the cowfish’s shell is covered in skin. So, like, when a cowfish dies, it leaves behind a shell that looks like a ghost of the former animal. It’s a little creepy, right? This shell gives the boxfish its boxy structure, hence the name boxfish - and we’re assuming the “trunk” in the common name trunkfish is more along the lines of a trunk style box versus something like an elephant trunk! This rigid shell makes the cowfish a generally poor swimmer, at least in terms of speed; they are, however, quite maneuverable in the water and able to turn 360 degrees in a single spot - basically they have tank controls and are kind of like underwater helicopters! This tough shell also makes the cowfish pretty unappetizing. If that wasn’t enough, though, cowfish are also able to release a toxin to deter predators. Still this doesn’t stop people from eating them! In fact, cowfish are closely related to pufferfish fish who are also toxic and also eaten by humans! Many cowfish also come equipped with spines protruding from just above their eyes as well as near their anal fins. These head spines make the cowfish look somewhat similar to a cow with pointed horns, hence the common name!

Cowfish themselves have small mouths with large lips and few teeth. At most cowfish have about thirty teeth which compared to humans seems like a lot but considering the amount of teeth in the mouths of other fish it’s not that many comparatively! In order to find their prey cowfish have eyes that move independently of each other like the eyes of a chameleon. They may also blow streams of water in the sand as a means of searching for buried prey. Cowfish eat invertebrates like sponges, tunicates, soft corals, crustaceans, worms as well as algae.

Cowfish may breed year round depending on the species, though some, like those living in the Carribean, have peak spawning times. Cowfish eggs are laid near the top of the water column at night and fertilized externally. The eggs are born with a droplet of oil inside which helps to keep them afloat. Generally speaking, cowfish likely live less than a decade.

For more facts on cowfishes, check out the link in the description. Thank you to Joseph and Jack for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!