Rescued silver aro-looks like it's been in a car wreck

davis101

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2009
667
1
18
canada
So my friend tells me about his friend who is giving away a 16-18" silver aro, because it's in a 70 gallon bowfront. Interested in giving it a bigger home, I say sure I will take it. My friend picks it up and brings it to my house and it's 26" long! It's also missing scales, no barbells, cracked it's head open on the move, drop eye pretty bad in the one eye and it's other eye, which I thought was MIA, is starting to get some color back, but is just terrible looking. I know the drop eye is there and there's nothing that can be done, but what about his other eye? I added salt, but I have raised the temp up yet (it's sitting at 82 or so). image.jpg

image.jpg
 

Miguel

Ole Dawg
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2006
15,857
27
89
Very much south..
Just leave it be. Good water, calm environment.

Let it be hungry before attempting to feed.

How is it acting, in any case?

Kudus to you.
 

festaedan

Piranha
MFK Member
Jul 25, 2013
2,234
230
81
22
Maryland
Whoa! good luck on bringing it back to health.
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
11
38
New Hampshire
Good luck with the rescue, thats a beast of an aro to be in a tiny tank, kinda sad it got that way but glad to see its in a better home. Keep us updated with progress
 

davis101

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2009
667
1
18
canada
It was originally spinning around in a circle, then it laid on the bottom, then it started spinning in larger circles and now finally it's swimming normally around the tank. I have a few big red hook silver dollars in the tank and the aro scooped up a couple tiny pieces of shrimp that were floating around.


I've read that if an aro has cloudy eye for long enough, it's pupil will shrink. Do you guys think this is the case here? Thanks for all the support by the way!

Should I raise the temperature up at all and should I continue with the salt regime? I'm going to do a 30% water change daily until he looks a bit better. I was just thinking that would be a lot of salt! Lol
 

davis101

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2009
667
1
18
canada
I thought for sure he was going to die when I saw his condition, him swimming in circles and him gasping for air. I guess he cut his head open by breaking the guys plastic tank lid when they were fishing it out.... With a net lol
 

ascarbo27

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 5, 2014
582
3
0
tampa fl
wow thats sad, ive read up on drop eye, someone said that this is a good fix, put a ping pong ball on the water and black the tank out for afew days, it forses the fish to look upwards. may just be a remidy but worth a try
 
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