Urgent Aimara Help

This morning I received a 10" Colombian aimara, which came in great shape. However after the first few hours in his tank (75 gallon quarantine), he has begun to jump extremely hard against the top. Over the past 5 hours or so, he has done it probably two dozen times causing a bit of damage to himself (missing teeth on the lower jaw and a fair bit of damage to the underside of his jaw)

I'm terribly worried if he keeps this up he'll end up killing himself. I have covered the tank in a black sheet and lowered the water level by about 6", but this has done very little to discourage his self mutilation. I can't seem to find anything that could be stressing him out to this degree. Water parameters are spot on, and there's great oxygenation and water flow.

Does anyone have any tips/secret tricks that could save my precious new acquisition before it's to late?

You think it's due solely to the tank size? I'm going to be setting up his 240 in less than two weeks, do you think he'll last that long, or is there something/anything else I should do in the immediate future?

krichardson said:

Keep the room that the tank is in quiet and dark and put a rush on that 240.I wouldn't think it would be antsy over new and smaller surroundings but then I've never had aimara....

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I ended up adding a dozen or so alder cones and a pair of IAL to stain the water, covered the entire tank, turned every light in the house off (up to and including my alarm clock!), and I stayed the night at a friends. I wanted her to be in complete darkness and silence.

The 240 has been put on DEFCON 5, and, should everything go smoothly and according to plan, be up and running by Sunday the 28th. It's hard to find 6 friends willing to break their back moving this tank! It's 3/4" thick low lead glass, the tank is an absolute monster...necessary to grow out a fish equally as monstrous...

DB junkie said:

Wolves hate being transported - shipping or anything.

IF it's hitting the top wrap the top in bubble wrap or something to prevent it from hurting itself. I use bubble wrap for tote lids when transporting jumpy fish.

Does it have a retreat/hideout? Their "home" is their security blanket. I'd try a makeshift cave from driftwood, big piece of pvc tube, something along those lines.



Lastly I'd pack the surface with floating plants.......

You're finding out why I'll only buy lil guys. IF you wanted a pet lion would you go get a grown one from the wild or raise a cub?

Good luck, hopefully he'll calm down before too long.

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Thanks for all the advice DB!

She does have a large hide in the form of half a 14" terracotta pot, but she seems more content hiding behind one of the large sponges. I'll be contacting a fellow hobbyist who specializes in planted tanks for a grocery bag full of water lettuce and frogbit. I want the 240 to have about 75% of the waters surface covered in floating plants, both to discourage jumping, and to reduce the amount of light.

Any suggestions on moving her from the 75 to the 240, with the least possible amount of stress?

Zeke said:

Electric shock? Is everything in the tank grounded?

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Everything is grounded (I always make sure), and there is no current in the tank. Certainly a good question though!