Another Drop Eye Thread... Pfftt....

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Not an aro keeper at all, butt I also lean towards genetics as part of the problem. I made this assumption based upon the lifestyle and nature of these fish in their natural environment.

We all know their good jumpers and have seen how good they are at catching prey on leaves and branches, especially in the flooded amazon jungle.
Like in this vid
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QT5fpFi1mw[/YT]

So one would think that these wild fish would not pass on that gene due to survival, while aquarium species are farm bred so no natural selection takes place.
On the other hand I also lean towards the fish getting visual stimulation from movement next to tanks and sinking food, so in that aspect ponds makes sense.

Butt like you said it's just a big o'll bowl assumptions. BTW love the aro pond/tank
 
Good_Times said:
Not an aro keeper at all, butt I also lean towards genetics as part of the problem. I made this assumption based upon the lifestyle and nature of these fish in their natural environment.

We all know their good jumpers and have seen how good they are at catching prey on leaves and branches, especially in the flooded amazon jungle.
Like in this vid
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QT5fpFi1mw[/YT]

So one would think that these wild fish would not pass on that gene due to survival, while aquarium species are farm bred so no natural selection takes place.
On the other hand I also lean towards the fish getting visual stimulation from movement next to tanks and sinking food, so in that aspect ponds makes sense.

Butt like you said it's just a big o'll bowl assumptions. BTW love the aro pond/tank
Click to expand...

Thanks mate.. cheers.. i really doubt they would lose that particular trait of jumping.. farm bred or wild caught.. that is like one of their strongest characteristics.. this the youtube video you've posted..

[video=youtube;3QT5fpFi1mw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QT5fpFi1mw[/video]

this is my most recent video from the pond.. 13th to 15th second.. watch for my aro jumping to grab my phone thinking i'm gonna feed him.. wish i could get some slow motion software..

[video=youtube;kbgXYiNIGpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbgXYiNIGpM[/video]

but ya when it comes to DE.. :confused:
 
Sorry should have explained better. I was trying to say that the ones in the wild wouldn't pass on the gene of DE because thy use it alot to locate food in over head foliage, therefore if they had DE they would be less likely to locate food (survival of the fittest).

Thanks for embedding the vids.
 
like i have stated before, my opinion is/has been that head trauma is the main/only cause that i have seen. i have had this happen with all my aros with everything from falls to the floor to smashing into the top to get a fly. instant drop in the eye. many others have had the same thing.

now having said that i do think genetics play a large part in it as well. asian aros seem to be countering this to sum degree. i have seen a lot of asian aros with de, but i have seen a lot without. they are heavily farmed as well. now could the original farms found certain fish to be DE resistant and tried to selectively breed them? maybe? we may never know the answer to this for any number of reasons. silvers could have the same thing happen to them. i am going to be experimenting with some of this myself in the next few years along with some other things i can't disclose yet.

now from the preliminary suggestions of a earth pond to counter DE we can come up with several points. first being that earth ponds will best imitate the natural setting, which in turn could be why wild aros don't seem to get it. other things are that our aros in a tank setting are "spoon fed" and since most aros don't show signs of DE till they are about a foot long(some smaller fish do get it i have had smaller fish get it myself, but in general) now could this just be that wild aros have to jump to get food from the start and get conditioned to the impacts while our captive aros don't get the conditioning so the become susceptible to it? kinda like when a pro athlete that trains for a sport can do more and take more of a beating then your average joe. or could it be that they learn while young to hit the limbs from an angel to reduce the impact and our fish don't have the space to do this in? they are pin point accurate at getting bugs and things from the limbs you'd think they could handle finding out a best method of attack. much the way great white sharks around the ring of death found out the best way to get seals.

yet at the same time wild aros need to be accurate to get food. looking at some of the fish with de they take more of an effort to get food at the surface. now if it had to jump 3' to get food the angle of their eye could make them miss and thus starve. this would show the lack of DE in the wild. it could be out there in the millions of miles of unseen rivers, but we don't know this. few aros in the wild make it to be mature fish. the ones that get picked off could be the ones with DE. it could make them easier to catch by a predator much like an albino fish around our areas. we don't see many albino fish or animals in the wild, but they are there. you get to see more of them pop up in farms and cities because the get the protection of people. that protection leads to inbreeding which makes recessive traits become more dominate traits. this is proven because in some areas you can get dense populations of black or albino squirrels for example. maybe back deep in an isolated pond/lake left from a massive flood there could be an entire population of aros with DE that we have yet to find.

all possibilities, but the list could go on for pages and pages.
 
no because it is not fat behind the eye. the whole aro would have to be fat to have this problem.
 
Sometimes when my aro's DE look down, I see some white coloured stuff behind the eyeball.. What is that white stuff called?
 
Kaya said:
Thanks mate.. cheers.. i really doubt they would lose that particular trait of jumping.. farm bred or wild caught.. that is like one of their strongest characteristics.. this the youtube video you've posted..

this is my most recent video from the pond.. 13th to 15th second.. watch for my aro jumping to grab my phone thinking i'm gonna feed him.. wish i could get some slow motion software..
Click to expand...

To me this illustrates exactly why a DE arowana would perish in the wild. Those arowana jump with pinpoint accuracy. They use their binocular vision to range exactly how far to jump and aim to direct their jump. Because of the hinderance of your aro's DE, you are still in possession of your phone. Yes an arowana can still jump with DE, but the majority of the time it will come away with an empty belly.

One of my silvers with severe DE can't even see the pellets on the waters surface, it also commonly misses the market shrimp that are dropped in front of it. While my black aros can dart from three foot across the tank and hit the shrimp within a split second of it hitting the water.
 
The most plausible reason for DE that I have read that made sense was due to the aro looking down all the time if there are fish below. What does being in a pond have to do with anything, how could that possibly fix it ?
 
plecostic said:
The most plausible reason for DE that I have read that made sense was due to the aro looking down all the time if there are fish below. What does being in a pond have to do with anything, how could that possibly fix it ?
Click to expand...

So you think if an arowana looks down all the time their eyes will somehow get Stuck? What about people who have raised their aros without any tank mates and only feeding floating foods, yet the arowana still develop DE?
 
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