Aro Swimming Upside Down! Need Urgent HELP!

[arwen]

this sounds familar to me, was visiting bro Ark in his shop 1 day, when this client of his came to find him. His xb was upside down, if i recalled correctly he mentioned there was fluid in his stomach. Next thing was he drew out a syringe, got the thing in the tummy & drew out the fluid.

Outcome aro regain it's bouyancy ( =

For sharing purpose only Merry Christmas

 

[ausarow]

good info. i just looked at its gut in the pictures, certainly is wide in the pelvic area. normally they taper into a v. not so much if pregnant. fish that have water in their stomach cavity or kidney etc are a real concern for disease of organs.

 

[H]-[H]

ok, so higher temps make the ammonia more toxic, lets assume this was the problem. maybe there was nitrites too. that is why i mentioned the salt. salt reduces the nitrite spike in the fishes body. its a commonly used thing for that. the fish can get what they call brown blood disease.
many fish that are in ammonia water will spin around and swim weird. ive seen australian bass do it and changed the water and they stop it within five minutes. the other thing is when australian bass are tiny fry, and the water has ammonia or too much other nutrient you will see the swim bladder is enlarged on those affected in a tank while others are fine in another rearing tank.

then, the ones in the polluted water will float to the top with a big swim bladder and then die over time.
so maybe, this is the same thing that can happen to arows.

with goldfish, with nitrite spikes, you can see the effects in the tails.
the tail will end up with bubbles of gas all through it.
when a scuba diver has a build up of nitrogen, which is a form of ammonia, the diver will have bubbles of nitrogen form in his blood too. that can then then dislodge and go to the brain and kill them.

so the thing to do is remove the nitrogen from being in the water so that some of it can come out of the fish and go back into the water across the gills.

with scuba divers, they will put them in a decompression chamber.
another thing they can do if divers are going to be deep for long periods and be at risk, is to give them special air bottles without so much nitrogen in the air tank. that way it cant build up as fast cause they do not have it in their intake.

so the fixes are, lower the ammonia levels via water changes or better filtration or by stealing bio media from another tank.. lower the temp because the ammonia is less toxic of a form with lower temps, and add some salt to reduce the nitrite spike.

Thanks again for the detailed explanation on the subject & for guiding me through this ordeal.. I really appreciate your help
Btw, the salt that you mentioned, the mineral salt.. is it blue in colour?
The reason I ask is because most of the fish shops here only sell blue coloured salt..

 

[H]-[H]

An update: I filled the whole tank & the aro seems to be swimming normal now.. Good thing is that it's now able to swim to the bottom..

 

[ausarow]

good stuff man. so very glad to hear. blue salt? i only know of one blue salt that i have seen sold and that would be copper sulphate and it comes from rural stores.
ever seen old guys that wear copper rings? and they go blue with oxidation. yeah its a wives tale of sorts, for what they use it for from memory..though its not something to use as an osmotic regulating treatment or to beat off an nitrite spike for fish but more something used to kill off pathogens. 1 gram per thousand litres if people want to know the dose, while 4 grams will drop most all your fish dead.

i really dont know what fish shops are selling as salt these days. but salt is white. maybe with a hint of colour if it has garbage tainting it..but it is not blue. unless they are trying to make it attractive at the shops these days, which just makes me hate this world cause the kids might think salt is supposed to be blue one day.

seriously i would like to slap them upside the head if they think its a clever idea to make salt blue so people think that they cant just buy the right stuff for 1/10th the price at the food store. next post, someone will be telling me blue salt is better because it has triple methodioxininethylate and ocean salt is just so old school.


really..blue salt? i think that is salt with some form of aids in it.

you could buy aquarium salt, packaged up at the shop with a fancy label to charge you so much. or you could go down the local food supply place and look for rock salt. that is basic salt from the ocean. cheap as. they pump up salt water, let it dry/evaporate. or they can mine it. some companies will make up salt from various elements and weigh it etc to get it right.
but you will pay dearly for something that is the most common stuff in the world and if you keep fresh water fish, you use bugger all.. or they will die. if you keep salt waters, you dont want to buy/pay for it from a shop.

salt is good, it is in all cells. but remember arows are a primary freshwater fish, so they dont want for much.

 

[H]-[H]

Now that the aro is able to swim well, I've another issue with it..
Its barbels.. the black tip seemed to have rotted off & now the barbels are half the normal length and white in colour..
It started to rot the day it was in my tank.. Was it affected by ammonia?

 

[Arowana718]

Do u hav an ammonia tester? Regardless do like 10% water changes every 2 days.

 

[ausarow]

hard to say, it could have bumped them or scratched them and then yes, bad water will make them rot away. it should be ok if you can keep water clean. the bacteria or bugs that consume flesh can move on in.

 

[Azorek]

From what I've read/seen aros are ridiculously sensitive to change, he was probably just freaked the eff out from moving... glad he's up and running now, if he's tipping at all still try feeding him some peas (skins taken off), he might be constipated... try this before you go rubbing his belly hahaha.
As far as his barbels, as long as you don't see any damage at the base it should heal up. It may have been injured during the move. I don't know how these fish do with salt but if it was injured during the move, some aquarium salt might help it heal up faster. Research that one though.
Anyways, beautiful fish, I'm jealous!

 

[H]-[H]

Do u hav an ammonia tester? Regardless do like 10% water changes every 2 days.

Yes, I've one & I'll test the water on my next water change..

hard to say, it could have bumped them or scratched them and then yes, bad water will make them rot away. it should be ok if you can keep water clean. the bacteria or bugs that consume flesh can move on in.

I'll monitor the water quality more closely now that the aro is healing & getting better..

From what I've read/seen aros are ridiculously sensitive to change, he was probably just freaked the eff out from moving... glad he's up and running now, if he's tipping at all still try feeding him some peas (skins taken off), he might be constipated... try this before you go rubbing his belly hahaha.
As far as his barbels, as long as you don't see any damage at the base it should heal up. It may have been injured during the move. I don't know how these fish do with salt but if it was injured during the move, some aquarium salt might help it heal up faster. Research that one though.
Anyways, beautiful fish, I'm jealous!

I'm not planning to rub its belly now that it's swimming like how an aro should.. but what does an aro with constipation look like? Any symptoms?
The base of the barbels are still intact.. all I can do is wait for it to heal.. Its dorsal & caudal fins are healing up nicely too.. The fins got banged up badly due to constant bullying from a bigger aro at my friend's..
& thanks for the compliment.. I'll post some new pics again soon