arowana VERY skittish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
EmrePekdeniz;4673576; said:
My roommate crammed the tank with an overdose of bottom pellets today! I'd asked him to feed the fish, bad idea! I did my best to remove the pellets from the sand, but if incomplete cycling is the problem, the problem is worse now.

I'll try to do a water change and get a kit tomorrow. Thanks for the advice, I'll report anything that happens.

Edit: I had lots and lots of duckweed up until a few days, but I've disposed of them, there's only a handful now. I wonder if that caused an ammonia spike...
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Here you said you'd "try" to do a water change, I suggested that you "DO" rather than "TRY"

Do a 30% waterchange and test as soon as possible, also add prime if you have any but thats it, I dont think that salt would help the situation.
 
Your fish is not injured, its suffering from poor water quality.
The new marks that you found on your fish may be ammonia burn.

People have different opinions on salt in the aquarium, some say yes it helps, others say it does nothing and constant dosing of salt may actually be bad for the tank.

The only salt I ever use is epsom salt just to help clear the digestion system of a fish if a pariste is present.

You could add some but right now the waterchange is more important I think.

If you test and do have ammonia present over .25 then do daily 10% daily waterchanges and retest everyday untill they are under control.
This will help things without disrupting the cycle too much
 
Next time you get a fish like an Aro plan better. For one let the tank cycle for atleast 6 weeks if everything is new. Then add cheaper fish like Balas or Silver Dollars. Wait another month add some tall or floating plants then get your Aro. Dont add anything that is aggressive-even a Pleco. Aros are quite delicate when small.
My tank was already cycled so I was able to buy my Aro-I had him for one month solo to let him settle. Then I bought his mate a CK.
 
I wasn't completely unprepared, you know. I had several ghost shrimps and two butterfly loaches before the arowana to start the cycling. (My regret is that they were too small, I should have kept larger fish maybe.) I dislike the pleco and I didn't buy it separately. I bought them together, they were in the same 27 gallon tank with a small cory and a ghost knife (The previous owner wasn't nice to his fish.) I had a lotus and some duckweed from the beginning. Next time I'll just use bacterial culture to start the cycle.
 
My arowana is about 2 feet now, but when i got it at about 8 inches it was very skittish. He remained skittish to any sudden movements until he got to be around a foot and a half... then he started calming down. He was so skittish that we had to put chicken wire at the back the of tank canopy to stop him from jumping out. Now he is generally good unless i'm cleaning the glass, then he still splashes a bit but not as much as when he was younger. It could just be that you are a huge fish in his eyes and when he becomes larger he'll see you as less of a threat to his life.

My arowana's tank mate is a 18in pleco. they generally leave each other alone... but i'm sure each situation is a snowflake.
 
colieb;4675798; said:
My arowana is about 2 feet now, but when i got it at about 8 inches it was very skittish. He remained skittish to any sudden movements until he got to be around a foot and a half... then he started calming down. He was so skittish that we had to put chicken wire at the back the of tank canopy to stop him from jumping out. Now he is generally good unless i'm cleaning the glass, then he still splashes a bit but not as much as when he was younger. It could just be that you are a huge fish in his eyes and when he becomes larger he'll see you as less of a threat to his life.

My arowana's tank mate is a 18in pleco. they generally leave each other alone... but i'm sure each situation is a snowflake.
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Interesting. I wouldn't have been worried had the fish been skittish from the very beginning. It looks calmer now after I've added the Toxivec, and I'm grateful for that.
 
I did a water test today using ELOS colour kits. My nitrate level is below 20 mg/lt, and my ammonia/ammonium level is below 0,1 mg/lt. Aquarium temperature is 28 C. I couldn't find a nitrite test, but I was told it's unnecessary if ammonium and nitrate levels are okay, since it is the intermediary product. As far as I know, these levels are quite acceptable, but maybe they've dropped after I've added Toxivec.

So, what's wrong? I've stopped giving bottom pellets for two days now. I've offered the arowana some anchovy yesterday, its favourite food, and it picked on the feeding tongs once but then refused to eat again.
 
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