Does this Silver Arowana look sick?

[Piscineidiot]

Yeah... PH of 6.0 is tooo low for a silver go higher like 7.0 - 7.5 and try not to use chemicals to increase the PH. Put some crushed coral in a sock and add it to either your tank or filter to increase the PH. Good Luck... hope this helps.

I don't know anything about keeping arowana, but isn't the Amazon river normally acidic anyway (particularly the Rio Negro)?

For boisterous, aggressive fish, I like to knock the pH up to 7-7.5 too, but why is it bad for aros to be in water with a lower than neutral pH?

Nemesis529, I can't imagine keeping the pH up around 7-7.5 will harm the others. Cichlids for the most part are pretty tough, and 7-7.5 is quite acceptable to most fish. There's also the added benefit of the fact that a higher pH creates a more stable environment and you won't get pH slumps happening to you - particularly if you have crushed coral in the system. Just make sure you make the adjustment gradually. You arowana's still quite young, so it'd be wise to make any changes gradually.

 

[WHITECJ2OW]

Well since you parameters are ammonia-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0 that means the cycle has not even started. Since your aro is small once it does start and you get an ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike the chances of its survival are really slim

Try to get it into an established tank or something

 

[Nemesis]

do you know if this nutrafin cycle thing works? Its supposed to add the bacteria to make it safe for fish.

 

[devder1]

Well since you parameters are ammonia-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0 that means the cycle has not even started. Since your aro is small once it does start and you get an ammonia spike followed by a nitrite spike the chances of its survival are really slim

Try to get it into an established tank or something

My thoughts exactly

 

[Nemesis]

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR THE AMMONIA TO START. IVE HAD THE AROWANA WITH THE EBJD, BLOOD PARROT, AND A PLECO(ALL UNDER 3') FOR 3 DAYS NOW?

 

[Nemesis]

Sorry for all the questions, it's my first aquarium.

 

[perfect_prefect]

you would be better with less fish in the tank, get rid of all the others, or rehome the aro for the time being in a tank that is cycled, if that is not possible, get stress zyme, and stress coat. if your ph went from 6.5 one day to 6.0 the next, that is a HUGE swing as 6.4 is 10x more acidic than 6.5 and 6.3 is 10x more acidic than 6.4, so on and so forth. .1 a day is all you should adjust the ph and that is stressful enough in itself. feed light, cut out the crickets, monitor your water params, you did a good thing getting your friends filter media, there is a possibility you wont have that bad of a spike maybe the fish will live. you may want to check into the tests you are using though as tap water normally has about 10ppm nitrate in it already so unless you are using RO water you should be registering nitrates.

 

[Nemesis]

I treated the water with stress coat. it says it removes chlorine chlorimine and ammonia. And Im using API tests. I also let the water filter with my friends filter for 2 1/2 days before adding the fish. I haven't done a water change yet, Should I? I also have not been giving much light. Thanks for the feedback and quick responses.

 

[Nemesis]

just finished testing the ph again. this time i used the high ph test also to see what happened. they both showed the same color (light yellow). i think this definately means my ph is too low.

 

[I<3fish]

Sorry for all the questions, it's my first aquarium.

If this is your first aquarium I suggest taking the arowana back. They are sensitive fish that grow WAY too large for an average aquarist. I am building an 8x4 foot tank in a few months and I would say that is the MINIMUM size for an arowana for life.