Drop eye, to the extreme

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The body isn't always perfectly symmetrical, girls always have one boob slightly bigger than the other! ;)

But you're right it does seem strange that it would be so uneven in many cases if that were the cause. Next time someone loses a big silver with DE they need to do some dissecting and try to see just what is in there behind the droopy eye.

Yes but they aren't flat on one side with a melon on the other though.


I have run a experiment for the last 4 years on this problem with silver arowanas , in two large vats 21' x 8' x 2' deep I had 7 fish in each , over just the last year I had one fish develop it in one of it's eyes. The fish are now 3 feet and have been raised on floating sticks and frozen smelt that they did eat off the bottom, although not many made it that far.

Cool, would love to see some pics. What was their growth rate over the 4 years?

Edit: your the one that had them up for sale with snookn a couple years back. They were in with some oscars too?
 
Guys, Thanks for the discussion this is what I really wanted to hear.
My Arowana personally also only has his DE on the right eye, but I also notice that it is not always swimming at the top of the tank, could lights or the DE be the issue?

I also have a small theory of my own. Since Arowana's supposedly accumulate fat behind it's eyes is it possible that ligaments or tissue is holding the eye up and too much fat deposited between the eye and the ligaments stretches that muscle or ligaments and the eye falls? Maybe Head trauma just speeds up the process? Also if they turn more to one side, it could mean they look more down with that eye and therefore there is a bigger tendency for that eye to have DE first because the ligaments stretch more. Is this all a possibility? I tried to incorporate some things which you said previously.

Again thanks for the discussion. In the video below you can see my Aro with some of my fish.
[video=youtube;O4yLmVAaA94]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4yLmVAaA94[/video]
 
Actually my question with a big 30" Black Arowana I am thinking of getting soon looks like it can have this drop eye in one eye. I still want to get the fish and give it a great home just wondering if anybody thought the fish is suffering and does the DE end up turning into blindness and death or can they live with drop eye a normal life.
 
omg thats a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee drop eye wish there was a fix
 
Such a weird condition...wonder if someone is ever going to figure out the cause.

The cause? My guess because they are looking down too much at the fish underneath them. Bigger tanks(6+x6+) always seem to prevent this.
 
The cause? My guess because they are looking down too much at the fish underneath them. Bigger tanks(6+x6+) always seem to prevent this.

Yep, thats probably it. :duh:
 
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