Dropeye Experiment?

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K

Kioka

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2007
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Edmonton, AB
Alright... I been reading about arowana dropeyes on this forum. Have anyone actually experimented with this indoor?

You know how they have those big 4'x2'x2' opaque storage tote bins? Have anyone actually bothered filling one up and rear a Silver Arowana in that and see if they get dropeye?

Now... I just need to figure out where to get a 8'x2'x'2 bin... I guess I can always get a 8'x2'x2' aquarium and cover up the sides or look at the poly stock tanks. :ROFL:

I am actually thinking of trying it once my feeder colonies stabilize, and stick a couple of driftwoods on the tub, and cover the top with nettings with some jumping height to allow for natural feeding behaviour, and making the water murky with leaves to replicate their natural water... Hmmmmmmm...

If more than one person manage to raise Silver Arowanas in a murky indoor pond which allow for natural behaviours such as jumping to occur, with an natural (live) insectivorous diet without dropeyes... then one can infer that there's something wrong with the standard aquarist way of keeping them? If that is true, then we could work our way backward to figure out which is the cause.

I might give this a shot in a few months if I can find a good size stock tank.
 
I will once I get everything established in a few months. I am just proposing the idea and see the criticisms and suggestions from the other members.
 
Not a bad idea if you have the room. To me it would be more important to give the silver aro a reason to look up. Endlessly searhing for it's next little snack. Maybe some thin flexible tree branches populated with crickets. You could also have a elevated clip to pump shrimp in. Still would need the pellets in it's diet though. Only problem I see is this would have to be big enough that the aro could jump and not injure itself by colliding with anything.
 
The only problem is that there is so many variances in this. It could be that they are stressed from watching people and moving objects by their aquarium, it could be related to diet, it could be related to the colour of the water, etc, etc, etc, etc. As far as pellets go... you can always gutload your bugs with them...

If all that fail, then it must be genetic inbreeding.

Anyway, I don't have the room for it now, unless I have a growout tub to about 14-16", but I have been looking at a bigger place to move into.
 
Myself I beleive the DE is triggered by head trauma, this is an observation of my silver developing DE in each eye on two seperate instances. Each instance the DE develop after smashing its head into the aquarium glass. The DE in the right eye occured at 18" and the left eye recently occured at 23"
 
oh boy, this wont end well....that experiment is so flawed its a waste of time and effort.

if you want it to be successful you need to follow through with the scientific method. and by doing that, you slam into a whole new set of problems with your current experiment.
 
DeLgAdO;1345093; said:
oh boy, this wont end well....that experiment is so flawed its a waste of time and effort.

if you want it to be successful you need to follow through with the scientific method. and by doing that, you slam into a whole new set of problems with your current experiment.
Click to expand...

I don't claim to be scientific. PERIOD. I am doing the same thing what some varanid keepers did to figure out what was wrong with their husbandry -- replicate their natural environment within reason (equipment and space issues), then work backward from it.

Now we can conclude that:

- Wild arowanas usually don't get dropeyes
- They are insectivorous (diet)
- They don't live in glass boxes where they can see out (pond versus aquarium)
- The water they come from is usually murky
- They naturally jump 6'-8' high (use of nettings and PVC to prevent head trauma and flopping on the floor)

Although we have to conclude that Silver Arowanas and Asian Arowanas are more likely to get dropeyes than the other species of arowanas which is a whole another ball-game that we would have to figure out separately.
 
Worst case scenario? I get an arowana that I have always wanted to keep... with a dropeye like every other arowana keeper.
 
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