Hi Flukeone,
I'm impressed that you're able to get all of these species in Mauritius - we didn't have a proper importer from maybe 2012 until last year. I didn't give up (cool stuff in the rivers & a few breeders) but I'm glad to have options again.
25C - do you have it in a room with AC? My silver aro is in my no-AC'd office next to my desk & the window, but up to last month it was on the verandah. Water temp is 28 right now, might eek up to 32 in the depths of summer & drop to 26 during a winter storm and my fish don't seem to care; just the loaches as they prefer it toasty. When the time comes, you can build your big tank in the garden and generally "get away with" all manner of stuff the northern people can't, like letting errant vine roots clean up your nitrates, slowly leaking canisters etc. You can build a pond for him as he outgrows the tank too, then decide to put glass elevator sides on that pond a year or two later. Aros seem to live 15+years, so there's plenty of time to keep it all moving.
Scales likely won't return- mine haven't. He didn't get out of the tank, but did himself a major disservice on the closed lid chasing tree-frogs at about 10cm. He's now maybe 25cm and eye-drop seems to have grown out again (IE gone good) but scales are missing still.
Food: bugs. Leave the light on & window open in a side bathroom. Get up with the sun & pluck the moths, crickets, frogs, house geckos etc from the wall. Don't tell your mum. Avoid roaches you find on the floor- be sure they weren't poisoned. You can bump the fishes colours with foods like crickets & roaches, including gut-loading the live bug with carrot to increase further.
Re healing: a few pinches of salt. Then go down to the seashore and find an almond tree (
Terminalia catappa, i think). Take a few of the brown leaves from the tree or the ground, wash in soapy water (dust, salt, pesticides) , rinse completely and put in the tank. They might stain the water a bit, but they do a great job of conditioning the water, reducing bacteria & fungi & helping healing. Shark will nibble on them, as will barbs. You can either leave them until they disappear or take them out when the aro is all better.
I've got some friends/colleagues at UofM, if you ever feel like graduate school
