I think I'm loosing my Black Aro

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dodgefreak8

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2005
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colorado
Hey guys, been a while since i've been on. Been real busy. My 25" black aro is going on about 3.5 weeks without eating and I don't think he's going to last much longer. He seems to be trying to cough something up but I can't see anything in his mouth or throat. before this started he was having a hard time getting the shrimp down. I remove the shells and tails so I covered my bases there. Not real sure what to do. Water is spot on and I run a constant drip water changing system so I have perfect water quality. I have shut the water changer off and added salt and upped my temp. I bought clove oil to sedate him with but in his weakend state i'm afraid it might be more than he can handle. Not looking real good:(
 
i have had some aros do simmilar, but then the worked the food that was stuck down. it also would have been rotten by now if it was something stuck. maybe it tore something in its throat while eatting fast?

i has seen several larger blacks going down in the not to distant past. strange. hope it gets better, as i don't have an idea to help out, other then i wouldn't knock it out as it might not wake up.
 
3 weeks isn't horrible for an aro not to eat as long it was healthy before its fasting. I had one go 2 and a half months before it started eating again. Its like he just woke up and started attacking food again. But larger aros are known to fast for long periods of time. Have you tried different types of food? One of my current aros stopped eating for a couple weeks then I threw some frozen silversides in and he attacked them. Silversides were new to him I don't use them in my daily feedings
 
My 24" silver went without food for almost 3 weeks now.. totally screwed up water..i did a pucca water change and she seems fine and has slowly started taking food.. i sensed a bacterial infection too cos her poop was not the usual.. i upped the temp by 2 degrees and keep up on my water changes.. did you by any chance check the water parameters? i feed my smaller 18" aros prawns too but i make sure they are bite sized pieces.. a hungry aro would try to take the food in as quick as possible and sometimes choke.. i remember reading a thread.. mfk user meako i think.. he had commented one of his large silver aros choked on a big chunk of fish.. dont give up mate.. everythin will be fine.. and sorry does your aro keep doing the coughin motion non stop?
 
Sorry to hear this Justin. One of my large silvers went through this last summer. I don't know if it injured it's throat or not. Good luck with getting yours eating again, mine would occasionally take earthworms during the ordeal. Then it slowly started eating shrimp again.

Live feeders aren't always a good idea, but for what ever reason my blacks will ignore most small fish, yet they go freaking crazy if I put show giant danios in the tank. Maybe yours would do the same, get her interested in eating again.

Good luck.
 
I checked my water parameters again last night. ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, ph 7.4.... water seems great. He only does the coughing when I introduce food into the tank like he want to eat but can't. I think I'll try the earthworm thing (thanks Brian) but I don't have a place to get quality feeders here in town so I don't even want to go that route. I'll try and keep everyone posted. thanks again
 
well Sorry to say that my aro passed away last night. I looked in his mouth after he passed and could see no reason for the caughing. I just couldn't bring myself to disect him either so I guess I'll never know what went wrong....Really sucks to loose a pet that you've had for 4.5 years and not even know if it was something you caused or not :(. thanks again for all the somments and suggestions
 
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