Maintaining Proper Arowana Health

[leeishom]

Thanks for the good info guys.
I have another question, Isnt it kind of strange that a fish who's main diet consists of bugs would become insignificant at a point? When your a 3 foot arowana are you really going to want to jump your fat "tail" out of the water for 1 beetle? It seems like at this point Arowanas would be burning more carbs then they are taking in... I wounder if in the wild silver Arowana change there diet at this point seeing as how they can swallow much bigger fish at this point. Just a thought.

If a person jogs thru a path during summer, with the mouth open...I'm sure that mouth will be filled with bugs and other things.

Seasons, sense of danger, mating, etc...all play the part in the silver aro's life.

 

[pi-eyed]

DE is a real mystery.. there have been loads of discussions on this.. and everybody has a theory.. I believe its mostly because of injury.. when they jump out of the tank or while handling.. as far as your questions go.. the easiest way is to read this sticky..

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329584

all the best with your aro.. cheers..

X2 --My theory on drop eye: Head trauma due to jumping into the tops. Or genetics kinda like diabetes in humans...The whole DE issue is of great debate, not just on this forum but in the hobby all together.

Sticky threads are good solid info as well. But it never hurts to ask opinions and share experiences. That's what this site is for and you are in the right place.

Good luck with your aros,
Chris

 

[Chaitika]

Arowanas actively hunt river shrimp on the river beds. River shrimp are no slouches, growing beyond 6 inches. I'm sure they hunt other things as well. They would also be eating millipedes and centipedes which can get quite large.

 

[uselessmidget]

Excellent info and opinions as always guys, thanks.

If a person jogs thru a path during summer, with the mouth open...I'm sure that mouth will be filled with bugs and other things.

Surely your not implying that on the average jump an arowana will catch multiple prey? maybe on a rare occasion I would imagine...

Seasons, sense of danger, mating, etc...all play the part in the silver aro's life.

Absolutely I completely agree with you on this.

X2 --My theory on drop eye: Head trauma due to jumping into the tops. Or genetics kinda like diabetes in humans...The whole DE issue is of great debate, not just on this forum but in the hobby all together.

Sticky threads are good solid info as well. But it never hurts to ask opinions and share experiences. That's what this site is for and you are in the right place.

Good luck with your aros,
Chris

Thanks Chris, I wounder if there have been disections to study the oddity? It seems to me if trauma where the cause you might see something wrong in the skeletal pattern or perhaps a cyst or lump brought on by the trauma.
What is there that apply's the pressure to the inner eye to cause it to reposition from its norm?
To me it seems that a simple dissection would tell you what places that pressure, then its just a matter of finding out what create/causes that lump or misalignment. Yours and others thoughts on this?

Arowanas actively hunt river shrimp on the river beds. River shrimp are no slouches, growing beyond 6 inches. I'm sure they hunt other things as well. They would also be eating millipedes and centipedes which can get quite large.

Excellent point, sometimes I forget that the lake down the street is alot different from the amazon.

 

[Miguel]

and they pick food from the bottom with a precision you do not imagine.

 

[uselessmidget]

and they pick food from the bottom with a precision you do not imagine.

Oh really? Mine floats sideways over a piece of krill slaps his face into the sand to grab it.
Ahhh so graceful... lol

 

[Akabir47]

Thanks for the good info guys.
I have another question, Isnt it kind of strange that a fish who's main diet consists of bugs would become insignificant at a point? When your a 3 foot arowana are you really going to want to jump your fat "tail" out of the water for 1 beetle? It seems like at this point Arowanas would be burning more carbs then they are taking in... I wounder if in the wild silver Arowana change there diet at this point seeing as how they can swallow much bigger fish at this point. Just a thought.

I believe they also eat small reptiles, amphibians, and mamals off the same flooded forest tree limbs that the insects are picked off. Hence why they are feed the same in the home aquaria when they become large. Im sure they go after fish in the wild as well since they go for feeders in the aqurium environment.

Could you imagine how many massivores it would take to fill up a 3 foot plus silver? Lol!

 

[Darth Scohin]

I believe they also eat small reptiles, amphibians, and mamals off the same flooded forest tree limbs that the insects are picked off. Hence why they are feed the same in the home aquaria when they become large. Im sure they go after fish in the wild as well since they go for feeders in the aqurium environment.

Could you imagine how many massivores it would take to fill up a 3 foot plus silver? Lol!

Yeah but would you rather be doing Massivore then feeding the same amount of goldfish for over 4x the price? And I'd like to see a diet census of Wild Silvers

 

[dragonfish1ca]

Silvers just get drop eye..... I believe they would have to be in a 10,000 gallon pond to avoid it.....
I have raised many a silver next to asian arowana on the same diet, same tank and have never had drop eye with an asian.... but every silver....
Also Heat and salt will always help growth and immunities

 

[Juxtaroberto]

Health:
Drop Eye:
The Cause:
Attention focused below themselves as apposed to above in the wild.
We know:
We also know that since an Arowana's main diet in the wild comes from insects that they prey on by jumping out of the water we need to keep its attention to the surface. In my opinion the best way to do this is to minimalize/eliminate any sort of food from being at any level [in the tank] other than above the Arowana. (AKA: NO MORE FEEDERS!)
So right off the bat floating foods are ideal.

Not necessarily. I got my aro without drop eye, and I've always fed floating pellets, and he still got drop eye.

i thought drop eye was caused by a bad diet aka overfedin which causes a build up of fat around the eye causing it to drop ???

I don't think this is it either. Until recently, I always fed very sparingly, hoping to avoid drop eye. All I got was a slow-growing arowana, with drop eye. So now I feed until he's full, since it obviously doesn't matter.

Another hypothesis is that banging their heads hard gives them drop eye, and I've definitely heard mine smash its head while trying to jump. Maybe that's it.