My Arowana NEEDS HELP FAST!!!

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Rell XV

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 29, 2019
14
4
8
27
Iowa
So I have a 16" Silver Arowana in a 1000 gallon. It has thick and strong lids. I fed my fish, and forgot to close the lid.
So she jumped out.
I found her on the floor (I had left the room for a few hours.) she was unconscious but her gills were still moving. She took an 8 foot drop onto a concrete floor, and she was banged up super bad.
I put her in the aquarium as fast as possible, and then noticed she was unconscious. At first I thought her swim bladder had been damaged because she was floating upside down, but as she began to wake up she could swim (almost) perfect. She does not have any swim bladder issues as far as I can see.
She began to dry out when I found her, no idea how long she'd been without water. She lost almost all of her slime, her eyes are sunken in and turned cloudy, and she has huge open wounds and so many broken and missing scales she has maybe 30% of her scales not damaged. I cannot tell if she has internal bleeding because all she's really got left is flesh.
She's breathing, irregularly, gulping for air, and will sometimes dart to the waters surface. She's able to move pretty good, and can most certainly see, but she's clearly in awful condition. Sometimes she'll go stiff as board and float around the aquarium and bump into the walls. She's lot leaned on her side or anything she's vertical the whole time.
I am planning on adding Melafix, but I do not have near enough to treat a 1000 gallons. I was going to move her to my 150 gallon, but I am so worried than the transportation will add some very unwanted stress and could kill her. Tomorrow if she's still alive, I'm running to get like 10 bottles of Melafix maybe more. I have built such and amazing bond with her, to the point I can even pet her. It's really heartbreaking to see the only reason I built a 1000 gallon tank die because of my foolish mistake.
Is there any advice you guys could give me to help her, I'm willing to do anything for any goddamn price at this point.
I know her odds are terribly slim, but I refuse to give up on her. Currently I have dimmed the light, and raised aeration,.
1382331
 
Tank dimmed, salt 3dl per 100L of water and keep then water pristine and well oxygenated and she might pull through. Make sure bo other fish is stressing her out atm. Thats the best advice i can give you.
 
I've added the salt, and made a run to get enough Melafix to treat the tank. I've added every airstone I have in the aquarium and pointed my outtakes on my filter upwards. I'm aerating a lot, but I am trying not to over aerate the aquarium at this point. She's laying on the bottom and is drifting in and out of consciousness. She can no longer swim as well as she could a few hours ago. All my other fish leave her alone, and I can't dim the lights too much because if I do my Endlicheri might attack her. He was fed a lot of raw shrimp yesterday. He's sated, but fish can be greedy sometimes so not taking chances.
 
Man sorry to see this. It's pretty impressive that she survived both the initial drop and being outside the tank for that long, so she's strong, really hope she comes through ok.
 
Sucks, sorry....
 
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She had passed away. She fought for 13 hours, but she started to lie on the bottom, unable to swim. She most certainly had internal bleeding, so there was no fixing her. I ended her suffering with some clove oil and water. Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do in this hobby. Won't make the mistake I made again that's for sure. That is if I even get another Arowana. Thank you guys for the advice and support.
 
Really sorry to hear that Zachariah, I'm sure it wasn't easy but you did the right thing. And keep your head up: I also lost my 1st Arowana ($1,100 Gold Xback), and then swore to myself I'd never get another. Then what was I doing 2 weeks later? Looking for another Xback :) And then I ended up getting 2, go figure.

But like you I also learned some lessons, it's an integral part of the hobby and none of us is perfect no matter how long we've been doing it, I'm sure better fish keeping days lie ahead for you.
 
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