Hi All,
I'm a new member from Australia and I'm looking for a bit of help with my Silver Arowana. I'm EXTREMELY SORRY for the length of this post but I wanted to explain as best I can.
Firstly, he's been completely off his food where normally he has quite the appetite, also he seems to have small black spots - they look like a pigmentation change (eg freckle) randomly on his face and tail, there only seems to be 2 or 3 of these i can count.
His diet normally consists of Hikari frozen Krill, Hikari Cichlid Gold Pellet, Hai Feng Evernature (which he prefers to anything), occasional cricket and small human grade frozen saltwater fish called hardy heads from the fish market (preservative free and about 3 inches long)
I tend to alternate and give him fish 2-3 times per week, he often will eat upto four in one sitting and then nothing for the remainder of the day and perhaps upto one day following.
Problems appeared to start when I went away on holidays about a month ago, he became very sulky and refused to eat, due to drought our tap water quality has been poor. Shortly prior my heater died causing a mild outbreak of White Spot, but I quickly solved it with Aquarium Salt.
Here is a short summary of other problems,
Nitrate rose to 10ppm, no Ammonia, Nitrite - Solved with water change
Ammonia rose to 0.25ppm, no Nitrate, Nitrite - Solved with water change
Dissolved Oxygen was between 2.0mg/l & 4.0mg/l - Added extra 400lph pump and stone
pH is hovering around 6.0, currently solving this with Sera KH /pH Plus at a dosage of 10ml every two days to slowly raise the KH (which currently is 1 degree hardness from the tap water!!) and pH to 7.0- I've been doing this for 4 days now and I have it at about 6.4 / 6.6 pH.
After over a week of refusing to eat he FINALLY took two fish and 4 or so pellets on the 14/03 (just about tore them from my fingers), didn't feed him last few days - tried again 16/03, swims over to investigate but won't eat.
Tank Details:
7' x 2.5' x 2.5' = 1200 litres, 300 litre partial water change every fortnight, filter clean every 3-4 weeks from tank water)
50/50 Medium Gravel and River Sand ( could river sand be causing problems?)
2 x Medium Anubius on small aged driftwood
Fluval FX5 with Efhi Substrat media and 2 x bags of Purigen (changed regularly)
Eheim Professional 2 2026 (350L)
3000 Litre per hour power head
Temp of tank approx 26.9 degrees
Tank Mates:
1 x 20cm Oscar (this is his best mate, constantly together)
2 x 20cm High Fin Blue Sharks
1 x 15cm Ghost Knife
1 x 15cm Tandanus Tandanus Eel Tail Cat
1 x 20cm Spangled Gudgeon
1 x 20cm Gibbi Pleco
Arowana:
12 months old on the 27th Feb 2008, approx 50-55cm long (hard to measure exact) and approx 10cm breadth
NEVER been a jumper, has NEVER attempted to eat Live Feeders (completely uninterested)
Every meal is hand fed and likes to swim between my hands for attention.
I've just bought a 36" x 15" sump that I am going to replace the Eheim with.
My question is, and again I'm sorry for the length, what am I doing wrong?? What can I do to improve the quality of the tank?
Water quality has been 0 nitrate, nitrite, ammonia for last 2 or so weeks and I am working on the pH and KH as we speak. He is active as always, swimming constantly at the top of the tank and always does the "dance" for attention or food.
This fish is my absolute pride and joy and I am desperate to find out where I am going wrong and how I can get him back to normal.
Thank you so much for reading my lengthy essay but any help from more experienced keepers is greatly appreciated.
Miss Kp
I'm a new member from Australia and I'm looking for a bit of help with my Silver Arowana. I'm EXTREMELY SORRY for the length of this post but I wanted to explain as best I can.
Firstly, he's been completely off his food where normally he has quite the appetite, also he seems to have small black spots - they look like a pigmentation change (eg freckle) randomly on his face and tail, there only seems to be 2 or 3 of these i can count.
His diet normally consists of Hikari frozen Krill, Hikari Cichlid Gold Pellet, Hai Feng Evernature (which he prefers to anything), occasional cricket and small human grade frozen saltwater fish called hardy heads from the fish market (preservative free and about 3 inches long)
I tend to alternate and give him fish 2-3 times per week, he often will eat upto four in one sitting and then nothing for the remainder of the day and perhaps upto one day following.
Problems appeared to start when I went away on holidays about a month ago, he became very sulky and refused to eat, due to drought our tap water quality has been poor. Shortly prior my heater died causing a mild outbreak of White Spot, but I quickly solved it with Aquarium Salt.
Here is a short summary of other problems,
Nitrate rose to 10ppm, no Ammonia, Nitrite - Solved with water change
Ammonia rose to 0.25ppm, no Nitrate, Nitrite - Solved with water change
Dissolved Oxygen was between 2.0mg/l & 4.0mg/l - Added extra 400lph pump and stone
pH is hovering around 6.0, currently solving this with Sera KH /pH Plus at a dosage of 10ml every two days to slowly raise the KH (which currently is 1 degree hardness from the tap water!!) and pH to 7.0- I've been doing this for 4 days now and I have it at about 6.4 / 6.6 pH.
After over a week of refusing to eat he FINALLY took two fish and 4 or so pellets on the 14/03 (just about tore them from my fingers), didn't feed him last few days - tried again 16/03, swims over to investigate but won't eat.
Tank Details:
7' x 2.5' x 2.5' = 1200 litres, 300 litre partial water change every fortnight, filter clean every 3-4 weeks from tank water)
50/50 Medium Gravel and River Sand ( could river sand be causing problems?)
2 x Medium Anubius on small aged driftwood
Fluval FX5 with Efhi Substrat media and 2 x bags of Purigen (changed regularly)
Eheim Professional 2 2026 (350L)
3000 Litre per hour power head
Temp of tank approx 26.9 degrees
Tank Mates:
1 x 20cm Oscar (this is his best mate, constantly together)
2 x 20cm High Fin Blue Sharks
1 x 15cm Ghost Knife
1 x 15cm Tandanus Tandanus Eel Tail Cat
1 x 20cm Spangled Gudgeon
1 x 20cm Gibbi Pleco
Arowana:
12 months old on the 27th Feb 2008, approx 50-55cm long (hard to measure exact) and approx 10cm breadth
NEVER been a jumper, has NEVER attempted to eat Live Feeders (completely uninterested)
Every meal is hand fed and likes to swim between my hands for attention.
I've just bought a 36" x 15" sump that I am going to replace the Eheim with.
My question is, and again I'm sorry for the length, what am I doing wrong?? What can I do to improve the quality of the tank?
Water quality has been 0 nitrate, nitrite, ammonia for last 2 or so weeks and I am working on the pH and KH as we speak. He is active as always, swimming constantly at the top of the tank and always does the "dance" for attention or food.
This fish is my absolute pride and joy and I am desperate to find out where I am going wrong and how I can get him back to normal.
Thank you so much for reading my lengthy essay but any help from more experienced keepers is greatly appreciated.
Miss Kp
