sick arowana please help

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BobsNotReal

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 2, 2009
10
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west virginia
hi, im new to the site, any links or advice is welcome, i dont have a ton of time to search around and see if any one else has posted with the same problem so if so let me know so i can read over it

i work in a pet store (im an aquatic specilist at petco) and i generaly know alot when it comes to helping fish, well i have a customer who is a regualr and who beged me for help so i took one of his fish.........

he came to me saying that he bought 3 "blue" (black) arowanas, and was quarintineing them in a 55 untill there 300 gallon tank was being finished (he was having it built) 2 of them were attacking the other one, the other one developed fin rot and stoped eating, i told him id go home and do some research on the best treatment for this species

well when reading i found out they were very territorial and didnt like to be kept together, this being a major stress factor could have caused the fin rot, so i told him he had to seperate the fish.... well, he beged me to take the fish, and i did, i have a 40 breeder that has been set up for 5 months, i have one 4 and a half inch electric blue jack dempsey housed in it and about 10 corey cat fish, i do water changes in that system every 3 days, and i run a 50 gallon marine land filter in it. the water is in amazing quality, amonia 0, nitrates and nitrates VERY close to 0 (less than 20 on the dip stick test)

well any who (sorry to make this so long) i did a water change befor i put the 12 inch arowana in the tank, added a second heater to insure no change in temp (i read the dont tolerate temp changes) the water is running at 78 degrees all the time.

i floated him on top for 10 mins, let him out and he was so scared and bumped in to the glass, and swam like he was pasing back and forth, for a good few hours, i covered the top and sides with card board to shade the water and to hopefully keep him from bumping his face on the glass, leaving the front open so i could watch him, my jack didnt bother him at all, didnt even seem intrested in him and the arowana didnt seem intrested in the jack at all..

i got some tetracycline for the water (not the food treatment) and on the 2nd day, he ate!!!! the guy told me the fish had been so stressed that it hasnt eating in days, well im was very proud to get him eating again,

so on the 3rd day, i bought him a small anole lizard to eat, when i got home, i tossed in the lizard, took him about and hour but he finaly ate it, then i noticed, his eye is cloudy, i thought he was doing better, so i tryed to find info on eye cloud and i read some stuff that refered to this site

i also put 3 floating pong balls in the tank to help him keep looking up, i read that was important,

what can i do to help him with the fin rot/ eye could

i dont want to see this fish die, i promised id do all i could to help him

thank you so much

-liz
 
First thing, arowana are jumpers. They will get through the smallest holes so cover everything.

Ping pong balls are more of a myth then anything. However some floating plastic plants will make the aro fell more secure.

The fin rot can be worsened by stress, but likely can on because of poor water conditions.

The cloudy eye probably is result of injury from being moved.

Best treatment for the eye and the fin rot is clean water, so do enough frequent water changes to keep the nitrates no higher then 10 ppm. Also I would boost the heat to 82 degrees and add some aquarium salt, 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons of water. You should see improvement within a week. For now feed waterever it will eat, once healed you can work on getting it trained on a proper diet.

Be careful, if you become attached and decide to keep it you'll be looking at buying a huge tank. The arowana is going to need to be in at least a 180 gallon 6'x2'x2' tank within about a year.

Also you did not mention how big the aro is.
 
i use aquarium salt any way, im sorry i forgot to say that, yeah one table spoon for every 5 gallons of water, do you think that the fact it showed up 3 days after the move, that it could still be from the move? im really woried that its fungal or bacterial and that i may not be able to find an efective treatemnt....

hes around 12 inches, i read there not as sensitive once there this big, so thats a plus,

every inch of the tank is covered i made sure of that, there are plants that reach the top and float there, and he seems to like the swim through them, he doesnt look stressed any more, he swims calmly, and breaths normaly, and yes i will deff. keep up the water changes

i have medicated food, the geltech kind, do you think if i froze it and put it on the back of crickets it would work?

i want to help him

thanks
 
ok so i just bought a 70 gallon acrylic (tall) its roughly48 inches long 24 high and 13 wide, i filled it, put my filter from my 40 in it to seed with bacteria and even transfered over the same gravel to the new tank,

i moved my jack dempsey, my 10 corey cats (all around 1 inch in lenght) and the arowana, who now seems ALOT happies, he looks much more active and calm

but, im still having trouble feeding him, he will only eat crickets, the fin rot is still there, his fins look shreded, im hoping by keeping the water clean it will go away, i tryed for an hour today to get him to eat shrimp, he would circle around it like he was intrested and even nip at it alittle but spit it out,

does any one have advice on feeding them, or maybe insects that would be more nutricious? i want him on a better diet

:)
 
here are some pics, take a look at his fins, what do you think?

(hopefully the pics work)


CIMG0060.jpg



CIMG0065-1.jpg



CIMG0071-1.jpg



if you look very closely at the red plant in the center of the aquarium you can see jack lol

CIMG0073-1.jpg



CIMG0075-1.jpg
 
crickets mostly... is a good way for arowana to start eating... usually they will eat that..

I'd move on to something else with more protein tho... like arowana sticks or Hikari cichlid bio gold...

a 75 SHOULD be okie for a big fish.. if only by itself.. but that fish needs a 125-180gallon soon...

i dunno if u want to invest in that if your helping someone keeping if for awhile.. and then bring it back..

U should just keep it... and play it safe for the fish... usually people will say they upgrade.. 80% of them dont upgrade at all... and u get arowana with hump backs or gill plate curel inward...

Best of luck and welcome to MFK!
 
Good thing you moved the EB. I'm sure he didn't care for seeing that aro invited in the tank. Thats all ya need... to stress the eb and him die on you. Those guys are super delicate when so small.
 
give it a few weeks.. to see the changes.. if water quality is clean, he should be healing up his fins...

As for food... bine shrimp (freeze dried) and arowana stick is good..

BUT, if u want maximum growth for an arowana.. in suggest a more meaty diet, twice a week... i feed my two silver at 14" with meat stripes.. yes.. actual raw red meat, i stick to pork.

i SLICE them to thin stripes so they look like a feeder, long and narrow... no bigger than 2" and at first my arowana didnt know what it was.. and later on.. it started eating it.. now it's eating out of my hand..

Try it.. it really improves a arowana ask it grows... but just be careful of not over feeding it.. u'll spoil it and it wont eat anything but that.... also recommend changing up its diet by weekly basis.

Some weeks introuced bine shrimp, other weeks use arowana sticks, or pellet or crickets..(Never use feeders) but u CAN try molly or fancy guppie fish.. if they are health.. But if u want to give ur arowana a FRESH and healthy diet.. feed it raw meat...

(Only draw back) is the ammonium level kicks in, but weekly water changes is always good... I do a 50% on my 150gallon..
 
thanks, that helps alot, i dont want him to grow super fast but i also dont want any nutircinal problems, im still not sure what is going to happen to him im not sure if the other guy wants him back, he takes so long to eat, even just one cricket takes him about 10 minutes, i fear if hes put back with the other 2 that caused this problem then hes going to die, and i really dont mind gettting him the size tank he needs ive been doing water changes every day, im up for the chalenge but im not sure the man who purchased him will be,

i may need to buy the fish from him

i wanted a 180 for my jack dempsey any way, i know that sounds crazy but i wanted him to have tons of room to swim to make sure he didnt end up with a small tail like some of the the other ones ive seen,

im gonna grab some cichlid sticks today and see if i can get him to take any
 
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