Silver aro advise from long term owners please?

[Miguel]

You can discredit it, seriously. That is the lurpose of this forum.

I have more than 20 years with aros but that does not mean that i know it all. I talk from my experience.

I have had some dead aros, also,

 

[wednesday13]

Sounds pretty normal to me, i've seen this in florida gar especially in the winters. In my aros the 2 females do it when their building up their eggs, also in the fall. It may have been her first eggs you found not thrown up rotten food as you stated. Just a thought. When my female dropped her first she was alone and ate them...really made a mess. If this is not the case your aro could b growing. most of my species do this from time to time. I always use feeders to entice my aros when there not frenzy eating like normal and like uncommon belief my aros still take hotdogs,shrimp,fish filets, pellets while getting a treat of feeders once a week.

 

[Kaya]

Long story short, some of you may have read this before, got a small silver, over a year ago, as the right price came up, almost had to sell him as he out growed his tiny grow out tank as the extension was being built, then the tank was delayed but he went in and all was happy.

After a couple of weeks all was well, eating like the seagulls in finding nemo, mine mine mine mine.

Over the last month he stopped eating(tank running for about 9 months now). We didn't noticed this and went to do the weekly water change and the tank stank, really bad, plenty of rotting uneaten food in the gravel so a big clean was needed. This was a month or so ago, since then he's been really weird, he will only eat on occasion, he will swim around you for a minute and take food like a baby very gently but with little or no interest.

All the normal checks have been done and all is ok, so my question is to long term aro owners: what's up? do they do this? please share your experiences?

hey yanbbrox.. could we see some pics of your setup and the aro please.. what do you feed the aro.. are there any other tank mates.. what size.. i'd go with miguel's suggestion.. let the aro fast a bit.. one of my aro has gone weeks off food.. while the others kept eating normally.. could be fish specific or parameter specific.. keep maintaing what you can under check and the aro will start eating in a few days.. cheers.. all the best mate..

 

[Yanbbrox]

The Aro was a well established eater up until about a month ago. Why wouldn't you just try to coax it with different food. It already hasn't eaten in a month, why prolong it?

It has eaten in the past month, just not as it has in the past

how does the fish look? are the fins tucked in close to the body, or is the belly shrinking?

Fins not tucked in, maybe a slight belly shrink

Aros get tired of food and fast.

Depending on size, if it is otherwise, normal, one month is not unheard of.

I had a 2 foot Ck a couple of years ago that went for 6 months without one gram of food.

Thanks for the input

Sounds pretty normal to me, i've seen this in florida gar especially in the winters. In my aros the 2 females do it when their building up their eggs, also in the fall. It may have been her first eggs you found not thrown up rotten food as you stated. Just a thought. When my female dropped her first she was alone and ate them...really made a mess. If this is not the case your aro could b growing. most of my species do this from time to time. I always use feeders to entice my aros when there not frenzy eating like normal and like uncommon belief my aros still take hotdogs,shrimp,fish filets, pellets while getting a treat of feeders once a week.

Thanks for the input

hey yanbbrox.. could we see some pics of your setup and the aro please.. what do you feed the aro.. are there any other tank mates.. what size.. i'd go with miguel's suggestion.. let the aro fast a bit.. one of my aro has gone weeks off food.. while the others kept eating normally.. could be fish specific or parameter specific.. keep maintaing what you can under check and the aro will start eating in a few days.. cheers.. all the best mate..

Thanks Kaya, I'll grab the camera and report back

 

[Yanbbrox]

Kaya,

Tank is 300 usg, filtered by an eheim pro 3 2180 thermo. There is also a 200 usg per hour powerhead in. A second filter will be added in the future when needed.
The only tank mate is a common pleco, but I've got a giant gourami ready to go in.

He used to feed like this, it's quite an old video but you get the point:

[video=youtube;4KUoRcvd6aA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KUoRcvd6aA[/video]

Now you really have to encourage him to feed. He normally feeds on muscles but other foods are fed as well, chicken etc. but he really only has been interested in muscles. He maybe will eat one or two muscles a day if you encourage him but you have to wait until he swims past and drop it into his mouth.

Here are a couple of pics, not the best because the lights are out, I'll post a couple more later when the lights come on.

 

[sbuse]

one thought is there could be a stray electric current in the tank. that would affect its behavior. i have had aros fast and pick at foods several times. i wouldnt be to worried unless it stop entirely. do check for a heater malfunction. or a filter issue. it has happened to me were a heater has gotten a leak were the wires enter and i actually felt the current in the tank. good thing was mine was discovered in a qt tank with out fish.

another is add an air stone or two. i noticed with higher o2 the aros i have had have gotten more active and when i tried to run just canasters on my tank there wasnt enough air being put in to the tank. low d.o. levels in the tank could be a factor as well.

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[Yanbbrox]

one thought is there could be a stray electric current in the tank. that would affect its behavior. i have had aros fast and pick at foods several times. i wouldnt be to worried unless it stop entirely. do check for a heater malfunction. or a filter issue. it has happened to me were a heater has gotten a leak were the wires enter and i actually felt the current in the tank. good thing was mine was discovered in a qt tank with out fish.

another is add an air stone or two. i noticed with higher o2 the aros i have had have gotten more active and when i tried to run just canasters on my tank there wasnt enough air being put in to the tank. low d.o. levels in the tank could be a factor as well.

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Thank for info, my bad I forgot to mention that there is an air stone in the tank

 

[Miguel]

fish looks perfeclty normal.

Enormous mistake feeding him what you are feeding him.Fish are uncapable of digesting mamalian and avian protein ( there is a ton of material about it on MFK ).

Your aro must be sick up to its mouth of the food you gave him.

Fast him. Let him be really hungry. Do not let yourself be stressed by that ( his size gives me ample comfort ).

Let us see how it goes in a week. NO MORE CHICKEN AND NO MORE ****, PLEASE!

 

[sbuse]

fish looks perfeclty normal.

Enormous mistake feeding him what you are feeding him.Fish are uncapable of digesting mamalian and avian protein ( there is a ton of material about it on MFK ).

Your aro must be sick up to its mouth of the food you gave him.

Fast him. Let him be really hungry. Do not let yourself be stressed by that ( his size gives me ample comfort ).

Let us see how it goes in a week. NO MORE CHICKEN AND NO MORE ****, PLEASE!

the mamalian and avian meat is in some fishes diet actually so it is no 100% true. aros will eat birds aswell as insects from the trees. i wouldnt suggest it as a staple but a treat it would be fine. at this point if the op has fed poultry to his fish for some time it will have developed the proper acids to digest and retain the nutriants. an example is if you took a deer from a conifer forest and fed it only corn no matter how much it ate it would starve. if you gradually introduced it and slowly made it a staple it would develop the ability to live on the corn. not a fish i know but it is possible and it is one quick example of what i am saying. large catfish like goonch, redtails, piraibas eat small mammals. most any pred will eat mice and small rodents. rbps eat cappibarras often. to say that they cant digest the protien would not be correct.


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[Yanbbrox]

Thanks Miguel, what should I be feeding then?