John, Do/Did your gigas suffer any head trauma that you know of? Are they skittish/etc? Weird they get DE too..
taking things in a different direction with drop eyes newest theory.
- Thread starter DeLgAdO
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cichlaguapote;904558; said:
the gigas and the aro's are the only fish in the boney tongue family.
yes the can be hyper active !!!
johnptc;904606; said:
there is a small american native who belongs to the bony tongues....want me to try to find out?
Correction, my Physics was incorrect, F=ma. Force=mass x accelleration. I kept my old Physics book to check this. This does not make much of a difference to the theory which applied to the aro would be, a larger fish startled in your aquarium would accelerate toward the fixed confines of your tank and slam so hard as to jar its eyeball loose. Bigger fish with greater mass and inertia will slam harder. I bet there is less of a chance of DE with a small aro growing up in a large tank from the beginning especially if you deep large driftwood, ornaments and rocks out of there. Many members may keep these in a 20 and graduate them them to a 55, 75 , 120 and 220 or larger. One slam may be all that is needed to loosen the eye. This seems to always be unilateral because the aro hitting the tank lid, driftwood, etc would be less likely to strike its head in the center (transferring the impact forces to both eyes) as compared to the more probable oblique iimpact (that concentrates the impact on one eye) It is interesting that pimas and silvers are most prone to DE since these are the largest of the boney tongues.
One other thing that I observed was that my juvenile silver was always seen swimming near the surface of my tank. My juvy jar would also go after surface crickets but it would ocuppy mid and bottom portions of my tank. Since the silver is on the surface, it's instinct when startled is to jump and leave the water. Just think of juvy silvers as freshwater counterparts of flying fish with a flattened body and winglike pectorals. They will jump if startled and it seems like the best precaution against DE is to keep them in a large tank, with the water level low and keep a night light on for them. Also, don't startle them with sudden movements. If my silver dies and I raise another then I am putting bubblewrap on the bottom of the tank lid.
Ok. but I do not see aro's bumping in the tank all day long.. most of mine ( and i have 3 with one DE each ) never have bumped anything in their entire life.
Other aro's are in adequate sized tanks, but not of a size that would allow for the "acceleration effect " ( imo )..
last, but not least, other big fish also bump and jump...
( Crustman, I am not going against your theory, just playing Devil's advocate, ok? )
Other aro's are in adequate sized tanks, but not of a size that would allow for the "acceleration effect " ( imo )..
last, but not least, other big fish also bump and jump...
( Crustman, I am not going against your theory, just playing Devil's advocate, ok? )
My jars do the same they hang at all levels of the tank but most mid level sometimes the bottom and feed at the top. My silver spends most of the time near the top. When frighten----Bam all hell breaks loose and hits the top. I just notice a little DE in one of the eye recently.
Miguel;905002; said:
I have no problems with conflicting veiwpoints but just seek a reasoned explaination for the malady. It may be that some of the young silvers that we buy have unobservable damage from their upkeep by the wholesaler or the retailer. I don't think that this is the case though. How do you know what happens to your fish at night when this likely occurs? A cat, dog, child spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend (for our female aro keepers) could walk by the tank casting a shadow with your Aro going bonkers. I would not have seen mine get dropeye but I heard him hitting the tank when my Wife walked to the kitchen at night. I arrived soon after to see the head scales floating to the bottom of the tank. I took photos also. The morning after, my aro had DE. Other big fish are not primitive fish such as Aros. They must have evolved stronger eye muscles. We should try to keep a baby swordfish in our saltwater aquariums and see if they get DE
Crustman;905080; said:
good argument. May take care of the "other fish" escape route I was trying...
