My dead arowana

[Rwhite8278]

I had been watching an Aro at my lps for a few months. I finally decided to choke up the 35 bucks for him. He was doing great for about a month untill I came home today and found him at the bottom. He was fine last night when I fed him. I looked the corpse over close and the only irregularitys I could see was that he was stiff(duh) and his eyes looked a little milky. Guesing his eyes were that way cuz he was dead. No signs of marks from fighting.
For 3 days up untill the day before yesterday I had been treating for a POSSIBLE case of ICH. I saw a white ich looking spot on two of my fish. Ther aro showed no Ich spots. The convict still has the spot but the oscar does not. I had the power filters turned off for these days due to the instruction for the meds saying no carbon. I was also doing 30 to 40 percent water changes prior to dosage per intstructions.
The ph is bout 8 and the ammonia is at the lowest measure on the chart light yellow.
I wonder if I didnt stress him out with too much water movement. The two whisper 30-60's, a walmart cheapo power head in the middle of the tank at gravel level hooked to the undergravel and about 20in of bubble strip going along the back of my 55gallon...

Any thoughts are welcome

flip thru this online album to see a pic of my aro when he was alive. You will have to flip thru a few pics of the tanks other inhabitants to get to him.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288047963

[blitzen25bm]

i didnt get to see the pictures because i didnt wanna join that website you were using. but i dont know what happened to your fish, they are really tough fish and the most common arowana death is jumping out of their tanks. how big was he?

[Uncle Bete]

same as blitzen about the pics.:(

Having not kept one or reading much about'em because I don't see me ever keeping one. I don't know any specifics about them except they get 3' + long. And from seeing them on TV in the wild once in a while. Which they were showing them comming completely out of the water straight up to grab an insect on a branch. And from the looks of there home on TV I'd guess there probably more of a 6.5 - 7.2 pH type of fish (I did do a quick search on what turnt out to be the informationless highway, I looked through 3 diff. arrowana sites and not one mentioned the pH recomendations). With that said, isn't 8 pH kinda high. And do you "know" what the pH was in the tank it was in at the store? Also I don't know anything about them and chemical treatment/ sensitivity, so I can't help you there either.
Sorry not much help I know, but you haven't had much for replies so I thought I'd toss in my 2 tenths of a cent.

[Rwhite8278]

He was about 4-5 in long. He had actualy grown some while he was in my tank.

[PumaWard]

What brand of test kit do you have?

The pH is kind of high, as they like water on the more soft/acidic scale but if he's been in it for a while it doesn't sound like pH shock.

Did you notice anything like white, striny feces before death or any abnormal behavior? What kind of ich medication did you use?

[Rwhite8278]

I didnt see any strange signs or feces. Its the wardlys ick away from wal mart.

My Brother just told me that he saw the fish the night before he died laying on the bottom "gasping" He said the gills were moving way out

[Gulp]

Can't view the pics......





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[PumaWard]

It sounds like classic symptoms of ammonia posioning to me. If your test kit reads any ammonia, what ever level, it could cause stress and eventual death to fish.

[Rwhite8278]

sorry bout that...try it now

[kveeti]

Originally posted by Rwhite8278
I had the power filters turned off for these days due to the instruction for the meds saying no carbon. I was also doing 30 to 40 percent water changes prior to dosage per intstructions.
The ph is bout 8 and the ammonia is at the lowest measure on the chart light yellow.


Clarification - You turned off all the filters for how long? My guess is that this is why you have an ammonia reading. Why not just take out the carbon media?

[Rwhite8278]

For three days. Carbon is a part of the filer cartridge.
Ammonia in the tank was less than .25mg/l

[Rwhite8278]

The guy at my lps mentioned that Aro's have been known to choke on food. Who knows....I agree with those that think it might have been the ammonia.

Thanks for all the ideas!

[dwf73]

Hey, Can I ask you how much aeration you had in the tank? Are there airstones in addition to the filters? I am almost positive that the water movement was not a factor, but if it was a silver arowana or australian than it could very well have been from over-oxygenated water. There are a lot of cases of such deaths, and I have witnessed a few myself. Ph=8 should be alright, not enough to kill the fish, and it doesnt sound like the ammonia was at a critical level, at least not high enough to be sure. On the choking issue, what were you feeding it? 4-5 inches shouldnt have had a problem with feeders . Seriously, I would consider the oxygen hypothesis before anything else.

[Rwhite8278]

i have about 30 inches of airstone along the back
I have never heard of too much oxygen. I didnt realize these guys were so darn finicky...
I am upgrading to a 175 to 200 gallon when I get my income tax refund. Ill wait until that is est. then think long and hard about another aro.
I dont liike a fish/tank that is like a prima dona. I wouldnt last 5 seconds with a reef tank.
The tank has hearty full grown sa cichlids in it now. They are as low maint as it comes. Just throw em some food and do monthly maint.


Here is a pic of him/her
http://www.aquaticphotos.com/details.php?image_id=180&mode=search