Seriosly ill arowana.

[Seattle206]

Theres something wrong with my 9inch silver arowana. I've had it for about a month, it ate like a pig, swam non slowly nonstop like any healthy arowana. About 2 days ago my pacu looked liked it had ick. There were small white dots on its head and fins. So I did a salt & heater treatment, I raised the temp to about 84f and added some salt maybe around 7 teaspoons in total only around where the pacu liked to swim. Later on the day I noticed that the arowana just stayed at the corner of the tank. It doesnt swim or eat. It's fins are closed, and doesnt seem to even open when it makes the slightest movements. Its stayed the same place for 24hours now, hasnt even moved. So I did a water change eariler and it still acting like its a stone. All my other fishes seem happy swimming and chasing each other. The pacu looks better, it doesnt have many dots left. None of the other fishes look like they have ick. My tiger oscar, pink convict look flawless. The arowana looks normal too except it just wont eat or move. What could be the problem? Stress?

 

[Seattle206]

ok nevermind the arowana just died this monring. Time to go buy a new one

 

[freeless2002]

First, the salt dissolves so it does NOT matter where you put it in the tank.
Second, using salt is an old school method for ick. Use something like nox ich. Sure it turns the water blue when you use it but so what?
I never had an arowana so I do not know what water tmep they like, so thats possible the problem. But it's more likely the salt, basiclly, it cann't breath b/c of the sality of the water. Some fish can handle it, some cann't.
I

 

[OrionGirl]

7 tsp? In a tank with pacu and arowana? Unless you have those fish in a majorly undersized tank, 7 teaspoons of salt isn't enough to even raise the salinity above fresh. A gradual temp increase shouldn't have caused a problem, and that level of salt is miniscule in a tank bigger than a 55 (which is still too small for the animals in question).

I'd suspect something else--if the aro ate some of the salt, it could have caused a problem, but I'd suspect the aro is either stressed by the other fish, or some other water parameters.

Most of the medications offered to treat ich can be toxic to many fish. Salt and temp typically are not, and can be tolerated well for the treatment period. "Old school" doesn't imply bad. Salinity has no effect on a fishes ability to absorb oxygen--in truth, it can be helpful in cases of high nitrites. High salinity can impact the fishes ability to osmoregulate, and damage kidneys, but not at such low levels and short term.

 

[Seattle206]

Everything went downhill once I saw those specs on the pacu. This is very discouraging.