Arowana Gasping

Cleaned and changed the water in the aquarium because some reddish algae were growing on the surface of the aquarium. The next day, I noticed that our arowana was gasping for air - kept opening its mouth very frequently and later remained at the bottom of the aquarium ! Something was wrong with the water. Quickly changed some of it, add more aeration and put 'yellow Japanese fish medicine' as precaution. It slowly swam to the upper level of the water and remained there, not moving much and still gasping. The next day, it did not open its mouth that big and no sign of gasping. It remained at one corner of the aquarium, near the water surface. Swam slowly every now and then. The following day...it went back to its old self. Up and going again. 

Prescription : We could only try our best and hope that everything would be fine.

Arowana Love to Play

Try fixing a filter pump that gush out lots of strong water bubbles into your aquarium at one spot. Observe your arowana. You'll see it playing with them, enjoying itself with the flow of water current. It's simply wonderful to see its graceful movements while playing. Don't know whether all arowanas are like this but its definitely true for mine.

Prescription : Enjoy yourself everyday no matter what

Buying Arowana

What is your budget and why do you buy an arowana instead of other pets? There are many reasons like for 'feng shui', its shining scales, its haughtiness, to show classiness or so forth. Anyway, the most important thing is when you walk into the shop, at one look at a particular arowana, you simply sort of fall in love with it and must have it. I call this kind of feeling, 'our soul pet'.


Actually, when buying arowana, the prized ones are in fact in the farms and some are not for sale.The good grades or lower grades are sold in shops or to traders.The sex, type of arowana, colour , size, shape, the eyes,'whiskers', the arrangement of scales, fins, tails, broadness, its activeness and gracefulness.....all these determine the quality of an arowana.

When buying one, you must have at least a good size aquarium of  2' x 5' in order for it to grow and swim. Of course, the bigger, the better. Then , the aquarium must have all the necessary equipment. Also, it is important that you are mentally and physically prepared to take care of one. Another thing which is also quite important is, whether you purchase one that is easy to take care.Just like children, some are easy to care for and some need extra care and understanding. As I had mention in my earlier post, I consider arowana under 'headache fish'. So good luck and enjoy having one. Welcome to arowana gang!!!

Prescription : Patience conquers all
 

Arowana Went Nuts (Got Fits)

 Just recently, for the past one week, our red arowana went nuts- jumped, knocking around, like drunken or got into fits when we switched off the aquarium lights. It wasn't like this before. It's alright when we switched on the lights. We were shocked ! What's wrong with it ? We suspected that we scared it when cleaning its aquarium a bit too vigorously compared to what we normally did. So it sort of got very scared or freaked out when we switched off the lights suddenly because it felt that it couldn't see all of a sudden. So we tried many ways to switch off the lights until we got a way that didn't freak it too much i.e. switched off the water pump then switched off and on the lights a few times, then only switched off the lights in the house. After being like this for a week, it suddenly got okay and didn't go nuts after switching off the lights. We are still puzzle over its weird behaviour but as long as it is okay, we are happy. Arowana really has it's own kind of character.....an elegant, proud, shiny, sensitive fish. We really strike the jackpot of purchasing over sensitive arowanas each time.... this red arowana and our golden redtail arowana. Yep , we learn a lot along the way but .....yet we love to look at them. So contradicting.....This kind of headache is the type people say, " YOU BOUGHT YOUR OWN HEADACHES". Ha ! Ha! We must be crazy fellas !


Prescription : Sometimes we can't understand the closest person to us or even ourselves. So be patient.

Arowana Has Red Protruding Anus

   More than 2 weeks ago, our arowana had red protruding anus. Didn't know the cause at first and search for answers from the internet. There are many suggestions and answers to the cause ranging from the food we gave , parasites. inflammation of the digestive systems.....We tried changing the food because we gave it bread worms that week but it didn't give any result. We changed the water  more frequently, gave internal and external parasite medicine.... again with no result. The anus is getting redder. Then we put it on fasting as is one of the suggestions but to no avail. We were at loss. Then we tried stuffing human deworming medicine at low dosage in prawns to give it. Sure enough, there are parasitic worms coming out and could hardly be seen unless if strain our eyes under bright lighting. About 1 mm, as thin as dust like and they are wriggling ! Could be due to the live fishes that we feed it now and then. It love them and wouldn't take pellets. The redness has slowly gone down. There's still slight pinkish colour and anus still slightly protruding. At least improve a lot but it became smart. It wouldn't eat prawns now !

Prescription : We are learning everyday from life's little experiences

New Red Arowana-Not Eating

   My hubby bought another crossback red arowana a few weeks ago. This new arowana is more aggressive, braver and smarter compare to our golden redtail arowana. At the beginning, it took some time to get use to the new surroundings and show signs of stress like not eating for a week. It's okay now and come chasing if anything is near the aquarium, following any movement near the aquarium. Great to have another new pet to the family but arowana is a type of fish which is rather sensitive. Some people call it 'headache fish' because it react very differently to different stimuli. Sometimes it reacted to certain stimuli so badly that it looks sick. No 2 arowanas have the same behaviour and reaction. So owners have to judge and understand their own arowanas just like there are no 2 children with the same character.

Tiny White Spots On Parrot Fish

  It all started with our pair of orange Taiwan parrot fishes. Both of them became inactive, not swimming much and not feeding. Later they only remained at the bottom of a corner of the aquarium and not moving much except when we went near. Been having them for more than half a year and had never seen them behaving in such a peculiar way. We tried to focus our eyes on them that was quite difficult for both of us, hubby and I because both of us are long sighted. After some time only did we notice that they had some tiny white salt-like particles on their fins. We also noticed that our other red parrot fishes were also having salt-like particles on their bodies but much lesser. We looked up in the internet and read up about fish diseases under different entries until we got hold of the correct one which diagnosed the problem as white spot disease or ich disease caused by Ichthyophthirius multifilis which is a parasite. Other fishes in the tank did not get it such as a tiny Taiwanese koi and 'lampan'. They were still swimming vigorously and feeding normally. Maybe its due to the introduction of a new fish, the 'Bandaraya' fish which died after 2 days in the aquarium.

   We bought medicine specially for white spots made by a local company, raised the water temperature by installing a heater and add the salinity of the water but the condition of the fishes did not improve much. One of the orange parrot fish died. Then we tried another white spot medicine made from Germany at RM 40. Saw some improvement but still slow. So we added a type of yellow powder from Japan. This combination seemed to work well. Its after 2 weeks now and all of the fishes are feeding and swimming but two of the fishes still have white spots on them at the fins and head. These two are swimming slowly and spend most of the time floating near the surface. Got to continue treatment and need to buy more medicine because the one we bought is nearly used up.


Prescription : All living things need care

Arowana Needs Anti Stress

   An arowana is a graceful fish that swims in a relaxing manner. It stays most of the time near the surface of the water and moving most of the time. The colour of its body could be enhanced by the colour and lighting of its environment as well as the type of feeds given to it. The shining beautiful colour of its scales makes it a prized fish for hobbyists. By watching it swimming is just like being hypnotized into relaxing. Make us feel sort of calm. It needs a big aquarium for it to have enough swimming space and exercise in order to stay healthy. In aquarium, it is practically a solitary fish. Which means people usually rear only one arowana in a tank/aquarium unless the tank or pond is really big.

  
    The last time I wrote under 'Arowana In Distress', our arowana got well and we were really relieved and happy. But three days ago, my hubby bought 2 parrot fish from his usual fish shop because he couldn't resist buying at the recommendation of the owner that was to make the aquarium more colourful and act as company to our arowana since our aquarium is quite big to accommodate extra 2 fishes. I was sceptical when my hubby brought back the 2 fishes and I reminded him about the previous episode of nibbling case. He put the fishes in anyway and got our timid arowana all stressed again. Worst this time, it sank to the bottom and staying very still at one specific corner of the aquarium for 1 3/4 days after the parrot fishes were removed. The colour of its scales turn dull and blackish - bad sign. The only consolation is it is still able to eat when fed. Gave it the same type of treatment like last time -changed 1/3 of the water, add extra aeration for more oxygen, mixed in stress reducing formula which was patented in US plus arowana medicine. At least now it seems to be swimming again although not much. Still sluggish. Hopefully it will recover soon. Told my hubby not to try any new experiments with his arowana or the aquarium in future. When the arowana fell sick, our hearts seemed to pop out. Couldn't take much of that because the feeling was horrible. Took so long for it to grow to 2 feet and be an adult fish, fell in love with it and it is really expensive.




Prescription : Learn from mistakes but be prepared that the feeling sucks. Cheer up!!!

(21.05.11-Saturday)


**Note :  Just to update - our arowana is more active today...(22.05.11-Sunday)

Arowana in Distress

   We have a golden redtail arowana as a pet for more than 6 years.Actually it was my husband's pet. It is tame although it is a predator fish.My husband could touch it with his hand. Since we bought it from the fish shop when it was about 6 inches, it already acquired the taste of live food and doesn't take pellets although we tried.It likes bread worms and crickets the most. Occasionally it is fed with fish and prawns.

   Two days ago, my husband bought RM1 of tiny fishes as its food. He poured the fishes into the aquarium as usual.Unknown to him, this batch of fishes were very aggressive. The fishes kept on disturbing the arowana by nibbling at it instead of the arowana eating them. The arowana was so stress out that it just remain at the bottom of the aquarium and not moving much. Arowana usually swims at the surface and always moving. Being at the bottom is a bad sign. My husband was so worried for his arowana. He removed all the fishes but his arowana is still in distress. It is not its usual self yet. My husband bought some anti stress medicine for it which is quite expensive.Hopefully it will get well soon.It is part of our family.

   My son said," Fish also can get stress.Only swim and eat, no need to study or work also stress. Medicine also more expensive than mine when I was sick!" Frankly, it is not easy to upkeep a pet because it needs a lot of responsibilities and care.When it gets sick...the worries we feel is heart stopping...not good eh? But when it is okay, caring for it is like therapy for its owner.

Prescription: Being responsible is a challenge and not always easy.


(14.03.11-Thursday)