arrowana trouble

[one-envy]

hi, my arrowana jumped out of its tank a couple days ago. it was out of the water for a couple of minutes. he lost a lot of scales in the process. he has not been eating. the ph level was really low. i did a 20% change 4 days ago and just did another today. the pet store sold me some "stress relief" stuff for the fish and i also purchesed ph up. i also added some aquarium salt to the tank to help further the healing. today he has been on the bottom of his tank. has not really been swimming around like he usually does. i fear he is going to die. can any help me?

 

[Mogo]

Hello one-envy, and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about the Arrowana. I've never kept Arrowana's and I'm not sure if there is any special way you should handle the situation. I really hope that someone else here can offer you some more advice in dealing with the situation. I've had Cichlids that have jumped out of the tank while feeding, but had very little damage to their skin and scales and recovered quite quickly. The best I can offer you is to make sure that your water quality is in top notch shape over the next little while (maybe small partial water changes every other day) and keep a close eye on him and make sure he doesn't develop any infections on the sites of injury. He could just be severely stressed from the whole experience. I hope things take a turn for the best as I'm sure he's a beautiful fish at that size.

 

[Angel Lady]

i am sorry to hear about your fish jumping out I lost my female betta that way I dont know what to tell you on that matter but I can tell you that salt and scaless fish doesnt go very well at all your pleco cant stand any salt at all it will burn them I am sure anyone hear will tell you that. mabey you could try some melafix that should help you out some.

 

[CFC]

The salt will not help at all,Amazonian fish are generally intolerant of salt as there is so little of it in their natural enviroment so i would do a large water change of at least 40% to try and dilute it.
Other than that all you can do is try to prevent infections through keeping the water quality perfect by doing small water changes each day and cutting back on the feeding a little,melafix will help too.I hope your fish gets better,a arowana at that size is a beautiful fish.

 

[impur]

I had an arowana jump out once. Mine was only about 3 in. I saw my cats huddled around something on the dinning room floor and there was my arowana!! I picked him up and put him back in and he survived luckily.

Back to your situation, what do you feed it? I would try something like a cricket or worm. I have always found when my arowana was sick, he would eat these. Also they can be easily removed and won't dirty the water. Also i agree with CFC and he needs good water quality and possibly melafix to help.

 

[one-envy]

thank you everyone for the helpful information, but i fear i have some bad news. my beautiful arowana, Mr. Dragon, did not make it through the evening. it is a somber day at my house, for he has been a part of my family for the last 6 years. fear not though i will continue to raise arowanas in the future and now i know what to do. if anyone knows how i can possibly come by an asian arowana please let me know. thanks.

 

[dolphin]

Hi one-envy

A sad loss . Hope you find a nice replacment.

 

[impur]

Sorry for your loss. That is truely sad, a arowana that big is truely magnifiscent. I have never seen an asian for sale at a lfs. My advice would be to see if your lfs can special order one. Or try an online provider. Good luck.

Btw how big was the tank you housed him in?

 

[one-envy]

i believe the tanks measurments are 6ft long, 18in wide, and 2 ft high