What's wrong with my Arowana? And what should I do?

Question

A week after my old Arowana died, we bought a new one. After a few days, this baby arowana, started to lose its appetite and today, some of its scales started to fall off. There are also red things in his scales. I feel so sorry - I feel that I am doing something wrong with all these Arowanas.

Well, if you want to see a picture - you can look through the entry in my journal:

http://inown.livejournal.com/8873.html#cutid1

I need immediate help - I don't want another fish to die in my care.

Today, when I got home - The arowana has a small scar in his forehead. I will try to post a better picture today.

Good thing though, it ate one feeder fish today.

Additional Pictures is available here:

http://inown.livejournal.com/9159.html


I'll upload the video a little later.


Thank you for all of your replies - I will try to do all of them - I appreciate all you help. I will post the results when my father gets the tester thing.

The bad thing is - the fish is now dwelling at the bottom of the aquarium. Hm, is that bad? I don't know really. But, it seldom moves.

I think our fish has Costia- well according to a the research I've done.Can someone confirm this?

It has also been scratching through the use of the bottom of the aquarium.

Here is the video:

http://lockheart07.multiply.com/video/item/3/MVI_0009.AVI


Hope this would help.

Answer 1

Dyan,

Is what you're seeing something on the scales, or does this appear to be underneath? It also looks in the photo as though some of the scales are starting to stick out away from the body. Can you confirm this?

My feeling is that this is either a problem with water quality (ammonia, nitrite or nitrate), a bacterial infection (septicemia with possible dropsy), or a parasite, but would need to know more to confirm the diagnosis and recommend a treatment. If you test your water and can provide results for the parameters I mentioned, please post them as "added details" using the pencil icon under the question, or contact me directly at [e-mail].


ADDITION: Since there's been no added info at this point, I'm posting some info which may be helpful to you. I notice there's no substrate in the tank, so you may not have sufficient bacteria in place to detoxify the wastes of your fish. You may need to increase the frequency or amount of water changes to lower ammonia and/or nitrite.

Also, be sure your water conditioner is appropriate for the treatment your water company uses to treat the water supply if you're on public water. It used to be that chlorine was the only chemical used, but many places are now using chloramine - you need to use the proper chemicals to remove this. A call to your water company will be enough to find out what they use, then check your conditioner label. Unless you're positive which your company uses and that your conditioner treats for this, keep your water changes small (no more than 20% at a time) so that if you aren't treating properly, you aren't putting added stress on your fish, or get a more broad-based product that treats both, and treat as for chloramine until you can determine otherwise.

As for the redness, lack of appetite, and losing scales, see if either of these websites help to diagnose the problem:

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/diseases.html
http://www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm


ADDITION 2: The only way to confirm this really is to see the parasite microscopically. Unless you have a University nearby with a parasitologist, or ichthyologist, or a veterinarian who will take a look at a skin scraping for you, or you have a microscope and can do this yourself, there's no way to say it definitely is or isn't costia.

If you suspect that this is the cause, you should begin treatment by raising the tank temperature to above 86o (a few degrees per hour) and begin treatment with a formalin/malachite green medication. Even if this isn't costia, this will still treat a number of other potential parasites. If the fish is scratching, it would seem to be a parasite problem.

Answer 2

If i where you, i would buy myself a nitrite and ammonia testkit, the parameters are suppose to be at 0, if you have nitrite readings, your tank is still cycling, and you're killing your arowanas because of a non cycled tank and poisening them




Hope that helps
Good luck



EB

Answer 3

if i were you, id buy some medicine drops, i dont know what exactly is wrong with it, ask your local pet shop. and do some research on that. it's probably just sick.