'Klondike', Golden Head Crossback Arowana

[islandguy11]

I like Dloks Jr better! Take care of my fish while I’m in the army! Lol if I’m stationed where you’re at! We might have a justifiable case of fish napping! Beautiful fish my white asian brotha!

Thanks Dloks buddy, in the process of changing his tank over to blue background, will update in another thread about that (to see if he loses his crossing after stopping WTT treatment).

You're welcome any time if you're ever stationed out this way. My nephew's in the army too, when he's stationed out this way he loves to stop by for some well-deserved R&R.

 

[Dloks]

Thanks Dloks buddy, in the process of changing his tank over to blue background, will update in another thread about that (to see if he loses his crossing after stopping WTT treatment).

You're welcome any time if you're ever stationed out this way. My nephew's in the army too, when he's stationed out this way he loves to stop by for some well-deserved R&R.

I hope you can cook I’m a BIG eater! I’ll be living my fish dreams through you guys now!

 

[uhespan]

Hey any update on how this guy is now? ?

 

[islandguy11]

Hey any update on how this guy is now? ?

I've posted some other related threads with pix and videos over the last months, but you're right, I am amiss in not updating this particular thread.

"Klondike" (who's name I changed to "Lightning" -- because I soon afterwards also got a Blue Base Gold Xback I named "Thunder" lol) is doing great, thanks for asking. Knock on wood, no health issues or lost scales from jumping (since he lost a few in early days, they're finally starting to color up now). Only thing is he can be a bit aggressive/territorial sometimes and not uncommonly chomps at siphons and nets.

He's just under 17" inches now, and getting pretty thick -- truth be told I really need to switch from daily to every other day feedings asap, but it's hard because he charges the glass and chomps his jaws whenever he's hungry (which is most of the day) as I frequently walk past his tank.

I just recently added a new and more powerful internal pump for feeding his UV sterilizer and overhead trickle filter to achieve higher turnover rate. Next on the agenda is soon adding some pieces of black slate to bottom of tank, as I'm getting really tired of that white bottom and think he would prefer it not so bright as well. I've got the slate prepared, just need to put in the pieces.

Here's some recent pix, all taken within the last couple of weeks:







Same fish, just different angle of light...

 

[uhespan]

Thank you for the update! Lightning looks fabulous. It's really interesting to see that the golden head is still good, I've heard so much about it disappearing when you change to a darker background. But as they say I'm sure genetics play a big role with that. With the immense amount of filtration that you have I must ask how often do you do water changes? ?

 

[Yaponchik]

Tremendously nice fish

 

[islandguy11]

Tremendously nice fish

Thank you for the update! Lightning looks fabulous. It's really interesting to see that the golden head is still good, I've heard so much about it disappearing when you change to a darker background. But as they say I'm sure genetics play a big role with that. With the immense amount of filtration that you have I must ask how often do you do water changes? ?

Appreciate the comments guys. Yeah I'm also pleased that he's mostly maintained his golden head. Whether or not this is influenced by the white bottom of the tank or not I'm not really sure. I'm hoping genetics prevail as you say but we'll see after I add in some pieces of black slate on the bottom in near future(and then afterwards change to a black background) if it passes these 2 tests as well.

Insofar as filtration I would call it 'adequate for current conditions' rather than immense (would need a big sump to be called that). For now it's just a Sunsun 704a canister, the 3 tier trickle filter on right side of tank, plus that big sponge filter and a UV sterilizer (which is only 18w and needs to be upgraded to 55w). But what I have going on now seems to get the job done, never any issues with ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates usually 15-20 max after a week (with ~9 out of the tap). I'll expand filtration in the future but for now it helps that I also siphon out waste once or twice every day.

I do water changes every 7 days, usually about 40% (imo Aros don't like massive water changes so much).

 

[Yaponchik]

Appreciate the comments guys. Yeah I'm also pleased that he's mostly maintained his golden head. Whether or not this is influenced by the white bottom of the tank or not I'm not really sure. I'm hoping genetics prevail as you say but we'll see after I add in some pieces of black slate on the bottom in near future(and then afterwards change to a black background) if it passes these 2 tests as well.

Insofar as filtration I would call it 'adequate for current conditions' rather than immense (would need a big sump to be called that). For now it's just a Sunsun 704a canister, the 3 tier trickle filter on right side of tank, plus that big sponge filter and a UV sterilizer (which is only 18w and needs to be upgraded to 55w). But what I have going on now seems to get the job done, never any issues with ammonia or nitrites, and nitrates usually 15-20 max after a week (with ~9 out of the tap). I'll expand filtration in the future but for now it helps that I also siphon out waste once or twice every day.

I do water changes every 7 days, usually about 40% (imo Aros don't like massive water changes so much).

Hey mate. I don't think your bottom plays a part. If anything, I've a gold head bbxb that has been in a dark tank all it's life. It's head is still gold from when I bought him -- in my country, a gold head (GH) is different from a full helmet (FH) - in which you still have dark specks with a GH while an FH is literally fully helmeted when you purchase no matter what size.

I would agree with crossing being a matter of genes, conditioning being another factor. I've seen as small as 10" being fully crossed, where others have 5 year old fishes that have reached half of 6th level but never fully cross over.

I've seen fish sold as high backs that, after 5 years have fully crossed and look better than fishes bought as full crossbacks by the same owners which after 5 years have not even looked like they are about to cross.

Luck of the draw I guess.

For water changes, if your area has stable water I don't think it hurts. Personally have done boatloads of water changes i.e. 80% daily for a week after I bought around 1500 tilapia fingerlings for food. The bioload was insane and I did WC because my filter socks literally turn black daily.

 

[islandguy11]

Hey mate. I don't think your bottom plays a part. If anything, I've a gold head bbxb that has been in a dark tank all it's life. It's head is still gold from when I bought him -- in my country, a gold head (GH) is different from a full helmet (FH) - in which you still have dark specks with a GH while an FH is literally fully helmeted when you purchase no matter what size. I would agree with crossing being a matter of genes, conditioning being another factor. I've seen as small as 10" being fully crossed, where others have 5 year old fishes that have reached half of 6th level but never fully cross over. I've seen fish sold as high backs that, after 5 years have fully crossed and look better than fishes bought as full crossbacks by the same owners which after 5 years have not even looked like they are about to cross. Luck of the draw I guess. For water changes, if your area has stable water I don't think it hurts. Personally have done boatloads of water changes i.e. 80% daily for a week after I bought around 1500 tilapia fingerlings for food. The bioload was insane and I did WC because my filter socks literally turn black daily.

Agreed on difference between GH & FH -- but my fish's head has never been 100% covered, there are some brown splotches here and there (even more so, some places where the gold layer is not as thick and you can partially see some brown below the gold), so I've never referred to him as a full helmet). This is reflected also in the price I paid for him, upper-middle, not top tier.

And yeah I guess regardless of what kind of Asian Aro one is getting, there's always the factor of luck (or sometimes not) -- your experience can give at least some hope to highback owners

Btw has qnyone ever seen any larger/older Xbacks with 100% full helmet (and displayed under relatively normal lighting, not 24k lighting hocus pocus)? Personally I've only seen small-mid size fish exhibiting like this, but who knows, maybe some of the newer generations will grow to full adulthood with FH more or less intact, given that this trait is being seen earlier and earlier with each new generation.

 

[uhespan]

I recently came across these guys for sale, The best I've personally seen so far.. ? What do you guys think? FH or GH? Just curious. They were around 7 inches.