silver arowana floating/ curling up. weird mark.

[conig]

Hi I have a 6-7 inch silver arowana. I have had him a Little more then a month now. i keep him in a 5 foot 120 with some other odd balls and semi aggressive cichlids. no body messes with him.

tonight I looked over and saw him sort of floating around the tank in the current top to bottom no real control etc. he was also curling up. I did a water test and everything checks out, water is a little hard and nitrates were about 20ppm using test strips.

I moved him to a 20 gallon long filled up the water from 50% the above tank and 50% treated tap and added a teaspoon of salt per 3 gallons. this was about 5 hours ago, he is doing better swimming around again etc but the top of his body seems to still be floating a little above the surface.

he ate last yesterday. I feed him pellets and cooked shrimp. no head ,no tails ,even no turds.

I guess I will give him some time but since my water checks out an none of his tank mates mess with him any idea what gives?

also he has always had this weird mark I cannot diagnose, its sort of like a crater or a section with no scales. any body know what this could be? it never looks fungal or irritated.
its just behind his side fin.

 

[Bderick67]

Looks like just a missing scale, hope it's doing better.

 

[flipstylex]

keep up with the waterchange. its the best medecine imo

 

[conig]

well now he seems fine.

how long should it take to grow a scale back? thats what i thought but it has just seemed like a long time.

 

[C.A.S.A.]

Give him a couple of weeks. Juvinile Aros usually heal up pretty quick when they lose a scale.

 

[Crispy]

Keep a good eye on him and possibly quarantine him for a bit if you think he's getting worse. Maybe he didn't acclimate well? Best of luck with him.

 

[conig]

He's curled up in the shape of a C again floating around........again.


any other idea's of things to do? any common parasites that cause things like this?

how large should a "stable" arowana be.

 

[zennzzo]

Sounds like PH issues...maintain a consistent PH.
Doesn't matter what it is at really just be sure it is the same everytime you mess with the water...Tank is how old?

 

[Red Devil]

missing scales happen on a daily basis.. as long as it is here and there and not a lot of them all at once.. pristene water clears it right up.. i would not take him out very often as this is very stressful for him. He is a beauty and i hope he does okay.

 

[conig]

Sounds like PH issues...maintain a consistent PH.
Doesn't matter what it is at really just be sure it is the same everytime you mess with the water...Tank is how old?

I don't have a way to messure aquarium ph, but I do have a test kit for my pool. It will be high as the water here just tends to be high. As for consistent I don't use any buffers or anything so it should be pretty consitent, I just use aquarium salt.

tanks about 2 months old but I cycled everything but the glass in a 6 year old tank.