What happened to my arowana ?

As I had written in my previous post, my arowana ate two tiger barbs within a few hours of putting it into the tank. Two days later, I noticed my arowana exhibiting strange behavior. It started sitting often on the tank bottom for a long time. It started swimming slowly and with clamped fins and tail. Sometimes it even spooked itself like there was an invisible wall in the tank. I thought of various reasons why this behavior would have happened. 

1) Stress due to incorrect water parameters: I checked all the water parameters using the API master water testing kit and even did multiple water changes. All the water parameters were in the normal range and there was nothing wrong about any parameter. I put Indian dried almond leaves to neutralize the pH of the water. I also put API stress coat to  condition the water. 

2) Lighting: Since my tank is near a huge window, I tried various lighting conditions to check if the arowana's behavior persisted. I tried darkening the room with curtains closed and lights turned off. I also covered two sides of the tank with white vinyl and the third side (facing the wall) with thermocol sheet (from outside). I tried putting on a dim bulb outside the tank and keeping the tank LED lights off. I also tried keeping the tank LED lights on different settings. However, none of this changed the arowana's behavior.

3) Feed: Since lighting and stress was almost ruled out, I now think that the arowana's strange behavior is due to overfeeding or indigestion. I initially gave 20-25 pellets of ArG2 twice a day. I think this cause overfeeding in the arowana. I also think that the barbs have caused indigestion. I did not feed the arowana for a day. After almost 30 hours of fasting, I fed the arowana 5 ArG2 pellets and 2 hikari arowana sticks. After doing this, the arowana's behavior is slightly better. It doesn't stay on the bottom for too long and its stomach has also slimmed down a little bit. It did, however, poop a lot in these 30 hours of fasting. 

I am presently trying still trying to figure out the reason behind the arowana's weird behavior. Hopefully, it should be solved soon.


Arowana sitting on the bottom of the tank


Arowana sitting on the bottom of the tank




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I am Nikhil Tanawade, a much-stereotypical Indian who is an engineer (from VNIT, Nagpur), an MBA (from JBIMS, Mumbai), and now working for a bank (all are the same). I am enthusiastic about music, passionate about technology (also start-ups), follower of intellectual property trends, and reader of various blogs/trendy feeds.
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