SO? What’s the first thing to do…… DON’T PANIC!!!!! This usually happens because the water quality is probably not so good. People ask me whether I check for nitrates levels, etc but I’ll be frank with you, I don’t at all. If you think you have high nitrate problems, well… change the water! I always do that! First thing I do when I see my arowana losing appetite or staying at the bottom of the tank often or it’s swimming patterns seem lethargic, etc, CHANGE THE WATER…

I have said this many times, this should always be your first course of action. It has never failed me until today. No point worrying about what to do first… AGAIN 1st STEP IS… YOU SHOULD CHANGE THE WATER. (Sorry for being naggy but I hope you get it by now.)

So below are the steps I took…
1) 3 weeks back, I change the water like usual during the weekends. 20 – 25% water change as usual. I also always add salt to it. Salt is like, lack of a better word, a tonic to it. I do not add anti-chlorine or any medication to it. No need for all these ok.

I usually do no feed it on the day of water change. I tried to feed it the next day but all it did was bite on the chopped prawn pieces and spat it out. I did not think much of it as it’s done this before. It did the same thing practically throughout the week but I thought they were just not hungry.

2) 2 weeks back, during the weekend, I change the water and added some salt in again as usual… It again decided not to eat for the whole week.

3) Last Sunday, I again change the water, added salt BUT this time, also added blackwater. I sometimes add blackwater as they do like this but it’s really not always necessary. It’s up to you. But the good thing is, it started to eat again yesterday. Was blackwater the ‘cure’, I really don’t think so but as I said, it does not hurt to add them if you have it.

So what is the moral behind this story?
When your arowana don’t eat, DON’T PANIC. Continue to change the water as I did.
I know there is a quote that says “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Well, this quote does not stand for arowanas ok! In fact, you should change the water over and over again until they do eat. Think about it logically… there must be something in the water that is causing the problem right UNLESS of course, your arowana has inherent health problems that cannot be detected visually. In these cases, it is just bad luck as no one could have predicted that the arowana you bought has health issues.

Hope this will clear up some of your anxieties. Cheers and have a great day!

Ok .. now back to the topic…
When the arowanas are brought home, you should put the plastic bags with the fishes into the tank. This is to allow the temperature in the bags to approach that of the tank water.. If the water temperature is too much, this will stresss your fish unnecessarily. So be patience with this step. I usually leave the bags in for about 30 min to allow thiis to happen.

After this, slowly open up the bags and fill them up with the water (everytime with a single scoop or two of water into the bags) from the tank. Do this several times until the bags are almost full of water. Should be an interval of about 20 minutes or so between each time. This is also to help ‘equalize’ the water.
Look at the four photos below to get an idea…

Your arowanas can be a bit jumpy when they are in a new environment.. so don’t get too worried. They will probably also not eat for the first couple of days. ALL THIS IS NORMAL OK…. So don’t go pulling out your hair worrying about something normal..

Below here are my new golden babies in their new tank.. Enjoy and take care!

This farm that I’m involved with has been producing some excellent quality arowanas which I’m proud to share with you. Some of the arowanas really look like gold bars! I just brought 3 gold arowanas home yesterday actually!

I’ll share with you in the next blog post on how to bring new arowanas home and put into your tanks. This should be another interesting post for those buying new ones soon.

Nice eh? If you are interested, you can write to sales@panglong.com.sg . If you are in Singapore, I would also suggest that you go down to the farm to have a look.

For those looking for red arowanas, unfortunately we don’t have many as they are much harder to breed. IMHO, good reds are mostly from Indonesia. Malaysia and Singapore have a harder time breeding them.

What happened was my wife wanted me to move my tank to another location in our house and of course I could not just lift it up and carry it right.. I could have said no to my wife but thought better as she would probably nag me until I did it anyway. Sigh! So anyway, I decided to do it ASAP. As I did not have a spare tank in my house, I decided to move my 5 crossbacks to the farm so that I could drain the tank and move it to the new location.

I’ll be frank here… There are not really any hard and fast rules as to how to move your arowana to a new tank/location. But what I’ll be describing below will definitely give you an idea on how it’s done if you ever needed to do it yourself.

HOWEVER here is my advise ok… if you have just one arowana, then I think you can probably do it yourself but if you have more than one, maybe it would be better to get some professional help to move them. You really do not want to stress out your arowanas unnecessarily. Trust me on this!

So anyway, let’s get started with the move ok… ENJOY!!!

1) The below are probably the only equipment that you would need to do the job. A styrofam box, STRONG plastic bags and fish stabilizer. The fish stabilizer is to make your arowana a bit drowsy so that it would become ‘calmer’ and not struggle too much when you try to guide it into the plastic bag.

2) Example of a fish stabilizer …

3) Ok before you start, it would make sense to drain a bit of water from the tank. This is in case your arowana becomes a bit excited and jumpy… You don’t want it to accidentally jump out of the tank while you are trying to move it do you?

4) After draining some water, put a bit of the fish stabilizer into the tank to calm the fish down. Be mindful that this is potent stuff ok.. so use sparingly… Read the instructions on the bottle.

5) Put the plastic bag into the water and guide the arowana into the bag. Do not try and force the arowana into the bag as this can cause it to become very agitated and jump around and injure itself.

6) Before you tie up the plastic bag for transport, do put in a drop of the fish stabilizer to calm it down for the transport to another location. (Only needed if the distance is far enough and in this case is to the farm.)

7) Putting the arowanas into the tank in the farm. What you should do is put the entire bag into the water first for about 30mins. After which, open the bag and slowly mix the tank water with the bag water before slowly releasing the arowana into the tank.

Ok hope you enjoyed the above ‘move’. Do share if you have any other methods. Oh by the way, some people also oxygenate the bags before they tie up the bag for transport but I think it might not be needed if the distance is short. Like I said… no hard and fast rules to follow but some people do take additional steps… Cheers and take care…

Anyway I would like to share a story with you from one of my readers. (It is reproduced verbatim below)
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Hi Steven

I brought 3 Arowanas in my fish tank about 2 weeks back. 2 of them did not eat the food except the live fish, whenever given. One arowana was okay with having feed as well as live fish.
but for past 2-3 days, the arowanas were not acting normal. they reduced their movements, rather like to stay idle. I thought that they might be hungry so I brought live fish for them. Probably all of them had eaten them.
But yesterday, one of them firstly started swimming down the water, subsequently remained with its head down. and others too were not active, one of them was getting its tail downwards, and both remained inactive while staying idle on the corners of the tank on the top.
i gave medicine (tetracyclin and another anti-biotic for gastric disorder) and increased the temperature to 28 degrees, and about 2 hours later of medication, I changed over 25% of water maintaining the same temperature. thereafter i increased the water temperature to 30 degrees.
in the meanwhile, i could see a change in other 2 arowanas but the one with head dipping downwards had a little improvement.
but today morning the arowana with head dipping downwards, dies. alas!
on inspection, i could find that the surviving arowanas, although they are better in their movements, but they have lost their color and texture and the fins are also broken. and one of them is still having tail tilting downwards.
I am really attached with arowanas, last year also i lost 2 of my arowanas.
please suggest me the remedy
regards

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Some observations here that will help you manage your beloved arowanas better.

1) Everytime, when you sense that something is not right with your arowanas, the first thing you do is change the water! Don’t have to think ok about what to do…. just change the water. Again change a maximum of 20-25% maximum each time. Also do not change everyday but every other day if needed. (I’m assuming that you are using tap water.) You do not need anti-chlorine as it is only 20% change in water. I have never used anti-chlorine in any of my water changes.
The problem I see is that many hobbyist procrastinate in changing water and hoping for the best. Do not wait for another day but change the water ASAP once you detect some anomaly in the behaviour of your arowana.

2) Medication should be used ‘sparingly’ and should NEVER be your first action plan. I have never used medication at all for my 5 cross-backs in my tank. (3 years now) I make it a point to change water every 2 weeks or so with additions of salt and black water everytime I change it.

3) When your arowanas have problems, I also see many hobbyist feeding them more food thinking that they are hungry. This is more often than not, the wrong deduction and definite the wrong thing to do. Your arowana being sick is 99% caused by the condition of the water. When you add more live food into it, you are increasing the waste in the water (your live food also produces waste) which makes the water more polluted than before. If you have sick fishes, avoid feeding them for a few days until you have done the necessary.

Hope the information above has given you a better insight into what actions to take when you see problems. Cheers!

HOWEVER, keep your questions coming to my email address (steven@arowana-care.com) as I will continue to answer all your personal questions. However, moving forward, if I find your questions can benefit the wider arowana hobbyist community, I will post it here on the blog.

Again, have a Great Christmas day and 2010 ahead. May the new year usher in health, wealth and personal prosperity to all.
Cheers and take care.
Steven

They already had 2 ponds breeding green arowanas and they wanted to venture out into reds and xback golds as well. Just out of curiosity, I asked them how much they could sell green arowanas for in Myanmar.. and they said about US$800 per fish! Man! that is a damn good price for greens.

They were looking for someone to help them with the setup as well as enquire about certain techniques to increase their yield. They were getting about 100+ babies a year which I thought was pretty good for 2 ponds.

Anyway, where I’m going with this are the following facts.. I am just reiterating what I wrote in another post but I think it is worth mentioning again if anyone is thinking of giving this a try..
Best to do this with a question/answer format :-

Q – Can asian arowanas (reds, xbacks, RTGS) be bred in other asian countries other than Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore?
Ans – No one has succeeded yet! My advise is, DON’T TRY unless you are playing with excess money as it is not cheap to start such a venture. (I don’t mind if you throw some my way! ) The chances of success is slim. But again, who knows right? You could be the first!

Q – The climate, soil and water is very similar in my country. I should be able to breed them right?
Ans – Well.. if you go by that logic, then probably yes BUT some investors have tried in Thailand but without success. If you go by similarities, then I think Thailand is the closest to Malaysia and Singapore but yet, they have failed to breed them there. I personally think that there are subtle differences in the soil and water makeup that we cannot really differentiate.

Q – How many ponds would I need to even start this investment with?
Ans – Ok.. So you still want to try this out inspite of my frank assessment. (Ok you have some spare chump change to throw! ) What you need to realize is that you will need as many ponds as you can build and fill up, bearing in mind that not all ponds will be productive. Some ponds will be very productive and probably give you a mouthful of fry every 3-4 months and others every 6 months or so and yet others NEVER! For those ponds that have very little yield, you will have to mix them again to increase the chance of the new mix breeding.

Every pond should have at least 20-25 adult fishes to start off with. Xbacks and RTGs can start to breed when about 3+ years while reds will take a bit longer about 4+ years.

I hope that this has given you a good overview on this subject. Drop me a line in this blog if you have any more queries on this very interesting topic.

Cheers!
Steven

BUT BUT ZE GRAND CHAMPION WAS A GOOD OL RED AROWANA!!!!

Ok ok without further ado, here they are! ENJOY!!!!

1) Small RED Arowanas Category …

2) Small GOLDEN Arowanas Category …

3) Small OPEN Arowanas Category …

4) Large RED Arowanas Category (Grand Champion is here! What a RED!!!) …

5) Large GOLDEN Arowanas Category …

6) Large OPEN Arowanas Category …

Hope you like what you saw above. Let your friends know if they’re keen to see the winners.

Later on I’ll publish some nice goldfish videos here as well. Have taken the videos of the winners already but have yet to edit them. Will find some time.

Anyway cheers to everyone and take care! FISH POWER TO ALL!

Anyway back to my topic today… I’ve been getting many emails asking me why their red arowana is still not red after all this while.. some after a year but some several years…!!

Let’s address the easy ones first ok… If you buy a grade 1.5 or grade 2 red arowana, they WILL NEVER BE RED OK!!! Period! (They are also sometimes called amongst other names, Banjar Red) There is nothing you can do about this! Don’t get taken in if the seller tells you it will be red because I repeat, they will never be RED!!!

Now for a little history lesson …
If you were to buy a red arowana, there are so many names for reds that I cannot possibly name them all… Some of the original ones are like Chilli Red, Super Red, Blood Red, Purple Red, etc… (My first Arowana was a Ultra Purple Red because it was supposed to have a purple tinge when it turns..) Also let me say this, every individual farm will also name their reds after their own farms! I know it’s confusing but that’s the fact out there unfortunately.

Now for some facts. Best way is a short FAQ here..
Q1) Why is my red arowana still not red after a year?
Fact : No one will be able to tell you when your red arowana will become red! It can take 3-4 years OR never become the red that you wanted! (Unless you have really high grade ones) My first red arowana had a dull reddish body which was not really what I had in mind after 3 years! I expected it to be RED RED like everyone else! I was kinda disappointed but what to do? Anyway, I took it back to the farm and exchange for 5 golden x-backs! (My original red is used for breeding in one of the ponds now)

So I hope that this clears up any misconceptions about how easy (no pun intended) it is to get a red arowana red! I have only seen real red ones in our breeding pond because it is exposed to the sunlight constantly. Unfortunately you cannot do this with your tanks at home because you would have an algae bloom in your tank if it’s exposed to too much sunllight!!

Q2) What can I feed my arowana to help it become redder?
Before I go into this, let me repeat myself again… if you own a grade 1.5 or 2 red arowana, please read my 2nd paragraph above again.
Ok back to Q2 now… Well, anything that contains carotenoid will definitely help. Prawn shell is rich in it so shelled prawn is a good source. (Ofcourse cut out the top part of the head and tail as these can puncture the arowana’s stomach)
The other way is to feed your arowana’s live food like crickets and meal worms, fresh carrots before you feed them to your arowana.

I hope this has helped you understand red arowanas a bit better and not be frustrated when the color does not come out OR WHEN IT DOES COME OUT, it is not the RED that you expected. For reds, it’s a patience game! Oh.. and a little prayer would not hurt either.

Oh yes, one more thing… you know those books that you buy with beautiful arowanas pictures where you would go ohhhh ahhhh .. I wish I had one of those beautiful reds!! .. errr. some of them has probably been enhanced with photoshop ok. I’m not saying all of them are doctored but just take their beauty on paper with a pinch of salt! We’ll never know if their colors are real or not!!!

Cheerio and take care!!!

Now back to this very interesting topic. I have been getting a lot of questions as to why this problem happens. What is droopy eye anyway? Well it is a condition where one of the arowana’s eye looks like it is going to drop out. The eye juts out as if always looking down. It does somehow look abit unsightly sometimes and I can see the disappointment in the hobbyist voice and emails when they ask me for help.

Ok there is good news and bad news here!
Good news is this is a cosmetic problem and your arowana will not die from it ok!

Ok the bad news is… I’ll be frank with you.. I really don’t think there is a cure once it has set it! I have seen a book where they did an operation on an arowana with this condition but I’m not sure how successful the operation was.

I will tell you what I think are the probable causes and cure but I will say this, no one has been able to truly ascertain the cause and cure for sure!

CAUSE :
1) When you feed your arowana too much fatty food like beef heart, goldfish, etc, fatty deposits can build up in the eyes. But some people have thrown cold water at this theory because it cannot explain why the fatty deposits only appears on the upper eye portion causing the eye to look down.

2) Arowanas are surface feeders and they usually chase their prey in the water looking around. Hobbyist have this habit of throwing their food into the tank and letting them sink to the bottom. (This is especially the case for non-live food which 80% of the hobbyist feed their arowanas.) The arowanas will then spend alot of their time looking down to search for the food. When this becomes a habit, they get what we can term ‘lazy eyes’. This causes them to look down all the time and over time, their eyes become permanently like that… hence droppy eyes!

CURE :
1) Throw the affected arowanas in a pond for a few months for the eyes to readjust back to as they were before! This is not always a plausible option as not everyone has access to a pond!
2) Surgery to correct the problem. As I said, I’m not sure whether this really cures the problem.
3) There was another ‘solution’ where people said to cover up the whole tank to block off light to the tank for a period of time! I really don’t know how this one works and if anyone knows, do let me know!

As you can see, I really don’t know any cure that is 100% guaranteed to work.

BUT this much I’m sure of! My arowanas until today has never had droopy eye syndrome! My 5 beautiful golden arowanas are in perfect condition!
Firstly I want to say this… ‘PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE HERE!’

From experience, this is my take on the cause of the droppy eye syndrome. TO ME, I believe it is caused by CAUSE 2) which I explained above. We cannot simply throw the food into the tank and let them sink to the bottom and expect the arowanas to always pick it from the bottom of the tank. We must feed it piece by piece. What I do is drop the non-live food one at a time into the tank so that my arowanas eat from the top! This way they will always be looking up like in their natural habitat! I have been doing this for years and I never had this problem with my fish.
I used to feed my arowanas alot of goldfish before as well but this has not caused any problems so I kinda rule out the fatty food argument. But again this has not been proven beyond a doubt so I can only speak from my experience!

Anyway I hope you have gain some insight into this problem and hopefully be able to prevent it if it has not hit you already. Cheers and take care.