Always start by changing the water…

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

Hi
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
*************************************************************************

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!

Can Asian Arowanas Be Bred In Just About Any Asian Country?

I had a call about 2 weeks back from someone from Myanmar who wanted to setup a breeding farm there. They were in Singapore for just a few days and since they came all the way to meet me, I could not say no to a meeting with them. Anyway I met a nice old gentlemen with his son who wanted to know how to setup a breeding farm in Myanmar.

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.

Qian Hu's CEO "The Rise of An Asian Entrepreneur"

If you are a fish lover, you definitely heard of Qian Hu, the largest Fish Company in South East Asia. The CEO - Kenny Yap started his fishy business at the age of 34!

Recently he launched his very own ebook - "The Rise of An Asian Entrepreneur". It recorded his life story as well as his business, the high and low of his life, and how he turned his business into a $93 Million dollar a year business!

You can read everything HERE! It's inspiring!

Don't miss it!

Maximum Temperature for a Biorb Tank?

The ideal temperature for your aquarium depends on the kind of fish you want to keep in it, but there are also other factors to consider when dealing with a biorb.

As a rule, the cooler your aquarium is, the easier it is to look after. It's also much easier to look after big aquariums than small ones. This is because things take longer to go wrong in a bigger ecosystem, whilst heat means that most problematic bacteria will metabolise more quickly and breed faster.

Because biorbs are small, it's better to try and keep them relatively cool - around 24°C - choosing fish that are happier at this sort of temperature, such as danios, barbs or the smaller species of tetra. Smaller fish will be happier generally in this type of aquarium as they'll have more space to move and behave naturally.

If you set up a community of different types of fish in your tank, it's important to make sure that they will all be comfortable at the same temperature. It's also important to keep the temperature stable, as changes can have a negative effect on fish health. Again, this is more difficult in a smaller tank, so you should make sure you have a good quality heater and an aquarium thermometer which you check regularly.

Remember that the temperature of your tank can be affected by the overall temperature of your house. Even if your heater has a good thermostat, you should be especially careful about checking the temperature in very warm or cold weather.

It's good that you're taking your time to heat up your tank as this will help you to establish a stable ecosystem. When you reach your chosen temperature, you should run the tank for another week before introducing the fish, to give everything time to stabilise.

A small, warm aquarium is more vulnerable to disease, so you should pay close attention to your fishes' health and have medicines on hand to enable you to deal with problems as soon as they appear. However, if you set things up properly and are careful and attentive, you should have many years of successful fishkeeping to look forward to.

Aquarama 2009 Goldfish Competition Results Part 2 …

Hi all,
Here are the other 7 videos for Category B (large) in the Aquarama 2009 goldfish competititon. This is the last of the videos that I took this time… until Aquarama 2011 that is !!!!!

Oh yes.. before I forget… the Aquarama 2009 Goldfish Grand Champion is in video 6 here !!! But poor fish… I think because it was so big and fat, it could not move much when I was taking the video!

1) Ranchu - Category B Class 1

2) Pearl Scaled Varieties - Category B Class 2

3) Oranda - Category B Class 3

4) Dragon Eye - Category B Class 4

5) Ryukin - Long Caudal Fin (Tail) - Category B Class 5

6) Ryukin - Short Caudal Fin (Tail) - Category B Class 6 (Goldfish Grand Champion is in this category)

7) Open - Any Variety - Category B Class 7

Here is Part 1 of the goldfish competition results for Aquarama 2009

As promised, here are the Aquarama 2009 goldfish competition videos that I mentioned before. Sorry it took so long but had been busy lately. Anyway enjoy them and hope you like them!

There are 14 videos so I will give you the 1st 7 here for category A. (smaller goldfishes)

1) Ranchu - Category A Class 1

2) Pearl Scaled Varieties - Category A Class 2

3) Oranda - Category A Class 3

4) Dragon Eye - Category A Class 4

5) Ryukin - Long Caudal Fin (Tail) - Category A Class 5

6) Ryukin - Short Caudal Fin (Tail) - Category A Class 6

7) Open - Any Variety - Category A Class 7

Hope you picked up some valuable pointers..

Hi Readers,

I hope that you have learned some very good tips from my 7 days
arowana care ecourse. They are not exhaustive but definitely a
very good starting point for you.

However these are just a very small portion of what you will
eventually find in the book that I have written. So if you do get a
chance, I would encourage you to get your hands on it so that you
can get off on the right footing with this hobby at
http://tinyurl.com/o89w3c .

Other than that, I want to again wish you all the best and take care!