Greetings from Canada

[Sandy Bear]

Oh, we are aware that the arowana is too small for our current tank. He's not very old though, we got him almost a year ago, and he was a tiny little thing then. He's about as long as my Oscars are, so probably about 12" - but I haven't properly measured to be sure. We weren't actually planning on getting the arowana until this year, but the pet shop got them in last winter the same week as my BF birthday, and he really wanted that, he'd already been waiting over two years to get one. It's a silver arowana, we named it "Stanly", lol, we're not actually sure of the gender.
My BF should be done school this spring if all goes well, then we can get our tank

This is when we first got the arowana. We put him in a 30 gallon temporarily until he got a bit bigger. He's a fussy little guy, and will only eat live food. Worms are his favorite, and starts to "prance" around the tank when he gets fed them.




The largest commercial tank I can get here in Canada, is a 200 gallon tank. I'm not sure who makes it though, maybe Hagen. Last time I asked was about 2 years ago though, so I may ask if they can get a Marineland tank that big. I can settle for a 300 gallon tank, but if not we will be going custom. I'm not too worried about the cost of the tank, my BF is in school to be a Chemical Engineer, so he will be getting paid well when he gets a job.


I was wondering if I could pick your brain about something? I'm having an issue with my female Tiger Oscar "Dexter". She's about 3 years old, and seems to be in a "funk". We aren't sure if she's poorly, or just being moody.
Basically, she's not interested in eating much (BF can't remember the last time she actually ate something), she spends most of her time either sitting at the bottom of the tank (like they do when they sleep), or sitting at the top of the tank and she looks like she is breathing hard. We have the Rena 400 air pump in that tank with two large ball air stones. None of the other fish have labored breathing.

Up till this spring we had 2 other Oscars in the tank with these. "Napoleon" was paired up with "Dexter", and they laid eggs regularly. However Napoleon jumped out of the tank while I was at work and I found him dead on the floor. Since he's been gone, Dexter has laid eggs once and that was a couple of weeks ago. I think she has paired up with Misha, who we suspect is male.
The other fish was another male Oscar named "Charlie". He developed HITH, he got one spot on his face and died quickly after that.

I don't have much to do with the fish tank, that's mostly my BF thing, but he's quite worried about Dexter, she's our first Oscar. I don't see anything noticeable that looks like fish disease (ick, fungus, anchor worms, etc...). There hasn't been anything new added to the tank since we put Stanly the Arowana in there, about 7-8 months ago.
Her diet consists mainly of: buggies, worms, cocktail shrimp, some cichlid pellets and fish flakes

[Mentat]

...I was wondering if I could pick your brain about something? I'm having an issue with my female Tiger Oscar "Dexter". She's about 3 years old, and seems to be in a "funk". We aren't sure if she's poorly, or just being moody.
Basically, she's not interested in eating much (BF can't remember the last time she actually ate something), she spends most of her time either sitting at the bottom of the tank (like they do when they sleep), or sitting at the top of the tank and she looks like she is breathing hard. We have the Rena 400 air pump in that tank with two large ball air stones. None of the other fish have labored breathing. ...
Her diet consists mainly of: buggies, worms, cocktail shrimp, some cichlid pellets and fish flakes

What are tank's water parameters (temp., pH, ammonia, nitrites, & nitrates) and water change schedule? Breathing hard could mean an external small parasite infection like Oodinium or Costia; but in a tank it should spread to other fishes. Other possibilities are internal bacteria or parasites or maybe something natural like old age. Although wild Oscars are strong fish; they have been inbred so much by industry, their immune system is affected and many have become magnets for all kinds of fish diseases like HITH (Hexamita) you mentioned.

[Sandy Bear]

Well, I'm sad to report our "Dexter" died today. I'm wondering if she had that Lateral Line erosion, but I haven't been able to find any good pictures of it to compare. She was missing some scales along her lateral line, but I'm not sure if that is just some damage that she sustained from from the other fish when she was being inactive. Her behavior reminded me a lot of what our Charlie was like when he go Hole in the Head.
Anyways, BF has been really busy with school this year, and hasn't been diligent with the tank, so I think I will be helping him out with that now.