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Big call for advice!


wandj
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Good morning Niel...you're up early on a Sunday. What's wrong with you? Oh yeah, I was up at 5:30am.

Ok, I just checked on them and all the fish are fine except, if my eyes don't deceive me, I think I see that the Firehead's eyes are slightly bulging from the top, so he looks like he is looking down a little. He was not like this last night and he has only been in the tank for 7 hrs when I noticed it, so do you think this is pop-eye starting? The tank is clean, so I can't figure out why it is happenig, unless he is just falling ill due to the move. I sure don't want it to get worse and it's pretty hard to treat a 300gal tank.

My question, should I do anything? Anyone familiar with this species? I don't want to be having trouble now. I already lost a Peacock that didn't even make it out of his q tank. (Moving is so stressful)

What should I do?

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Good morning Jackie! I'm not too sure why, but I decided to get up at 6 AM today? :wacko:

It might just be the sudden change in water parameters. I wouldn't panic, but a small amount of salt may help alleviate any osmotic stress that this fish may be going through.

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I just looked at him again. (I'm gonna lose weight going up and down the stairs all the time).

I think I'm just hallucinating. He looks fine again. Maybe he/she was just a little "sleepy" when I checked earlier because he/she looks fine now.

GOOD!

Strange things happen to your mind when you just lost a fish....you think everthing is sick and gonna die. :rolleyes:

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I told my friend about the eye thing. He's pretty smart, because he told me that he was probably looking down because of the tank lights being turned on. (I do know that you have to turn lights on slowly because fish don't have eyelids and no one likes some door-knob turning the light on when you're sleeping).

This morning, I had turned the hallway light on and opened the basement door. Then I turned a basement light on. Later, I turned on the tank lights. The fish did not dash around as I knew I had turned the lights on nicely, but he still was not used to the tank lights, which is why he was "looking down", hence the appearance of bulging eyes at the top.

But I must admit, I have never seen that before. ^_^

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Oh, and ignore that ugly orange plastic plant floating there, I replaced it with an 8 foot long light blue moss-plant that looks really nice. But those pics didn't turn out.

Here is the Firehead still in the pail. I am showing it to provide scale because everyone knows how big the bottom of a 5gal pail is. The bottom pic is the fish right after release. You can see he is a bit pale. Stressed out.

PaleFirehead.jpg

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Hi Christian. I was at BA, and they had a few different types of those Polypterus's, but they told me they are noturnal predators and would eat my fish. So, I passed.

I still might get a Silver Salmon Aro (I have talked to many ppl and a friend who keeps many, and says he has never seen them get more than 2 feet).

Too bad...that is terrible advice (but then, most fish shop workers don't know their arse from their elbow)....although Polypteridae are primarily nocturnal, and predatory, they will only eat what very easily fits in their mouths....as a result, the jewel cichlids and bristlenose in with a tank full of senegal bichirs and palmas polli bichirs that I keep are perfectly safe.

Silver aros get well over 2' (expect 24" in a year)....'salmon silver' is simply a colouration, not a subspecies, and they get just as big as regular silvers unless you do something to stunt their growth....and these will eat many of your other fish....they are predatory and have very big mouths.

The species of arowana are as follows:

South America:

Osteoglossum bicirrhosum (silver) 36"-52" in captivity.

Osteoglossum ferreirai (black) 30"-48" in captivity

Arapaima gigas (pirarucu) 6'-14' in capitivity

Australasia:

Scleropages formosus (Asian) 26"-34" in captivity

Scleropages jardini (Jardini) 28"-36" in captivity

Scleropages leichardti (Leichardti) 26"-36" in captivity

Africa:

Heterotis niloticus (African) 28"-36" in captivity

The African, by virtue of its mouth type, would be the only one safe with the fish you have, as even an 18" silver could swallow them with ease.

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