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

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

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

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!

Hi all,
Aquarama 2009 is finally here! It's been a 2 year wait but I think it'll be worth it! Drop by the Suntec Exhibition Centre in Singapore if you can! I think it's the largest aquarium show in Asia and should not be missed if you can make it here for this coming weekend. Starts on the 28th and ends on the 31st May.

Get your bi-annual dose of fish (arowanas, goldfish, discus, etc.) competitions, fish, fish and more fish! You will have fish coming out of your ears by the end of the week!

I'll try and take as much photos and videos as I can on the 28th and 29th and post it on my blog here. Unfortunately I'm going to be away overseas from the weekend onwards and will miss the large crowd that's expected to turn up for the weekend. I think it's going to be CRAAAZZZZYYY during the weekend .. As I said, do attend if you're in the neighbourhood! Many many cheap budget flights nowadays to Singapore. No excuse ya!

Ok cheerio and have a good weekend!

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.

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AVA investigates illegal import of arowana
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