FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I changed my gravel last week and cleaned it very thouroughly. The tank housed a Butterfly Peacock, Silver Arowana, Electric Blue Crayfish, and feeder Crayfish (possibly the most beautiful feeder Crayfish in existance)

I added the water and fish in the following order.

Feeder Crayfish - 8:15 P.M.
Baby 2 1/2 inch Arowana - 9:00 P.M.

--at this point, the Crayfish was doing excellent but the Arowana was acting a tad bit silly,(mid-depth swimming--->along with using its whole body to swim rather than its tale {weak}, tale was drooping a bit, and belly had a slightly larger bulge for what he had eaten in holding)

Holding Tank that they were in...- 10 gallons
No gravel, structure, poor cirrculation and aeration
(rather poor conditions in my opinion, however my friend "the so-called fish expert" thought it was more than sufficient)

I fed them extremely small amounts of food in true hope that amonia, nitrates, and nitrites would stay low.

To the story that you all are waiting so desperately to finally know-

The Arowana was near the surface along with the Crayfish (hanging up-side-down from the top of his plant as usual) I went to the bathroom to quickly check PH again. After arriving back the Crayfish had the Arowana in a doggy-style position at the very other end of the tank! I tried netting both of them but the crayfish would not let the arowana go and I was not fast enough to catch before the Arowana's death.

As far the Peacock and the two Crayfish, they are better than ever and they have a great time hanging out and chilling with each other.
Anyone know what the reason was for my Arowana's symptoms that were listed above?
And also, can anyone tell me why my Blue Crayfish had some black silt- looking- stuff under its legs? It had this symptom from my local importer but it seems to be going away slowly.

Could be any number of things, but mostly moving fish with a very full stomach is not a good idea, sometimes it makes them more vulnerable to maldigestion issues, among which is swelling of the gut against the swim bladder which causes bouyancy issues and an increased risk of the compound symptoms of thermic shock.If the belly was swelling abnormally anyway it could have been a whole host of illnesses and it shouldnt have gone into community without these issues being resolved.

Next reason for the death would be not quarantining an obviously sick and small animal and putting it in with a large scavenging crayfish! ( silly boy, slaps head, dont do it again!)

Besides, maybe the crayfish was ensuring its future survival , an adult arowana might have liked to see him become lunch. Not the best combo of animals methinks.

As to the black growths on the legs it could be anything from fungi or algae to deposits that have built up in the exoskeleton from whatever it has been feeding on, we'd need a piccy to be sure. From that description it could even be eggs.

Headline reads, "Meal eats Diner!"

Crayfish are opportunistic nocturnal feeders. Any fish is fair game. A larger fish may escape the first through hundredth attack as it is sleeping but eventually the crayfish wins if it is not consumed. Classic case of never leave uneaten food in the tank?



__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright