Please Help! My Arowana Died!

My baby black arowana, Juliet, died last night at 5:30pm, RIP. I am really upset by this, I only owned her for 4 days! I ask for your help in determining: Was this my fault? And what should I have done differently? Or, was my fish already sick?

I went into my LFS Tuesday evening, and purchased 2 baby blacks and one baby silver. The baby blacks were one female and one male. I was told that it would be optimal to have 5-6 in a tank at once, to prevent fighting. The fish store owner told me that by having 3, I would reduce the chance of fighting - but that I should keep an eye on things, to make sure that they were getting along.

So I put all 3 fish into a 55 gallon tank. Prior to placing my new fish in this tank, I checked my water. The ammonia was 0, nitrates were 0, the PH was a little high at 7.4.

Tuesday night, none of the fish ate as they were stressed out by the move. I watched their behaviour for a couple of hours with the lights on, they were all fine. Seemed that the largest one, the silver (Mercutio) was more afraid then the blacks. Kind of like he was the odd one out. I turned the lights on and watched for another 20 minutes, and still they all seemed fine. However, I noticed that the black male was completely missing both anal fins. I am very confident that this did not happen in my tank, as his transfer went very smooth. None of the fish hit any walls or fixtures in their transfer.

Wednesday, all of the babies ate well. They all ate crickets, and appeared to be fine. Still no signs of aggression. However, the silver is no longer afraid and is swimming fine with the other two. Wednesday evening, all fish ate, except for the black male, Romeo. I checked my water, all fine, except PH is a little high at 7.4.

Thursday morning, my baby girl, Juliet, did not eat. I tried both blood worms and crickets. The other two ate fine. I was on my way to work, so I looked quickly, but did not notice anything too severe, but I did notice that one of her anal fins was broken. I checked my water, all fine, except PH a little high.

Thursday evening, Juliet was still not eating. Very suddenly, she appeared to have been beat up, badly. She was missing a couple of scales. She had fuzz on her anal fins and had a white patch on her caudal fin. Her scales now looked ragged. I immediately new something was wrong, but was unable to contact a fish store until the following morning. So I watched their behaviour. They were all swimming fairly normally, the two males faster than Juliet. I still could not see any signs of aggression.

Friday morning, Juliet looked way worse already. She was not swimming the same as the other fish anymore. She kind of would float to the edge, then swim away. I went to the LFS and told them that my little Juliet was not eating, and that she appeared very weak. He immediately said she was being bullied, and that she would need to be separated. I asked "anything else", and he said, just make her eat.

So I immediately (After a further attempt to feed) divided the tank and put Juliet on the bigger side, to attempt to reduce her stress. By Friday afternoon, she had a hole in her fin, where the white spot was. Her fins were quickly disappearing, and I have a strong suspicion now that she has fin rot. I checked the water again, all is still fine except PH. She is still not eating. I am very worried, and I don't leave their sides all night.

I watched my aros for hours that night. Juliet was very weak and by 11:00pm Friday night, was barely swimming, mostly floating at the top, with laboured breathing. She was now missing her tail fin. I was now very concerned about my other two aros, as they are living in less than half of a 55 gallon, with two of them on one side! I was sure that they would fight, but I still did not see any aggression. I continued to try to feed her. I tried one cricket, but knew she likely would not take it. So I mostly tried to feed her bloodworms.

I checked on her at 4:00 am, Saturday. She did not look any better or worse. I tried to feed her again at 8:00 am, and she did not eat.I checked the water, and found that the ammonia was 0, nitrates were 0.1 but still less than 0.3. I believe that these levels were beginning to rise as a result of fallen blood worms, from failed attempts at feeding Juliet. The PH was still high, at 7.3. I added a pre-soaked piece of driftwood in the tank in hopes of slowly changing the PH balance.

I went to the LFS and told him that she was doing way worse, was still not eating, and I brought in a picture of her. Early that morning, she appeared to have developed a new infection, her mouth was quite swollen. I explained this to him, he told me I need to make her eat. I said that she appeared infected and he gave me some medicine. It was a yellow powder and he gave me two treatments, one for Saturday and one for Sunday. I told him I was worried about water changes... I felt I should do one, but was worried about the stability of Juliet. He said not to change the water.

I went home and tried to feed her again, without success. As instructed, I added the yellow powder to her tank. She was floating around at the top as usual at 11:00. I tried feeding her at 1:00, with no success. At 1:30 she stopped floating. She sunk to the bottom and when she tried to get back up she hit the bottom a few times. I helped her back up to the air bubbles. She started floating again on her own, but with her head up and her tail down.

Then she accidentally swallowed a blood worm that was still floating around. She floated for a bit, then purposely opened her mouth to catch another blood worm floating in the tank. She was eating! I added a small amount more, carefully to make sure that they would float by her. She ate about 9 in the course of two hours. It was now 4:30. Shortly after she pooped. I thought that this might be the start of her recovery, the food was digested. Then at around 5:20, she stopped breathing. I moved the water around near her to create air bubbles, but she never started breathing again. I moved her to the air bubbles for the tank, and made sure her head stayed under water.

I do not know a lot about fin rot. I have owned many fish, none ever had fin rot. When I first started a few years ago, I had a few deaths because of poor care. I had not realized the full responsibility of owning fish. Even through all of that, my previous fish had died because of transporting, bad compatibility, and one died from ammonia shock. I have never witnessed anything as crazy as this.

I have read up on it a lot over the last few days. I see that, in fact, being bullied by other fish can cause fin rot. I turned off my lights last night and watched my fish for 20 minutes or so. I could not see any aggression between the two. This morning, too. I hear that you should absolutely not keep 2 arowanas together (I will be going to purchase 1-3 soon). But it makes me wonder if they were even aggressive to Juliet. Perhaps she nicked herself on a rock, and that was how she lost that first scale.

I also read that fin rot is often caused by a bacterial infection (ragged fins), and that the root cause was likely poor water conditions and a low immune system.

When I transferred my two males to the other side of the tank, my silver, Mercutio, jumped on the floor. He flopped around a few times before I carefully got him back in the net. He is missing several scales, but appears to be perfectly healthy. What can I do to ensure that this does not happen to him as well?

So now I wonder, was my fish already sick? Is there any way of knowing if it was my other fish and my doing, or if my little Juliet was already going to die?

If you could please give me any advice on this, even any tips for what I may have done wrong that I can use in the future, I would very much appreciate it. I still have two beautiful aros, that I must protect and care for. Thanks!

Post Notes:

Tank: 55 Gallons - when filled, a tsp of chlorine remover and a tbsp of aquarium salt per 5 gallon bucket; Temperature: 28 C

Tank Mates: Very tiny ID shark, Razor, and a very peaceful and well hidden ghost knife. These are temporary tank mates. The arowanas will be transferred soon to a 120 gallon tank.

Decoration: House for Ghostie, Clam Shell for bubbles, Driftwood

Arowana Specs: Juliet-Black (Deceased) 7 inches; Romeo-Black 7.5 inches; Mercutio-Silver 8 inches (was 7.5 when purchased).

Food: Frozen Blood Worms, 3 Week Crickets, Small Superworms