[Erngravy]

my be leafs on this subject are kind of a combination of all mentioned before:

1st mechanical damage seems to be the main cause from personal experience, with over 20 aro's.

2nd silvers and Asians seem to be the most affective and we all no they are over bred and week genetics would explain this predominances.

3rd Floating foods don't seem to help.

4th Floating a red ball curing it is ball....

5th there are only two prove ways to repair DE:

1st is to operate. I personally don not agree with this procedures unless fishes life is at risk from the DE.

2nd is to cover the tank walls, this seems to help lesson the effects of the de and in some cases fix thou these cases are rare and good 20-50% improvement is normal thou....

This post has been edited by Erngravy: 08 March 2008 - 06:09 AM

[Morledzep]

i'm far from an expert, i've only ever raised one silver arowana (but i want more).

the thing i noticed when Pinky was growing up was she went through a phase where EVERYTHING spooked her. we kept egg crate on top of the tank to keep her and her other tankmates from jumping out, but she got spooked often and jumped and crashed into the egg crate.

this was when she was right around 12 - 15" long. she has drop eye in one eye only and it developed during this time when she was very spooky and banging her head often.

she was a regular farm bred LFS silver arowana. or actually still is, but she's over 2' long now and blind in one eye, only her drop eye still works.

After reading all of this thread i'm prepared to test the genetics theory. Infinite Aquatics has wild caught silver arowanas (or did last weekend). I believe i may go and buy a couple, they are kinda small, only about 4 - 5", so getting two or three might insure that i either have far too many arowana or i'll end up with one or two healthy adults.

once i get these babies i can keep them in the same tanks that i kept pinky in, with the same or similar tankmates (SA catfish, cichla, angelfish and oscars)... same water conditions, same filtration and water change schedule.

it won't be a true scientific test.. but it'll be close enough for me. Right now i subscribe to the theory that drop eye is caused by bonking heads on unforgiving parts of fish tanks. i don't believe that water quality or diet has any effect on it at all.

[JHemdal]

Just be way of follow-up to my post last year, I did some more work on this topic and firmed up my conclusions a bit. I still feel that mechanical damage is the most likely cause, but it may not be the only one. I talk about it in my blog:

http://microcosmaqx.typepad.com/jay_hemdal...aima-gigas.html

Jay

[E_americanus]

Just be way of follow-up to my post last year, I did some more work on this topic and firmed up my conclusions a bit. I still feel that mechanical damage is the most likely cause, but it may not be the only one. I talk about it in my blog:

http://microcosmaqx.typepad.com/jay_hemdal...aima-gigas.html

Jay

hi jay,

i haven't read through the latest posts in this thread yet, but i saw your name and read some of your posts and wanted to say we're glad to have you here! hope things are going well on your end, and i look forward to further insights from your extensive experience!--
--solomon