Lost my dream fish...

[Luciferkrist]

I get home late this morning and start my usual round of tank feedings and observations... when I notice my 210 is a bit cloudy and my fish are all huddled in the bottom corner. I immediately look for my prized fish, a silver arowana - And see him floating upside down at the top in the opposite corner. He was literally just being his finger-nipping self before I went to work, and his eyes were still clear when I found him, so he had to have passed just hours before I got home. I have wanted this fish since I was a kid when I saw one on a documentary, but never had the space, money, or ability to find one. I had him as a little 4 inch goofball since October, and was almost a full foot long when I had to dispose of him this morning. Getting them in my area is VERY rare and I'm likely to spend $2-300 on one that was a juvenile, maybe $150 for one that looks a bit dodgy. I'm a bit crushed, and am currently doing a 150 gallon water change.

 

As far as to what caused his passing, I'm at a loss. The only oddity was he appeared to be bleeding from where his pectoral fins met his body and when I grabbed his body a bunch of bubbles came out of his mouth...his gills were still red FFS... There was nothing else in the tank that was have been aggressive toward him, especially how much bigger he was, and as for an arowanas went, he was pretty chill with everything as long as it stayed below the top of the tank. His jaw wasn't broken and there was no damage on his head or top, so he didn't bludgeon himself on the lid or ran into the sides when chasing something. I was only feeding him the Hikari floating food sticks, and he would occasionally grab some of the normal flake food for my other fish, but nothing he could have choked on, unless he got to much of my frogbit or duckweed that is in that tank when eating?

This was him just a month ago.

 

I don't know if I want to try to find another arowana until I find out more about how to avoid this, or if this was even my fault. Or even at all. I may just try something else for the tank. Sorry for the long rant, but I figured y'all would understand. 

[PineSong]

I'm so sorry you lost  your arowana and in such an unexpected and unexplained way. It's incredibly frustrating that we cannot protect our fish from what we don't know is wrong. 

[Tanked]

I understand.  I try not to get too attached to my fish, but there always seems to be one that earns a special place. 

[The endler guy]

my theory is he could have tried jumping (as arawanas do) and hit his head on the lid (i assume you had some sort of heavy object to stop jumping) and it got stunned (fish are EXTREAMLY susceptible to stunning) and it died due to asphyxiations or head trauma, im sorry for your loss 

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

This ^ my money is on this being what happened.

[Val]

I'm so sorry.  What a sucky thing to have happened.

[Rewcolee1]

I’d put my money on head trauma as well. If the fish was stunned then couldn’t breath there wouldn’t necessarily need to be any visible signs.