Goodbye to my 'Buddy'

[Keane]

My 10+ year old red arowana 'Buddy' passed away peacefully this morning, after a month's battle with continual blisters and growth on her head and gill plate.

Got buddy as a cute 4-incher back in Year 2004 from AroDynasty (Mr Sean Pang). The fish was tagged as a Panda Red. Buddy stayed in a 4x2x2 tank (canister filtration) for almost 10 years. Upgraded to a new 4x2.25x2.25 tank (sump filtration) last August 2013. Latest tank mate is a red hook.

Buddy was fed a variety of food from juvenile for her first 3 years, after that strictly on MP diet.

A strong and healthy fish with a good appetite and without the need for much extra care and attention. In mid Year 2000's, she developed gill curl on both gill plates. Invited VetDuck twice to assist in performing the gill curl operation. In the end, the gill curl still came back on and I decided not to subject buddy to further stress.

A month ago, Buddy developed blisters and growth on both her gill plates. She stopped eating and stayed on the bottom corner of her tank. Did water changes + salt treatment but to no avail. Buddy weighed 4.2kg in mass and was 26 inches long.

[IMG]D:\Chin CC\Arowana - 4th May 2014\image 1a.jpg[/IMG]

RIP Buddy. Thank you for being a good companion and the guardian of my house for the past 10+ years. You will always be part of my memories...