Boydo
New Member
by no ways am i blaming you at all for this. if i wanted something done with this issue, i would have brought it up a long time ago! not after i sold the fish and over 1 yr later! im just talking about the gold head aros in the market from ALL FARMS and how and why does the gold head decline from selection to our home tanks? that was my main purpose of this discussion. since this fish was brought up, i think its ok to talk about GHs since i did own that fish at one point and i can share my experience/views.
the only thing i want to come out from all this is that will farms take responsibility? theo was called out on the forums and asked why the farm he represents sent bb xbacks looking like rtgs? you can say both cases are slightly the same. just wanted to see what can be done regarding this situation?
like anything we buy, we are guaranteed some sort of warranty for defects/flaws for 1 yr. i know fish are not electronics and there are many variables invovled but shouldnt there be some sort of standard?
im merely trying to start a thread where we can further understand ghs and the way to upkeep them and how they develop over time.
the picture below is when i first received the fish from you. with your care, shop lights, white tank, why is that the top portion of this aro look different than the advertised picture from the farm?
the point im trying to make is that ALL farms over expose their GHs. if they stay the same as the pics they took at the farm, that would be great but that is not the case. its the same thing for every other farm out there that sell GHs. why is it that only the farm can groom GHs but once out of their care, it is difficult for us hobbiest to do so?
Here are some pictures I took of that fish for you just a matter of days before it was sent to you.
The farms picture(second from left):
It seems my pictures compare very well to the Pang Long picture. The main difference is my pictures are taken with the fish in a tank not taken under the afternoon Singapore sun. The picture you posted was also to my knowledge taken near three weeks after you had the fish which is plenty of time considering HO lighting can burn these fish in days. Here in this thread I am on record once again concerned about your lighting. Note post #30 and 32:
http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=2538&page=4
And this is just the tip of the ice burg I have many emails to validate this further. However I won’t so rash as to make this any more public than need. As I suppose it poor business ethics to negitively call out another business in the public eye.
Aros that are groomed in WTT are not tanned. This seems to be a common misconception among hobbyists, and apparently some farms that do not breed GH Xbacks and are only relying on rumors, hearsay, or perhaps have their own agenda for keeping these types of rumors alive.
Grooming a young xback out in WTT is not exactly a "trade secret", nor is the correct care in keeping them in the home aquarium. The fish are groomed out on the farm I deal exclusively with in white fiberglass or simular tanks. The lighting that is used is common white shop lights. This is not based on hearsay, or chatter on the internet, but is based on what I have seen in person (at Pang Long) with my own two eyes.
No tanning is involved, actually the exact opposite - which is precisely why I always recommend to all of my customers to NEVER use high output lighting over their xbacks. Not just GH xbacks, but ALL xbacks. This is common knowledge among more advanced aro keepers, and is the constant mantra on sites such as arofanatics. If you ask about "tanning" a xback on arofanatics 100% of the members there will tell you that you should never use high output lighting, including compact fluorescent lights, or any type of intense lighting when grooming out a xback. Not even for 6 hours a day. This can easily ruin a xbacks chance of ever crossing, just as it can cause a GH to loose color on the head, and/or keep it from ever reaching its true potential. Which is why I spoke out last year against a past member when they were stating that one could turn a regular gold xback, into a GH, by simply using "special lighting" to tan the fish. Obviously that is not the case. The only type of "special lighting" required is a cool white shop light. I don't know how much more clearer I can be with regards to this, yet many fail to understand this principle, or take my advice. I can't control that, nor can the farm that supplies the fish, anymore than we can control diet, water quality,etc.
A bright/white environment such as WTT will simply trigger a morphological change within the chromatophore cells of a fish. This is a fundamental fish grooming technique that has been used among breeders of many species of fish, for decades. The environmental response involving the color and even patterns in fish to their surroundings is well documented. The following link explains this in more detail. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aqscisubwebindex/coloration.htm
This is exactly why if you put a quality super red in a white tank, that over time its colour will fade or become washed out. This same principle applies to many species of fish that require certain environmental conditions in order to look their best in an aquarium setting. Discus owners learned a long time ago that if you place a Blue Diamond discus into a tank with dark substrate, and/or a dark background, the fish will typically lose its shine, and become dark and muddy looking in appearance. With discus this change can take place overnight! If a hobbyist insists on keeping that strain of discus in a dark environment, do we then blame the vendor when the discus turn dark in color, even when the vendor recommended against this, and repeatedly supplied the correct way to keep the fish? That type of reasoning defies logic, yet this is exactly what some here are suggesting.
The two side panels of my tank have no covering at all. Prior to that the fish was cared for by Jeremy (DeepRed) who kept the fish with no backgrounds at all for almost two months and its colour was and remained fantastic. When it comes to Maju Super reds (both chilli and bloods) I have never had a complaint about their colour. I would guess if you put a quality Super Red in a white tank, its colour would fade, but if you put it back in a darker tank, its colour would come back. I don't think it works that way with GH so best not to compare SR and GH's. 
. Just like I paid for the shipping to replace the previous fish that unfortunately had a tiny white speck in one eye that went un-noticed. It is interesting how now it’s a problem. Is it because you are preparing to import arowanas yourself?
