arowana's

[leeD]

Hi, I asked earlier about arowana's ... I went out and got a gorgeous 5-6" Australian Arowana.. He eats and great and is doing very well.. Its growing like crazy.. Im going to get him something close to 100gallon.. I'm doing something like a sparsely planted tank.. I Wanted a compatibile fish like silver dollars or parrot fish i have seen with them.. any other nice ones u might recommend? Also what kind of glass top and from where should i be getting?

thx
Lee

[ETET]

Lee,

Australian arowana (scleropages jardini) is a very nice fish, very good that your fish doing well. Moving to a 100gal will be good for your fish as it get bigger, be careful don't overfeed as it will cause obesity or eye drooping. Using plants will give the fish a natural environment, but for myself I use plain tank for easier cleaning. Its bad news that australian arowana is quite aggressive and territorial, unless you keep some tank mates around the same size or bigger; otherwise your arowana will attack other fish (even those bigger than them!). Keep them alone will be safer or another method keep 3 or more arowana will eliminate the territory aggressiveness.

For any kind of arowana, glass top (tempered glass) with weight to keep it secure is very important. This is very strong fish and like to stay near water surface, a shadow or something will make the arowana think insect or food above; the fish will leap out from water and bang on the top or out from the tank. Also, there should be no gap of the top because if you fish leap out it may get stuck and die.


ETET

[Simon R. Sansom]

As long as the other fish are too large for the arowana to consider as a meal, you shouldn't have much trouble.
I used to keep arowanas with all types of tank-mates; usually good sturdy fish, able to take care of themselves. Nice big plecos, Clown Knife Fish (Notopterus chitala), Sail-Fin Catfish (Perrunichtys perruno), Shovel-Nosed Catfish, Gars, Bichirs, certain Snakeheads (Channidae) etc. Of course you need plenty of space.
I've never really found arowanas to be particularly aggressive towards other fish of a similar size or temperament.

Take care,
Simon

[leeD]

I would really like silver dollars but my arowana tank will be sparsely planted. Will the silver dollars eat all the plants... or just nibble on them once in awhile? any similar species that wont? and what about true gouramis?

Lee

[homebrewed]

I had a jardini in my 200 for quite some time, and i kept it with some peaceful cichlids (geophagus jupari), bichirs, and some assorted odd balls.

Try and stay away from feeders when feeding him. Aros are prone to problems caused by feeder gold fish

[Edwin]

I just kept a pair of plecos with my silver. I am not sure about gouramis, but I think I saw a gold arowana kept with several giant gouramis at the biodome.

[Simon R. Sansom]

Homebrewed; What happens to them if you give them too many feeder goldies? Just curious.

My guys used to LOVE frogs. We used to go out frog-hunting and come home with a bucket full. Arowanas go crazy for them!

Simon

[ETET]

Breeders may introduce disease or parasite to the arowana, also heard people say they raise the with chemical enhanced food so as to grow them fast so too much will not be good. They love frogs and insects a lot, I use crickets for my asian right now. Amazing you guys can keep jardini with other fish, I had four and only one seems more tolerable to other fish. I found out silver, black and asian arowana seems more tolerable other tank mates.


ETET

[Shane Tesser]

Yes Lee, the silver dollars will eat all of the plants...with perhaps the exception of possibly java ferns which few fish like, or one or two of the anubius species, but odds are if sparsly planted it will then just eat anything they can get at.

[homebrewed]

To many feeder goldfish result in fatty deposits behind the eyes, causeing drop eye. Also the whole risk of disease is something I think everyone likes to stay away from. Not to mention, unless they are gutloaded, then they are a horrible source of nutrition.

[ranmasatome]

yeah...STAY AWAY from gold fish!!
i love arrowanas and in my parent's home in asia i have a crossback gold and a fusion asian arrowana there...i also bought a silver a few yrs back. i ran an experiment myself and fed the silver arro, goldfish and the other 2 well...were too expensive to run the potential risk...so i fed them crickets and the occational mean worm..and sometimes centipedes or roaches that i catch moving ard... anyway...the sliver arrow has MAJOR droop eye! and has problems catching his prey because he can't aim right with those eyes. and well the monetary value of your fish decreases...
anyway...a good tank buddies for arrowanas i find are FW stingrays...they stay at the bottom and eat the scraps that are left from the arrowana...occasionally you can behead a fish and feed them...also if you have soft sand in the water...you can see them do the sand disappearing trick...its great!!:)

[ETET]

Where you get feeder centipedes? I saw people keep motoro with arowana, should be fun!


ETET

[ranmasatome]

feeder centipedes?? i just go to the garden and dig up some soil and i can surely find some...sometimes i would go on a trek to look for bigger ones or they may just pop up in the drains...so i just catch them and toss them into a pool of death...i get rid of the fangs first of course..with tweezers and wire cutters. apparently some pple believe that the more poisonous stuff you feed your arrowana the more vibrant the colour gets...heh...chinese superstition/belief or truth that's up to you..:)