My Silver Arowana
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So my fish tank at the office was once filled with goldfishes. I either totally underestimated how difficult goldfishes were to keep or I just wasn’t meant to keep goldfishes. One day all of them would be happy and swimming around and then the next morning I would find most of them upside down.
So after a year or so of trying to keep goldfishes, I decided to trade in the only one I had left (trooper) for a silver arowana. I always wanted a red/gold arowana and although they are illegal, I’m sure you could find them if you looked hard enough. But they’re also super expensive running into the thousands of dollars for a single one. yikes! So since I never kept arowanas before, I decided to give one a try and went with the legal silver ones.
It’s about i’d say 4-5 inches long right now and they can supposely get HUGE. Like 46+ inches. That’s a big fish. Heck, it’s in a 48″ long tank so that means once it’s full grown, it would be almost as long as my tank? amazing! but ofcourse that’ll never happen as i’ll have to upgrade (oh no!) to a bigger tank. haha. It’s a matter of necessity. i HAVE to upgrade. haha. where to put the big tank? I’ll figure that out later. haha.
Hello that is a real nice fish, just a newb question why are the red ones illegal?
i believe b/c they are on an endangered species list in the United States. If you live in Asia, you can find them there.
AWESOME!! Ive got one too! Mines a tad bigger than yours though. Hes about 5-7 inches. Mine loves Krill, Crickets and Bloodworms. Thats about all h will eat right now. Everything else that I have tried he spits back out. LOL. ve read they only get 46 inches in the wild and that there is no known report of them getting that big in captivity. Ususally in a tank they get 24-36 inches (females obviously being smaller). Im looking forward to seeing him grow and sharing with ya!! :p
oh cool! so far i’ve fed him dried krill. i haven’t seen him eat it when i put it in but when i come back later, it’s gone.
how often do you feed yours?
I was feeding him everyday cause he was skinny. But I just started feeding him every other day. It took him about a week or so, but now when the lid goes up hes right there wanting fed. I read too (and saw on You Tube) that they will eat (size apropriate) Mice!! And I geuss that its good for them. O and DONT feed him goldfish, Ive read alot of bad stories about it. And they seem to enjoy eating from the surface anywayz.
[...] it’s been a little over a month since I got my silver arowana so I thought I’d share some pictures. It’s going quite well…I’ve noticed [...]
i have one about 6 inches, he stopped eating today, only because i found little food in the garden for him, see if i find a creature in the garden, he eats it! i also feed him baby guppies, flies, chicken if its fresh, and crickets, he is doing ok and will move to my five foot tank, which means i will have to take some fish out the five foot so he has space!
Good one the arowana that you hv got. What r u feeding that with,
Be careful regarding Drooping eyes and protruding jaw.
Now that your arowana should be a year old, try putting a red or green plastic ball in your tank, as the ball floats your fish would keep looking upwards.
In the next year you would have to upgrade to a six feet 320 L tank.
Do not feed gold fish regularly as these tend to be fatty and induce droopy eye sydrome to yur fish.
Feed him with krill,shrimp , crickets etc.
Regards
Gokul
thanks for the helpful information.
i’ve noticed his gills are flared out….instead of being flat against the body. do you know what that is?
How big is he now, and is he approx 3/4 the length of the tank, kindly tell me to answer your question. The possibility of gill flaring out is due to the arowana going backwards instead of turning which means he is cramped for space. Kindly put a latest photograph pl.
Regards
Gokul
Hi Gokul,
I’ll try to take a picture. it’s actually a different arowana now (jardinii).
i was watching it and it’s able to turn around and go in circles. he’s about 6″ i think. and the tank is 48″ long and 12″ wide? it’s a standard 60 gallon.
is it water quality?
Hi Johnny,
Might be, there is a chemical method of checking the nitrite level in the tank. Why dont you try that and find out. An arowana require zero nitrites.
Just go thro the nitrogen cycle in the net. You might probably find a few points that you ll find probably useful.
Is your jardini taking feeder fish.
Rgeards
Gokul
what abt your silver, what happened to him ??
okay. i’ll test it out and see. he seems fine…just the gills are flared out…almost looks like it’s permanent. it’s been like that for months.
i feed dried shrimp.
the silver..unfortunately jumped out. there was a 1inch wide gap in the back for the filter and it somehow got through there.
Try feeding small feeder fish.
What abt his movements, slow or quite normal, what is ur feeling
How is the clarity of water.
What type of filter are you using
Hi johnny,
I didnt know that you are an aficinado of marine tanks. I just saw one of your other posts. Your anemones are beautiful.
Kindly give me inputs on setting up a marine tank. Where and how do i start. Approx costs, how to setup etc.
Hi,
His movements are fine. he’s actually quite active. i’ve been splashed a few times by him pretty good (i use eggcrate as the cover to keep him from jumping out. he seems back and forth at a constant pace and most of the time near the top of the tank scanning for food.
clarity of the water is clear. i try to vacuum the gravel once a week when doing a 5 gallon water change (tank is 60 gallons). I’m using a hang-on power filter (millenium 3000 – has two filter inserts).
i do notice that some parts of his fins has receded – but i read that might be due to water quality.
in your opinion, will those flare gills return back to normal? i read somewhere that someone had to “cut” off the flared portion of the gills.
anyways, interested in a saltwater tank? I would suggest taking a quick look at these threads:
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwater-general-discussion/19498-things-you-will-need-when-starting-saltwater-aquarium.html
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwater-general-discussion/14712-my-new-tank-step-step-account.html
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwater-general-discussion/28755-live-rock-foundation-healthy-marine-aquarium.html
my few tips…
1. go as big as you can (tank size) – as you’l always want to keep on upgrading haha
2. buy equipment that is designed for tanks larger than yours. for example if you get a 29 gallon, try to get equipment that’s geared for like a 75 gallon. reason is that you’ll most likely upgrade and when you do, you don’t need to re-buy all new equipment.
3. saltwater equipment is more expensive (and fishes/corals too) but maintenance-wise, it’s almost the same as keeping freshwater fish.
feel free to ask me or join our forum! and you can ask all the questions you want there and we have alot of saltwater fish keepers too!
my silver arowana almost died yesterday while i was cleaning its tank. i put him in a big tub and forgot to put lid on it and he jumped out. have no idea how long he was out there… he’s alive but seem weak, anything i can do?