Silver setup

Hi Ben, what is the size of your tank? Add wood in it and sand if you dont have one also you can consider adding bichirs, datnoides as well given that your tank is large enough. HTH!

ben l s said:

My tanks 48"/20"/22" and the arowana is about 3" atm I already had the tank set up with some bog wood and also I used large gravel foolishly but I am planing to have my tank refurbished by my lfs, also what's HTH?
Cheers


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That's approximately 91 Gallons. Any plans of upgrading in the future? Your aware about the max size of your aro right? HTH= Hope this Helps.

ben l s said:

Due to space this will have todo for a while till I can make the room for a 6ft,2ft,2ft that's the max I can go and may be a while off before upgrading and yeah I'm aware that it's potential size can be up to 4ft


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Sounds good to me

The "perfect set up" would start with a tank large enough to house the adult fish. The 6x2x2' is a good stepping stone, but I hope that by "a while" you mean a couple of years at the most before upgrading the 180g.

IMO a "perfect set up" would have plenty of open swimming space in the upper levels, well filtered with moderate flow, warm and soft/neutral water. Avoid sharp decor that the fish could damage itself on, and of course keep the tank well covered. Tank mates like cichlids (bass, geophagus, severum, uaru etc) are good with silvers, as are medium sized cats and larger plecs. If you don't mind mixing it up geographically you could also consider larger bichirs and barbs, basically anything large enough to not be eaten but not boisterous/aggressive enough to trouble the aro.

Basic guideline for "minimum" size is length = 3x the length of the fish, width = length of the fish. So, IMO, you would want to upgrade from your 4' tank by the time the fish is about 15-16" and from the 6' tank by the time the fish hits 2', which should be around 2 years from its current size. Obviously upgrading sooner would be better, but those values are generally what is considered to be the max fish/min tank sizes for SA arowana by most on here with a bit of experience (and you'll probably hear everything from 6' being fine for life to 600g minimum from the "internet experts"!).

If it were me I'd skip the 6x2x2' tank altogether unless you either have it already or can get one ridiculously cheap. If you max out the 4' tank you would probably be looking at less than 12 months in the 180g before upgrading again. If you can stretch to something 8' long and 30" wide (or better still 36" wide) you'll haver a tank that should be adequate for many years. Even if it means housing the aro in the 4' for a little longer than ideal so you can afford to set up a larger tank then that would be better [IMO] than spending money on a 180g as an interim measure.

I recommend returning the silver aro, getting more suitable sized fish, 4' tank wont last long, if cared for properly it'll outgrow that in under a year , and 6x2x2 foot will only buy you a bit more time but wont last long term if that's the max you can for see in the future then you need smaller species.