Acouple of aro' questions from a would be keeper.

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James Gil

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2009
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merseyside, england.
Hey guys, back when i first started keeping fish ( when i was about 14-15) i got a 6" aro. I put him in a 55 gal and i loved the fish from day one. As i was young i didnt research how to keep these fish and it died a few months later. I think it died due to a poor diet, lack of filtration and a tank way to small. Now 16 years on with a hell of a lot more experience in fish keeping ( i have bred and raised several diff types of fish since then including many types of chichlids including sevs, angels, kribs etc and a lot of other types of fish ) I have decided to once again get an aro. My local LFS has some on display these fish are about 4-6" long and quite slim for aro's, personally i dont think they are feeding the right stuff to em'. However the fish are in good condition, good fins, active, no fungus, ich, etc you get the idea. so i recently got a 87 uk gallon (107 us gallon) tank (Its nearly cycled,no nitrites and no ammonia detected in water) i plan to house the aro with my pair of sevs and maybee a few other medium sized fish. Im wondering what types of plants and decor would look good in the tank, and also im wondering if the 107 gal is enough for a growing aro? the other fish could be removed if needed as i have some spare cycled tanks available, thus giving the aro more room. If space permitted id even buy 2 aro's. If anyone has any info to share id appreciate it and if anyone thinks any of my ideas are wrong or problematic, please let me know.
Thanks for your time guys, and i look forward to your replys:)
James G.
 
First question; what kind of aro is it? Guessing its a silver but just want to make sure.
Second question, what are the dimensions of the tank? Footprint is more important than over all gallons, as you can imagine with a long fish like an arowana tall narrow tanks are pretty useless.

With a silver aro (generally speaking) you should plan on it getting to 2' in around 2 years, and if you can't provide a 180g (6x2x2) tank before then you shouldn't get the fish. Asian and australian aros grow slower and don't get quite as large as a silver, so a higher initial outlay could save you money on the size of the tank you'll need to provide.

Obviously if the fish is only 4-6" the your 107g tank will be big enough, but the footprint of the tank and species of aro will determine for how long.
 
Thanks for the reply, the tank is 5 (uk) foot long, 3 ft high and i think 3 ft maybee 2 and a half ft wide. And yes they are silver aro's that i was gonna get. Im going to the store in a few hours i will take a pic of the fishes in the tanks thenpost on here for people to see. Hopefully the pics will help ppl see my description of the fish.
 
Based on the dimentions you just wrote, thats 60 inches x 36 inches x 30 inches.
Thats a lot bigger than 107 US gallons.
280 US gallons. you'll need a longer tank eventually.
 
Sounds to me like you are getting the aro regardless of any advise that will be given here. Are you just guessing at the dimensions or do you not know how to actually measure them?

Silver aros grow very quickly on average of 1 to 1.5" per month up to 25". Your aro should be kept in a tank with a length that is 3x the aros length and a width/depth at least equal to that of the aro. I would assume that your tank will only house a silver aro for maybe 9 to 12 months at best.
 
silver aro care is really the same as black, asian aros.
but silver gets really really long.
a asian aro doesnt get aslong.

if you ask for advise, i suggest you take heed of them, or else it would be said to see a post :
"james gil: my aro has woundson its head and is dead"
cos the tnak is too small and it kept on jumping untill it killed itself.
thats a symptom of small tanks with big aros.

you will get spinal curve too.

silver aros will jet to get food, they are much stronger i reckon than asian aros.
in 2 years, your aro will be more than 2 foot if fed correctly.

give us the exacts:

tank footprint
exactly what filtration you have - details

keep in mind, arowanas are known to eat large amounts of food, that comes with large amount of waste.
i have see silver aros eat fist size chunks of fish and beef heart. even ducklings!!!

i think you should get a 7 footx3ft widex 2foot high. height is not important for silvers as is width and length.

3ft high is preferable.
 
A minimum 5' x 2.5' x 2.5' tank would do fine for one silver along with some mid sized tankmates. Bigger is of course better but that would be the minimum. Fishes won't outgrow their tank, that's why we have so many stunted ones in LFS. A typical silver will grow to about 3ft in an aquarium. Just get your filtration and tank size right.
 
^ I keep an Asian so I'm no expert on silvers but i read enough about them on here to think that is too small for a full grown silver. It needs to be at least another foot long and 30 inches wide.
Ideally it would be 7 or 8 foot long.
 
commfreak;3246284; said:
A minimum 5' x 2.5' x 2.5' tank would do fine for one silver along with some mid sized tankmates. Bigger is of course better but that would be the minimum. Fishes won't outgrow their tank, that's why we have so many stunted ones in LFS. A typical silver will grow to about 3ft in an aquarium. Just get your filtration and tank size right.
Click to expand...

:duh: Not only does the fish have to be able to fit in the tank, but it should also be able to swim.
 
just after two years i am getting a bigger tank for my two silver arowanas.They are both over two feet.They were in a 300 gallon tank and now going into a 96x48x24 tank so if you can't go big try a jardini.
 
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