African arowana at Fish Story

[Egon]

I have an AUL (Genius) that’s 20 years old I’ve had him 16 years. 3 feet and 25 pounds! Never had a problem feeding him!!!
But I agree my Aro is probably just not getting enough food to grow. It’s a very very active fish. I’m going to double the frozen food feedings. Currently I just feed frozen in the morning. I’m going to start right now and feed at night too.

 

[Hao]

I have an AUL (Genius) that’s 20 years old I’ve had him 16 years. 3 feet and 25 pounds! Never had a problem feeding him!!!
But I agree my Aro is probably just not getting enough food to grow. It’s a very very active fish. I’m going to double the frozen food feedings. Currently I just feed frozen in the morning. I’m going to start right now and feed at night too.

Very nice! Sounds normal for an Australian lungfish. From what I've seen the average size for them at 5-20 years old is usually 3 to 3.5 feet (of course, some stay smaller or get bigger).
As for the Aro, keep us posted!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

That arowana probably caused me a few gray hair but it feeds now. Took it 2 weeks. I was sure it was a dead fish swimming.

 

[jjohnwm]

Is it possible that the folks who seem to have success with small Afrowanas (I love that term and am stealing it from Egon ) are just barely carrying the fish through its earliest delicate and tough-to-feed stage?

The fish scrapes through a long period of near-starvation, growing very slowly until it reaches a larger, easier-to-keep stature. At that point it can easily be fed as much as possible, but it's already somewhat stunted from its food-deprived formative youth.

I've seen plenty of fish that had very lean times as youngsters, sometimes for years...due to lack of food, poor water conditions, etc...and when they then received better care and feeding, they still never achieved a size that would be considered normal. Are Afrowanas an extreme example of this?