Arowana planted/community?

[wilsonlin45]

So my first monster a 2.5 foot silver arowana died today and I'm thinking of turning that tank into a planted tank with discus, tetras and a black/silver aro.
I've seen some arowana planted tanks with community fish before, just wondering how the arowana are trained to not eat the other fish?
Am I suppose to buy the aro young and have them grow up together?
Also would a silver or black be less aggressive to smaller fish?

 

[joey4664]

thats what i did i have a 4 inch aro with 2 discus and 2.5 inch tin foil barbs / clown loaches

 

[wilsonlin45]

thats what i did i have a 4 inch aro with 2 discus and 2.5 inch tin foil barbs / clown loaches

hows that working so far?

when the aro gets significantly larger than the tetras will it start eating them?

 

[David R]

when the aro gets significantly larger than the tetras will it start eating them?

No, in fact its the exact opposite. There's a reason lions don't bother catching mice, and likewise a 2' aro isn't going to bother chasing neon tetras unless its absolutely starving. The amount of energy exerted chasing the prey is greater than will be gained by eating it.

Plant the tank up, start with some good size discus, grow the black out feeding only pellets and maybe shrimp (stay away from any live foods to try discourage the predatory nature) then when it gets to maybe 16" [at a guess?] try adding a bunch of small and cheap tetras and see how it goes.

 

[wilsonlin45]

thanks for the input
but what if I bought the aros very young with the yolk sack still on and kept it with the tetras. How would that work out as the aro grows?

 

[Bhack91]

Good luck getting the discus food with an arrowanna in there.

 

[joey4664]

the aro doesn't bother anything i have a large plant and he just chills in the leaves all day until he's hungry then he's where i put his pellets

 

[David R]

but what if I bought the aros very young with the yolk sack still on and kept it with the tetras. How would that work out as the aro grows?

I don't think growing them out together will prevent the aro seeing them as food. You could always try, but I'd recommend with something cheap! Its all about the relationship between predator and prey size, too big and its too much work or impossible, and too small and its not worth the effort. Where exactly "too big/small" is will depend on the individual fish and how hungry you let it get.

Good luck getting the discus food with an arrowanna in there.

I can't see how small crumbly foods like those usually fed to discus would interest the arowana. I keep my black with 6 small uaru and they're usually stealing his food, not the other way around!

 

[Bderick67]

Best to use larger arowana when mixing with small/tiny fish. Growing out together will likely fail, as the aro grows the small fish will at some point become "bite sized" and make a nice meal for the aro. Once the aro is 17-18" range you'll be able to mix in small tetras and have the aro ignore for the most part.

With my black aro above I was able to keep a school of cardinal tetras, but still lost maybe 2-3 per month. With the aro this size I added larger congo tetras, lost two very quickly as the aro found them quite irresistible.

Now with my four 27-30" arowana I keep schools of 2" tetras, I loose about one a week. I am pretty sure that the loses are due to my 14" BGK though. I also grow out quite a few cichlids from 1-4" in this setup without much issue. But even at 27" there are still small fish that my two black aros will quickly take down. I have found that giant danios have no chance of survival at all. These fish are quick upper level swimmers that seem to trigger the predator within my two blacks.

Basically it will come down to trial and error, don't put in fish your not willing to lose. Also mixing fish that can injure your arowana if eaten need be avoided. I would stay away from loaches or cory cats until you are confident with your arowana not trying to eat them.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Get some smaller cories. A large aro would ignore them