Arowanas pretty shy compared to Oscar

[MichaelAngelo]

Alright so I have a 135G with a red oscar and two young 10" silver aros.

The oscar is so lively, he'll eat endlessly from my hand... but the aros are th eflip side of the coin. They swim away from pellets I offer, will only eat superworms (occassionally when the oscar doesn't eat them first).

Strange!! Do I just have shy fish or a crazy oscar?

Tank is well-cycled, aros been there for a month, fluval fx5 great flow, bare bottom, temperature of 80F, feeding simple predator sticks (aros won't even think about eating this), superworms.

I just find it strange that 2 young growing aros won't eat well!


EDIT: I know the arows won't eat pellets if they're used to tasty superworms, but the point is they barely eat anything. the oscar is a non-stop eater.

 

[Gshock]

Silvers are known to be shy like this...starve your aros, they'll be eating pellets within a couple days...

 

[phillydog1958]

my arowana was raised on pellets by the lfs owner that i purchased him from. he eats cut-upsilversides, arowana pellets (imported from asia for color enhancement), freeze-dried krill, cichlid pellets, tfreeze-dried ubifex worms and beef hearts. The only thing he won't touch is frozen bloodworms. he's in a tank with oscars, gar, senegal and tire track eel. he swims in open water and hits anything that hits the water surface. he's a pig. give your's time. i bet they will come around.

 

[MichaelAngelo]

Silvers are known to be shy like this...starve your aros, they'll be eating pellets within a couple days...

I tried starving them for a week, actually in the process right now. It's been a week, dropped pellets still nothing lol =( should I continue??? they're young and shouldn't they be eating every 2nd day or something like that??

I really appreciate the help so far guys! this forum rocks

 

[Gshock]

10" can go way beyond a week, dont worry about it. I dont know about the condition it came in though, so i would stop at about 2.5-3 weeks into starvation, but I highly doubt it would even take that long. Where did you get your silver?

 

[MichaelAngelo]

Where did you get your silver?

Some guy on kijiji, he had them in a 90G tank so I was worried about stunted growth, but they seem normally shaped.. There's 2 of them and they always swim together lol.

 

[Gshock]

Definitely cant tell about their health if its private sale. Anyways, like I said before, starve a bit longer, but at 2.5-3 weeks, start feeding again. But they'll probably be eating pellets before that happens.

 

[Bderick67]

Many fish including aros will not eat if stressed. This is even worse if feeding time is cause for stress. Just make sure that your oscars feeding behavior is not stressing the aros.