Asian Aro Keeping

[thecoolguy]

ok, so my RTG is happily growing and decided it was able to eat 20-30 SW's a day.......which is hurting my pocket book! already thick as a log.....

couple questions for you asian aro experts out there.....

1) water changes: some people here tell me that asians are very sensitive to changes in their water, and that a water change once or twice a week is too much for these fish? is this correct? given i am feeding my fish a lot, and bulking him up, and with the higher temperatures in china right now - my plan is to water change 1 or 2 times a week at 30-40%....is this too much?

2) growth rate: given ideal conditions, what is the average growth rate for a RTG that is currently @ 10-12" ?

i know i can go online and look up some info .... but i enjoy first hand comments from real people....

thanks for the info! (perhaps when asian's are legalized in the US, i will be able to practice what i am learning here in china on these beautiful fish!)

 

[Koji]

Just do a weekly water change of 10-15%. As for growth rate, normally it's about 1 inche per month. But some growing fish tend to eat more and so they grow much more faster.

End of the day, if you can keep any fishes alive in your tank, you can keep an aro.

 

[StiffMeister]

from my experience, my RTG doesnt mind waterchanges at all. Ive read many things and lot of people say 20& WC max for aro but mine doesnt care when i do 30 or 40 and i dont notice any difference in behaviour while changing. I do around 30-40% 3x per week cuz of bioload and higher temp in summer.

growth rate at that size, maybe 3/4 inch per month but the bigger they get, the slower they grow so you wont get that much growth lateron.

 

[thecoolguy]

wow!

only 10-15% once a week?

coming from you koji, i know it is reliable, but so many people have their asians in with super high waste producers, i can't imagine 10-15% a week being able to keep nitrates and waste down?

is that your regiment?

 

[Arofanatic]

My recipe for quick growth
Food (little and often)+ Water changes 2X (at least 20%) a wk

But do not forget -you can have a fast growing arowana at the expense of shape and colour.

 

[Koji]

wow!

only 10-15% once a week?

coming from you koji, i know it is reliable, but so many people have their asians in with super high waste producers, i can't imagine 10-15% a week being able to keep nitrates and waste down?

is that your regiment?

It all biold down to how effective your filtration is running for the tank. If you filtration is supporting well and your bio load is not at the high side, 10-15% is enough.

 

[Koji]

My recipe for quick growth
Food (little and often)+ Water changes 2X (at least 20%) a wk

But do not forget -you can have a fast growing arowana at the expense of shape and colour.

I dun agree on the colour. Colour only develop over age and not size.

 

[thecoolguy]

agreed, a lot weighs on the bio-load of the tank.......

lets say for a higher bio-load tank, would 1 or 2 30-50% wc's a week hurt the aro?

even when filtration is more than adequate, there are still tanks whose bioload requires weekly wc's of greater than 10-20%

 

[T1KARMANN]

i do 2 x 25% water changes per week with no ptoblems

i think 30 SW per day is to much

i normaly feed 5 x meal worms twice per day until the aro gets to 10inch

10inch and above i feed 10-15 meal worms once per day

i find if you feed big amounts every day after about 1-2 months the aro may stop eating for a few days or even a week before it starts eatting strong again

 

[Koji]

agreed, a lot weighs on the bio-load of the tank.......

lets say for a higher bio-load tank, would 1 or 2 30-50% wc's a week hurt the aro?

even when filtration is more than adequate, there are still tanks whose bioload requires weekly wc's of greater than 10-20%

As long water is treated properly and does not stress the fish it's fine.