I'm having a 3" African arowana delivered tomorrow and i'm being told that they're very hard to keep alive at this size. From what I've read they need a constant supply of food, especially when young, but as I work 9 hours per day this won't be possible.. My plan is to feed every hour that i'm home with bloodworm, crushed pellets and mushed up prawn, does anyone have any ideas on how to keep it fed while i'm at work?
Feeding Baby African Arowana
- Thread starter Jhncf
- Start date
So why buying the Aro if you already know you're not gonna be able to provide what it needs? You're shooting yourself in the foot here bro.
I'm pretty sure almost nobody will have the time to be at their tank constantly to provide a constant supply of food seeing as most people work/have kids/have a social life, so people must have found some other way of providing the food that they need.
Here's the regimen I've used on several batches of afaros I've raised:
The african arowana, Heterotis niloticus, is extremely time-consuming to keep alive as juvies in aquaria. They basically have to have access to food constantly until they reach about 8" and their bodies start holding reserve fat. These are filter feeding fish that can reach 3ft in length.
I kept mine going by keeping them in bare tanks with sponge filters. The sponge filters were beneficial in that they attracted food to their surface which the aros grazed on between feedings. Water chemistry is hard and alkaline with rift lake salts added to the tank. Water changes are every other day and sponge filters each are rinsed off on alternating days to keep spoiled food off the aros grazing areas. The tank receives direct sunlight to 1 side for an hour or 2 a day. The water is pretty green (to match their native waters).
Once the afaros reach a foot long, I'll probably move them from the 120s to the 360 and stop the sunlight/algae routine. Young can be kept together for only a short time before they become intolerant of each other and begin fighting. As sub-adults, they're tolerant of conspecifics again. I have other small growout species in with my young aros and they've never bothered them. These fish are active in all areas of the tank and are always on the move.
Foods consist of frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp plus, daphnia, cyclop-eeze, commercial dense culture crumbles, and mosquito larvae.
This is an awesome species if you can resolve yourself to being extremely busy on their maintenance for the first 6-8 months or so.
The african arowana, Heterotis niloticus, is extremely time-consuming to keep alive as juvies in aquaria. They basically have to have access to food constantly until they reach about 8" and their bodies start holding reserve fat. These are filter feeding fish that can reach 3ft in length.
I kept mine going by keeping them in bare tanks with sponge filters. The sponge filters were beneficial in that they attracted food to their surface which the aros grazed on between feedings. Water chemistry is hard and alkaline with rift lake salts added to the tank. Water changes are every other day and sponge filters each are rinsed off on alternating days to keep spoiled food off the aros grazing areas. The tank receives direct sunlight to 1 side for an hour or 2 a day. The water is pretty green (to match their native waters).
Once the afaros reach a foot long, I'll probably move them from the 120s to the 360 and stop the sunlight/algae routine. Young can be kept together for only a short time before they become intolerant of each other and begin fighting. As sub-adults, they're tolerant of conspecifics again. I have other small growout species in with my young aros and they've never bothered them. These fish are active in all areas of the tank and are always on the move.
Foods consist of frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp plus, daphnia, cyclop-eeze, commercial dense culture crumbles, and mosquito larvae.
This is an awesome species if you can resolve yourself to being extremely busy on their maintenance for the first 6-8 months or so.
don't forget to feed them their greens, even if you can't do what oddball suggests with the natural algae I fed mine pleco pellets when it was small, and it ate them with gusto once the water had dissolved them into the green gooey goodness. I feed mine 8 ¨9 times a day with pleco tablets and tubifex worms(frozen) but they also like ground up seeds of various flavors.
Sounds like I need to find one for sale @ 8-10". I tried a 3" one several months back B4 i knew what it would take to keep them going and it was a total fail! Love the fish though
my problem was not lack of feeding - was lack of eating. I could not find anything it would readily eat. When it did eat or at least suck something into its mouth, it would just spit it back out. Fish was Very thin when I purchased it. I really figured It would not make it but i tried very hard. Many different types of foods. Guess I needed to go smaller. But at the time smallest stuff I could find was Baby Brine shrimp. If I ever get another, It will be larger and eating or I wont buy it. Sucks cause I love the fish!