Hi! I am about to introduce a sizable arowana to my pond that holds my red tail cat. What is the best way to introduce the arowana to where my red tail would have less interest in him?
Introducing arowana
- Thread starter Mr boombastic
- Start date
Feed the cat really well right before you throw the arowana in
And again every night just before you hit the lights.
You need a dim night light (also known as a moon light) on constantly through the darkness to reduce possibility of predation and the arowana skittishly jumping.
Having a night light lets the arowana keep a constant eye on what's happening which is important for it's confidence. Otherwise a slight disturbance - sound, shadow over tank, person walking past or lights suddenly getting turned is likely to panic the arowana. It will still jump with a night light, but much less. Hopefully you have strong heavy tank lids. - You can weight thinner glass lids down with plastic bags of sand as these won't smash the glass when coming back down.
The redtail catfish is nocturnal but even if not hunting, an exploratory touch of it's whiskers will send the arowana into a wild panic in total darkness.
I leave a weatherproof 10W LED lamp on 24 hours a day. On bigger tanks I have at least two in case one fails.
Having a night light lets the arowana keep a constant eye on what's happening which is important for it's confidence. Otherwise a slight disturbance - sound, shadow over tank, person walking past or lights suddenly getting turned is likely to panic the arowana. It will still jump with a night light, but much less. Hopefully you have strong heavy tank lids. - You can weight thinner glass lids down with plastic bags of sand as these won't smash the glass when coming back down.
The redtail catfish is nocturnal but even if not hunting, an exploratory touch of it's whiskers will send the arowana into a wild panic in total darkness.
I leave a weatherproof 10W LED lamp on 24 hours a day. On bigger tanks I have at least two in case one fails.
I don't currently have an RTC but I do have a black arowana that's large, stout and healthy. There are a couple of useful stereotypes in this arena and one of them is that an arowana on the prowl may jump once but an arowana that's been scared jumps several times. If you hear a jump in your tank you'll likely hear another within 90 seconds. I've lost more of them than I would've ever imagined in the early days of keeping them and have arrived at a solution that works for me somewhat better than some of the others I've tried.
I use 2" thick pink hard board foam insulation atop my tank and rather than weight it I have parachute cord running from the far left to the far right of the tank holding down the insulation. It makes the entire lid work as if it were one piece... which to me means that although the fish will jump as often as it did prior, it gets damaged to a lesser degree in the process. If there were a side benefit (for me) it's that for the first 40 years or so my tanks were roughly 78-80*f and the room was maybe 68*f... so I was heating my house w/ electric element fish tank heaters.
I suppose I still do but the insulation makes me feel slightly better about it. I insulate the back wall of the tank as well w/ the same product. I'll have this arowana for a long time.