I have had several silver arowana over the years, and my current silver is looking to surpass all the other in terms of size and growth, in just a few months(well since last October) has gone from 8" or so to 24-30", (hard to tell in the tank, tank is 36" wide and at certain times looks like he is almost as long as the tank is wide) so I am planning to upgrade him into a larger tank in the next year, currently in a 360 gallon (96x36x24)
So one thing to keep in mind is how much you will spend to house this animal, my current setup has around the same amount invested in what it would cost for me to go and visit the amazon for a week and see these fish in the wild. I read a post where someone said this, and kind of laughed, then decided to add up what I have spent so far, and look at the cost for a trip, and will just say I could easily spend a week in the amazon all inclusive for about what I have invested so far.....
I have read all kind of crazy post to, and one thing i have found consistantly, is the misrepresentation of growth of these fish.
If you purchase a small arowana, with egg sack, you will not see the insane growth people talk about, from my experience anyway, when small, arowana grow rather slowly for the first 4" of growth, going from 3" to 8" in my experience takes about 6 months to a year, now once they are in the 8"-10" range and out of the fragile stage of life, they grow ridiculously fast. This is assuming proper care.
They tend to want to eat constantly once they are over the 12" mark, and need frequent large water changes to keep quality growth up, you don't need to feed them large amount, several small meals a day with frequent water changes will net huge growth. Think back to high school biology, animals in general are mostly made up of water, fish are no different. To get high growth you need clean water, because this is the largest part of the fishes mass.
I have found it doesn't matter how low you keep nitrates, you need to change water. I personally keep my nitrates as low as I can, but even when I have spikes as long as I keep frequently adding water to the system growth does not seem to slow.
Another thing I have found is to never allow the belly of your arowana to get enlarged like you would when feeding other fish, I have found that this
So one thing to keep in mind is how much you will spend to house this animal, my current setup has around the same amount invested in what it would cost for me to go and visit the amazon for a week and see these fish in the wild. I read a post where someone said this, and kind of laughed, then decided to add up what I have spent so far, and look at the cost for a trip, and will just say I could easily spend a week in the amazon all inclusive for about what I have invested so far.....
I have read all kind of crazy post to, and one thing i have found consistantly, is the misrepresentation of growth of these fish.
If you purchase a small arowana, with egg sack, you will not see the insane growth people talk about, from my experience anyway, when small, arowana grow rather slowly for the first 4" of growth, going from 3" to 8" in my experience takes about 6 months to a year, now once they are in the 8"-10" range and out of the fragile stage of life, they grow ridiculously fast. This is assuming proper care.
They tend to want to eat constantly once they are over the 12" mark, and need frequent large water changes to keep quality growth up, you don't need to feed them large amount, several small meals a day with frequent water changes will net huge growth. Think back to high school biology, animals in general are mostly made up of water, fish are no different. To get high growth you need clean water, because this is the largest part of the fishes mass.
I have found it doesn't matter how low you keep nitrates, you need to change water. I personally keep my nitrates as low as I can, but even when I have spikes as long as I keep frequently adding water to the system growth does not seem to slow.
Another thing I have found is to never allow the belly of your arowana to get enlarged like you would when feeding other fish, I have found that this
