congratulations! you got yourself an excellent fish! these fish are very skiddish so try not to make fast movements near your tank or they will FLIP out & possibly jump out of your tank. they are peaceful with anything that they cant come close to eating (if you let them get hungry, they will eat/kill anything up to 1.5x their diameter). dont let the little mouth fool you-thats just the tip of their snout & they can eat things wider than them! also, they are aggressive carnivores & will fly across your tank to get a meal, so if you have a big tank you need to put some plants & such in their so that the fish cant get a good run & smash/kill itself by hitting the inside of the tank. also, make you you dont have anything sharp in your tank or else they will eventually cut themselves open & probably die. also, these fish hunt off of sight, not smell, so if they cant see it they cant hunt it. they do however, have VERY good eyesight.
these fish are VERY hardy, i went through 2 arowanas & a couple other stupid fish before i found out about ph/nitrate/etc... which killed ALL my other fish, by the gars never mind no matter how poor my water quality. they can easily thrive in an environment with drastically changing water composition, temperature, and light conditions-although its not "good" for them. they are also a school fish, & if you can get 3 they will be MUCH happier, but as long as you have atleast 2 they will be fine (if you have just one they will be miserable). these fish are great & ive had no problems with mine other than the fact that they will FLIP OUT if i make jerky movements near the tank-& will beat themselves around inside their tank like they are -trying- to hurt themselves, its rediculous! also get them to eat dead food NOW if you can, because they dont like to eat anything thats not alive & will refuse to later on if you dont get them used to it now-mine have lived off of nothing but feeder fish from the pet store for months (which you really shouldnt do due to the lack of nutrition & high risk of disease transmission) & have been doing great, but lately ive been feeding them ghost shrimp & they seem to be growing better, altho they like to hunt fish a lot more.
