Sorry for derailing, but please provide some evidence/proof that most Silver aro's hit 2ft in there first year. Thanks.
revkkoolaid;3499778; said:
Mfk's that travel for work.
- Thread starter grunzilla
- Start date
The most I was ever gone was 11 weeks. It was crazy. I'm usually home after two weeks, but this time the touring schedule was crazy. My wife stepped up though. She did water changes once a week and everything was going cool until My xp4 on my 55 wouldn't prime for some reason. I had to call a fish guy and pay him 60 bucks for like 10 minutes worth of work. Bummer. All he did was take out my water polishing pad, turn the filter back on. I couldn't believe he charged my wife 60 bucks for that.
60 bucks!!! sheesh, that's ridiculous.
This is not my first silver Arowana, I am aware how fast they grow. He will be good in there for about a year and a half to two years. The way I see it, it gives me a reason to upgrade...I warned my wife the growth rate and that we will not be able to house him in such a small tank and that one day we will need bigger...so I am just going to start planning on it now. Start looking for deals on craigslist etc... Thought about building my own stand now, and maybe a DIY filter....I don't know though, never done anything like that but it might be worth the saved money.
This is not my first silver Arowana, I am aware how fast they grow. He will be good in there for about a year and a half to two years. The way I see it, it gives me a reason to upgrade...I warned my wife the growth rate and that we will not be able to house him in such a small tank and that one day we will need bigger...so I am just going to start planning on it now. Start looking for deals on craigslist etc... Thought about building my own stand now, and maybe a DIY filter....I don't know though, never done anything like that but it might be worth the saved money.
Idealconcepts;3499882; said:
Proof? Lol do you want before and after pics? Ask in the aro forum. Many will attest to this. It's more than possible.
With my experience in Aro's that is an extreme, but I do not doubt it. They were probably fed more than they needed to be, but they do grow VERY VERY fast.
grunzilla;3500061; said:
We would charge more lol.
I shouldn't really blab about such matters but we charge $75min for emergency calls. What service companies charge seems outrageous to a hobbyist I know, when I was first on the other side of the fence I was shocked at how much we charged for everything (incl. emergency calls). There are many factors for this. But one unavoidable fact is "time lost".
Typically going anywhere and doing anything will eat up about an hr of your day. Add up the time on the phone assessing the situation, drive time there, time on site further assessing the situation, 10min spent yanking the pad and priming the filter/topping off tank, the time spent cleaning/loading up, and drive time back to wherever else you needed to be.
Esp. if this was during business hrs. due to the fact that you arrange your schedule geographically usually and IF your not nearby to whatever else your doing that day it will REALLY wreck your schedule. I work 9-10hrs a day typically and then some w/o all hell breaking loose. I have around 75 tanks on my 4week schedule. Many of mine are weekly as I have many discus tanks and ultra-high waste load bruiser tanks on my "board" so I have like 100 plus stops to make every four weeks.
In one hour on site somewhere, or any other servicemen with proper equipment, could perform a "full service" on our avg. tanks (200-500gal). 50% w/c and basic comestic work ie algae wipe, gravel line, etc. Granted I know dude wasn't at your place for an hr but the bottom line is you have to put a price on your time.
We have a $150 dollar minimum for basic monthly service. And thats if your typically 200gal or less and nearby. I will admit that relative to the area, cost of living in Houston is crazy low, we are the most expensive service/installation company in North America. But the people we cater to are more concerned with quality and not cost.
Fun fact!: Takashi Amano was charging around 10k a foot for installation on planted layouts last I heard. Granted that's if he was actually doing it HIMSELF. Like I said. . . .you've gotta put a price on your time.
ldschmdit29;3506773; said:
I will admit I like to pour on the groceries and do super-douche water changes all the time lol.
The largest in my charge is 36" is less than 3yrs old and is only target fed every other day.
Need and should is a fine line my friend. Esp. when fish are young. Irreparable stunting can easily occur.
i'm in sales and travel often. i was out of town 2 nights (Wed - Thu) a week, for the past 3 weeks. i usually return home each Friday evening. so, my fish go unattended for a few nights a week. i let them starve. my wife does not want to deal with my fish and i don't impose. when i return home, i feed them good and let them pig out. it works fine for me. . . over the summer, we went to jamaica for a week. my daughter fed them twice. i made it easy by preparing the food and i gave her written instructions, but i can't ask anyone to do a water change. no way. it's my hobby. not my wife or daughter's.
revkkoolaid;3506765; said:
Don't want to start a flamming war or anything and derail the thread any further, but my concern was when you send 'most' silver aros reach 2ft or near that in the first year.
I did do a search in the aro section and majority consensus is 1-1.5 inch per month. I was not disagreeing that some Silver Aro's reach 2ft in the first year, I was disagreeing that 'most' (which translates to more than half, I'm in the field of market research so I'm being nit picky on the word) silver aros reach 2ft in the first year. I'm guessing less than half of silver aros (that MFKers own) reach 2ft in the first year and bet there are 'some' that reach 2ft and more in the first year.
To add, I rarely travel for work. We did go on vacation last year for about 12-13 days, which was the longest we have not been at home. I used automatic feeders filled with pellets. I only lost one fish, a lap bichir when we were gone and this consist of 8 tanks that I had fish in.
