Might get a new silver...

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brianjh

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 19, 2007
200
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Baltimore, MD
I was thinking of getting a silver, one of my LFS has some babies....very tiny though. Some of them still have there yolk sac, but I would go for the largest available. It would go in a 55 for now, should be ok for 4-5months right?? Then into a 120 wide, and then I will try to introduce into a 240, with my black aro.... The 55 has 2 penguin 330's and a bubble wand. I think that this is plenty of filtration for afish this size....Looking @ a lot of the recent posts I see that some have a hard time raising silver form this size... I have never had a silver before...I have a black now....My first aro was a jar about 6 years ago, he was the size of my pinky when I got him, never had issues and had him for 5 years until he jumped out of the tank, I also had another jar right after that one that I lost when i had a power failure.....

Questions;
1) Am I correct about lenght of time in the 55? I know there are a lot of variables that play into this but I dont plan on powerfeeding at all....
2) Should I introduce the new silver to the black as soon as he is large enough not to be eaten???
3) My black is now around 11 inches and putting on some girth too, I have heard that silvers can be a more aggro then blacks, does anyone think this is a bad idea?? My thought process in this situation is, if the black is larger then the silver when introduced, they will stand a better chance @ living peacefully...
4) Should I introduce other tankmates when the silver puts some size and starts eating?? To make him less anti-social? ie: will it help when finally introducing to the black aro???

I have gotten some input on this topic but want to further review. If I wind up doing it I will probably go buy the silver on monday.... Please everyone chime in!!!!
 
IMO, a silver is fine in a 55 from 6" to 12" or 6 months there abouts. Prior to 6", I would keep him in a 20gal while he's in the 3.5"-4" range, then a 40 breeder to 6" then the 55. If you skipped the 55 and went to a 75 he'd be fine til about 14-15". Of course, these are just worse case scenario. If your black isn't too big, I'd put the silver in the 240 when he hits the 12" range.

The silver will probably outgrow the black fairly quickly, so it's probably better to introduce the silver when he's smaller than the black. It's all a gamble. You never know how they'll react to each other. General info is a guide. It doesn't mean it's going to work or not. You have to find that out.

Dithers are up to you. Depends on how skitish your aros are.
 
I think 4-5 months would probably be the max.

12" in a 55 may be too much for some arows. I know mine started getting really jumpy and hitting the lid a lot once he hit 10" and had to be moved into a 125g. Once moved that behavior completely stopped.

Looking back I think I would keep dithers in the tank if I ever grow another silver out. Mine was kind of nervous for awhile, and although he warmed up to us pretty quickly I think some other smaller fish would have made him more comfortable in general. At the time I didn't want to add excess bioload though so I decided to keep him by himself except for the baby clown knife I added not long before moving him into the 125g.

I don't think introducing tankmates will necessarily make your silver arow less aggressive to your black arow. I've heard of silver arows being aggressive towards black arows for whatever reason even when they might be peaceful with all other fish and even other silvers.
It probably depends on your individual arowanas personality, just like with any other fish.
 
don't forget his baby pic in the baby arow thread..:D
 
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