My Arowana won't eat!

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A

Axelgaard

Feeder Fish
Feb 1, 2010
4
0
0
Aalborg, Denmark
Hi there, I've known this site for some years now, but only just registered as a user today. :)

I've got a problem with my Orange/Green Arowana. I've got it when it was about 3-4 inches, and at that time I fed it with worms, insects and small living fish. Now it has grown to about 9 inches, but has slowly stopped eating. It will occasionally eat a worm or two, but that's it. It's been a while since it has been fed with live fish. What could cause this "problem"? Am I feeding it with the wrong type of food?

A couple of years ago I had an Australian Arowana, it ate everything I threw into the tank!
Is my current Arowana only ment to eat living food? - or is there something I can feed it with, that isn't alive?

I've tried frozen worms, schrimps and other normal frozen food, but that's not good enough for my Arowana! I could really use some help on this one!

:confused:

Best regards,

Thor Axelgaard
 
Could be a parasite from the live fish, could also be water quality; what size tank, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates.
 
Any tankmates... aggression?
Have you checked Params (Nitrate/Nitrite/amonia)?
Is there enough oxygen in the tank?
How often do you do water changes?
Does he have any worms on his scales/gills (fluke worms/anchor worms... visible parasites in general)?


Hard to say... maybe with more Q's (questions) you can get better results... P.S. Welcome to MFK Senior Noob :) (just teasing since you've known about the site but just became official)
 
Hi again,
Thanks for all the answers.

The quality of the water is in exellent condition. There's a plenty of oxygen in the water as well. I have a 90 gallons tank, with rocks and plants such as Java's and Anubias.
In the tank there's no fish wich could be considered a thread to my Arowana. I have 1 Gibbiceps (6 inches), 3 Clown Loaches (about 2.5-3.0 inches), 3 Polypterus Ortanipinnis (5-6 inches), 2 Polypterus Senegalus (5-7 inches) and 1 Fire Eel (6 inches).

I don't think my Arowana has any parasites as it's been a while since it has been fed with live fish. - and in the meantime it was eating a lot, but then suddently about 1½ month ago, it has slowly stopped it's interest in the food I've dropped in the tank. The Polyterus are in fact eating more than my Arowana. Two of the lagest of my Polypterus have grown ½ inch in the last month or so.. and my Arowana has (as I can see) stopped growing!

I've tried live crickets, but it seemed to prefer the worms, so I stopped buying the crickets. And now it seems to have lost interest in the worms.

When I feed the rest of his tankmates with blood worms, he takes a few of those.. but never attacks the frozen "block" of worms when it enters the water - which my Australian Arowana used to do.
 
Maybe its time to give him some Pellets, krill or shrimp?
 
Haven't tried to feed it with krill.. but maybe I should try that! He won't eat schrimps, and last time I tried he didn't want pellets either! But as everything seems to be okay, I might just keep trying to find some food of it's interest :)
 
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