What do you think the fish eat long term? Other fish, crayfish, shrimp, insects, frogs, small mammals, etc. As such, similar things to it's natural diet would be best IMO
my arrowana refuse to eat anything but meat
- Thread starter Jreeper
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Beef & chicken are no bueno. If you are going to feed fresh/frozen seafood, just make sure to supplement with a liquid vitamin/mineral mix such as Boyd Vitachem. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with feeding seafood to aros. Starving usually works, but you need to be careful if the fish are young. An adult Asian aro can go months without eating, which is exactly what it took for my friend to convert his aro to pellets. Pre-soaking pellets in the juice of frozen bloodworms, or in your case beef and chicken blood, may help convert him. This is what happens when you spoil a fish, just like most children they will choose cake & ice cream over a shrimp salad. 
LOL^^ he's right about kids and cake over anything good for them!!! I have been successful several times over the yrs getting piranhas to eat pellets by soaking them in tilapia meat and or bloodworm juice etc. mind u they wont float anymore usually. once they associate the looks of the pellet with meaty flavours they wil usually devour them the moment they hit the water. its all in being patient I found
I'm just curious, are you saying frozen food is not as good as pellet food? That's sort of what I'm getting from you, just want to clarify though. I just used frozen food because I have found my fish (small, tetras, albino cherry barbs, peacock gudgeons, etc.) can't really eat them very well because of the way it expands, so I just used frozen food, plus I think it is more natural and filling to them, that's just me thoughBeef & chicken are no bueno. If you are going to feed fresh/frozen seafood, just make sure to supplement with a liquid vitamin/mineral mix such as Boyd Vitachem. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with feeding seafood to aros. Starving usually works, but you need to be careful if the fish are young. An adult Asian aro can go months without eating, which is exactly what it took for my friend to convert his aro to pellets. Pre-soaking pellets in the juice of frozen bloodworms, or in your case beef and chicken blood, may help convert him. This is what happens when you spoil a fish, just like most children they will choose cake & ice cream over a shrimp salad.
Never had a problem feeding small fishes like the ones you mentioned with micro/0.5mm pellets and flakes.
Ditto to what Rocksor just posted above. I have fed fry so small that you could barely see them with the naked eye, pellet food, just very fine micro sized pellet food. Similar micro sized pellets are used by many to feed live coral etc in marine systems. It's so small it's like fine dust particles. If your pellet food swells up inside the fish, find a higher quality feed, or smaller in size, don't blame the type of feed. Not much that takes place in a glass box is natural, including feeding fresh/frozen food, but I never stated that one food is better than another.
Even live food is often not a very good substitution, for what is actually consumed in nature, which is exactly why I suggested that if one is going to feed fresh/frozen, they should supplement with a liquid vitamin such as Boyd Vitachem. Doing so will fill in some of the nutritional blanks, including vitamin B1, which will counter any potential issues with Thiaminase enzymes.
Even live food is often not a very good substitution, for what is actually consumed in nature, which is exactly why I suggested that if one is going to feed fresh/frozen, they should supplement with a liquid vitamin such as Boyd Vitachem. Doing so will fill in some of the nutritional blanks, including vitamin B1, which will counter any potential issues with Thiaminase enzymes.
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