My Red doesn't like tankmates...help please!

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A

arowana

Candiru
MFK Member
Apr 25, 2005
150
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The Netherlands
Hi,

My Red Asian Arowana (ca. 55-60 cm) lived quite a while peacefully with only bottomdwellers (rays/pleco’s). A few months ago I introduced some tankmates (1/2 – 1/3 his size) for the midsection of the aquarium, but he attacked them constantely. I got rid of those animals and introduced a large Datnioides (almost his size) recently. Now the arowana is also quite aggresive towards this animal. Should I:
  1. at some extra streaming pumps?
  2. Introduce more tankmates of the same size? (I think of cichla’s, but other suggestions are welcome)
  3. just give it up with tankmates for the midsection?
  4. other options?

Also: would adding an FLy River Turtle be safe?
 
My aro is the same way. Will simply not tolerate mid level tankmates. The only time he did was when he was in a smaller tank with 7-9 large fish. Once I upgraded, his territorial side came out and he tolerated NOONE.
You could try stuffing the tank full of dats or pbass or whatever but IMO its not worth the risk.
 
also, i currently keep mine with an FRT and a big tigrinus and they are all fine together
 
arowana said:
Hi,

My Red Asian Arowana (ca. 55-60 cm) lived quite a while peacefully with only bottomdwellers (rays/pleco’s). A few months ago I introduced some tankmates (1/2 – 1/3 his size) for the midsection of the aquarium, but he attacked them constantely. I got rid of those animals and introduced a large Datnioides (almost his size) recently. Now the arowana is also quite aggresive towards this animal. Should I:

  1. at some extra streaming pumps?
  2. Introduce more tankmates of the same size? (I think of cichla’s, but other suggestions are welcome)
  3. just give it up with tankmates for the midsection?
  4. other options?

Also: would adding an FLy River Turtle be safe?
Click to expand...

FRT is safe i have housed all kinds of arowana with FRT in the last 10 years
Currently have 9 asian arowana with a 1.5kg FRT no problems
The most problem i have had was a few years back i had a 20+ inches jardini who would not tolerate any tankmates exept my FRT the worst that would happen was water being splashed when the jardini chased the FRT
My tank was bare so the FRT never nicked herself on anything ( driftwood, Rocks )when she put the turbo ON

LBathory said:
My aro is the same way. Will simply not tolerate mid level tankmates. The only time he did was when he was in a smaller tank with 7-9 large fish. Once I upgraded, his territorial side came out and he tolerated NOONE.
You could try stuffing the tank full of dats or pbass or whatever but IMO its not worth the risk.
Click to expand...

Stuffing full of Dats also works and its so much fun. I think the risk factor is very minimal. Nothing bad ever happened when i did it.
Ancient_Fish_Master said:
you can try using silver dollars to help spread the aggression
Click to expand...

Also a very good suggestion but i find the silver dollars often take most of the punishement ( they get beat up by Arowana and the Dat(s) ) and end up like very sad looking fishes

good luck
 
i used to do this with my datnioides since aggression can be really evident with those fishes (datnioides, arowana & cichla).
- take out all the fishes and place them in temporary tank.separate the aggressor (in your case, its your arowana). let them be comfortable with the temporay tank for at least 30 mins or an hour then transfer the fishes back to your main tank but transfer the aggressor last. in your case, place the tankmates first, let them be comfortable in the tank for 30 mins then transfer your arowana. hope this helps.
 
I tried SD's and they got destroyed. if they weren't killed, they were mutilated and sent straight to the hospital tank. If you really want some tank mates, I'd say a pack of dats is your best bet.
 
Add many tankmates at one go, instead of one each time..my goldie don't accept new mates, after many trials and error, this method works well.
 
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