Need help setting up first tank for Arowana + Fire Eel

[fishlover111]

I bought a silver aro at 5 inches and have a fire eel also at about 5 inches they get along fine, as far as i know the fire eel is more timid than the TT eel spends most of its time playing around in the plants except for feeding time!

My current tank has 9inch aro, 10inch TT eel, 6-7inch fire eel, 2x Clown loach and 2x Ornate bichir.

All my family and friends love the tank. Fish all look and go great together IMO. There is always something going on. Love the set up. Just my 2 cents

 

[Camphilophus]

I'll probably end up getting the Fluval canister but the setup I described earlier is being offered to me for $50, that's why I was considering it.

As for the black/silver arowana debate- I like the silver because its a pure color all around and I've noticed that blacks seem to become silver later on anyways besides their tail.
But that's the thing, the blacks seem more elegant as they are older whereas the silvers look more chunky. The black aros swimming just looks more fluid and streamlined imo. Any opinions on that?

I think I'm going to pass on the bicher since it just waddles on the bottom all day.
I want something relatively big and apparent in the tank like the arowana.

I want my tank like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtI1D4Ezdx0

Dark with white light and blue accents... and it'd be cool if I got a black arowana with a deep blue on its fins, but that just depends on if I get lucky I guess.

Any chance of having fish less than 50% the size of arowana without it getting eaten?

Silver aro is the only one legal to own here I wouldn't be talking about getting illegal fish on here. I also wouldn't keep anything too small with your aro because it can and will eat it.

 

[yangcliu]

Aren't blacks and jardinis legal too?

Does anyone know how much slower the black aro grows than the silver?

I think I'm going to get an aro and a fire eel at the same time.
Kind of want an aba aba though.

I called Fantastic fins, the silver aro and fire eel are cheap but the blacks are now 350

 

[jclyde13]

Silver aro is the only one legal to own here I wouldn't be talking about getting illegal fish on here. I also wouldn't keep anything too small with your aro because it can and will eat it.

Unless I missed something, he never mentioned buying any illegal species...

 

[jclyde13]

Aren't blacks and jardinis legal too?

Does anyone know how much slower the black aro grows than the silver?

I think I'm going to get an aro and a fire eel at the same time.
Kind of want an aba aba though.

I called Fantastic fins, the silver aro and fire eel are cheap but the blacks are now 350

The only species that are illegal in the US are the Asians.

 

[Bderick67]

Aren't blacks and jardinis legal too?

Does anyone know how much slower the black aro grows than the silver?

I think I'm going to get an aro and a fire eel at the same time.
Kind of want an aba aba though.

I called Fantastic fins, the silver aro and fire eel are cheap but the blacks are now 350

As long as your not in Florida. Blacks and Jardinis are illegal in FLA. As far as I know there is no other states that have restrictions. Maybe in his research, Camphilophus was mistaking Florida laws for U.S. laws

Seems on average blacks do grow slower then silvers, though my black is 24" at 18 months old. Each individual fish is different depending on a number of things. Estimation for black aro growth rate is 3/4-1" per month, with the silver being 1-1.5" per month.

 

[seel1990]

some intersting disscussions. i finally managed to get my aro to accept pellets (hikari cichlid gold and tropical cichlid and arowana sticks). hes about 6-7inches. before he accepted the pellets i fed him live black and brown crickets gut loaded with carrots and crushed hikari gold pellets.

 

[yangcliu]

Ahh thanks.

I'm still thinking of what to get as tankmates for the arowana.. I think I want a black aro but $350..compared to $30... thats more than 10x the price haha.

bderick, what do you keep in the tank with your black? And how big's your tank?

 

[Bderick67]

If you want a black aro wait until this spring. This is when you'll start seeing baby black aros available, prices will be much more affordable then.

My two blacks are housed in a 96x36x30" 450 gallon tank. I have had them housed with numerous different tankmates from discus to pbass and lots of cichlids in between. Their current tank mates include 2 silver aro, tire track eel, flag tail, silver dollars, geophagus abalios, angelfish, black skirt tetras and some dwarf plecos.

 

[yangcliu]

OH okay, thanks.

I have a 180 g, don't know how many fish I can put in it.

I want the tank to have a kind of some color scheme, so everything looks neat.

Maybe I'll add in a common, or snow pleco