I've kept a lot of fish over the last 25 years; but never an arowana. I am very interested in both the silver and black arowana, and I think the time might be right. One of my setups right now is a 140g with 2 large tinfoil barbs, a Jack Dempsey, a bunch of convicts, 2 plecos, and some cory cats (will be eaten). I've been thinking about moving the cory cats out, they seem too small and gentle for this tank; but they are doing OK. There is a much larger tank in the planning stages.
I have some arowana questions:
1. What are the main differences between the silver and black arowanas?
They are virtually the same fish except people like the rare colors etc
Can they be kept together?
Yes, they are not as bad as jardini's for example
Do they reach the same size?
I have yet to see a full grown black arowana, they have a 12" black arowana at my lfs. But i would imagine they get about the same size as a silver arowana
2. If I got say 3 baby arowanas, how long could they live in a 6 foot tank?
Well, the filtration has to be extremely strong, their diet has to be varied and there has to be lots of surface swimming space, it would be a suitable grow out for maybe a year than you will have to split them up and get at least a 8X3X2-3 for each
3. When is the best (most affordable) time to order baby arowana?
When they are small, but they are much more delicate at this stage, so be careful with water quality etc
4. What is a good price in CA for baby arowana?
Haha, what kind? Black juvenile: 200-300$ silver juvenile: 20$ jardini juvenile 50-100$
5. How do you train them on to pellets?
Starving is the best way to do it, just feed them non live food as juveniles and they will learn that that's their food, do not feed them live food exclusively. Make sure to vary their diet ALOT
6. How do you think baby arowana would fare with the tankmates I described above? I really don't care if they eventually ate any of the convicts, but I don't want any of my existing fish to harass the arowanas. They will eat the convicts, so personally i would move the convicts unless they are intentional feeders. The arowanas may fight, so split them up when they get large.
7. I know the top of the tank needs to be secured--any other advice?
Bricks would help keep the lids tight. I have a tank full of active danios that has about 4" on each side of open filter slot space, i got like a 8" long .25" thick styrofoam sheet and placed it there, it prevents a lot of evaporation and i have seen it prevent the fish from jumping at least 3 times. Also, don't have a lot of junk around at the top, arowanas are top dwellers (hence the mouth) and need the surface clear to swim freely at all times. They are not great with rock stacks, so forget about those.
Thanks in advance---------Your welcome if i helped
S
