No need to do that it will make Arowana spazz out. Just approach the aquarium slowly until Arowana gets comfortable with you.
Normal Arowana Behavior?
- Thread starter MooseMann
- Start date
Fake plants are not the issue. They're probably not all that much benefit to the fingerling and they're probably not all bad either.
The issue is quick movements in the room that create an emergency response in the fish. Those won't be hampered or improved by plastic plants. The question I would be pondering were I in your shoes would be 'what can I do to help this baby fish stay out of emergency mode'? Near as I can tell that involves movements in the room. You, family, the dog, etc. There are no things that move that a baby predator will find calming so the nearer you can get to a eliminating environmental stressors the nearer you'll be to long term success... and yes, they do calm down a lot once they're a little older and more used to the things that happen in their surroundings but they'll always have that one emergency response and the likely way most keepers lose Arowana is out the lid.
Now let's talk about what the fish might find calming. Do you have a plant available in your area called water sprite? There are two variants of it and the floating variant is what you want. Grows like a weed and it provides a lot of cover for an ambush predator which is what they like. The bonus is that that same cover also limits to some degree that fish's current inability to hide. I use water sprite and similar floating plants for baby Arowana. The downside is that plants need a minimum of roughly 20mg/L NO3 (and they're more comfortable in 40mg/L NO3) which is higher than I prefer for a young and delicate fish like your Arowana. If you have another tank and can keep a pile of that stuff growing and occasionally dump a handful in that would be much better. Often not an option for most of us though. Good luck.
The issue is quick movements in the room that create an emergency response in the fish. Those won't be hampered or improved by plastic plants. The question I would be pondering were I in your shoes would be 'what can I do to help this baby fish stay out of emergency mode'? Near as I can tell that involves movements in the room. You, family, the dog, etc. There are no things that move that a baby predator will find calming so the nearer you can get to a eliminating environmental stressors the nearer you'll be to long term success... and yes, they do calm down a lot once they're a little older and more used to the things that happen in their surroundings but they'll always have that one emergency response and the likely way most keepers lose Arowana is out the lid.
Now let's talk about what the fish might find calming. Do you have a plant available in your area called water sprite? There are two variants of it and the floating variant is what you want. Grows like a weed and it provides a lot of cover for an ambush predator which is what they like. The bonus is that that same cover also limits to some degree that fish's current inability to hide. I use water sprite and similar floating plants for baby Arowana. The downside is that plants need a minimum of roughly 20mg/L NO3 (and they're more comfortable in 40mg/L NO3) which is higher than I prefer for a young and delicate fish like your Arowana. If you have another tank and can keep a pile of that stuff growing and occasionally dump a handful in that would be much better. Often not an option for most of us though. Good luck.
Thanks again for your input and feedback. I really do appreciate it!
it would immediately lie on it's side when i came to see it but would swim regularly when i wasn't watching it. with time it grew out of it's shyness. give your arowana some time, it's shyness will end soon, especially as it gets bigger.
