Thanks for the reply, it's exactly as you say my arowana looks like its interested in pellets just that it can't swallow it for some reason. I cut mine to 4 pieces and it still have trouble eating it. As for soaking I tried soaking the pellets in vitamins and water and it dosen't seem to be much help, it still just spits the food back out. It's been 10 days since I received this arowana and started pellet training. The shop owner says they mainly feed live mealworms, and sometimes live shrimp and baby guppies. I'm just worried that it just doesn't have the jaw strength to chew it's food. I also tried feeding dried maggots but it also have trouble chewing it.
I can understand the anxiety. I think all aro keepers go through this. I am constantly checking for fin/scale damage or worried about lice/anchor worm etc. But I resist the temptation to add medication or do extra things (i kept discus for the last 7 years). Just keep doing what you are doing and it will eventually eat once it gets too hungry.
Another trick I did when I had discus was to shake the ziplock bag containing their flakes before I feed. After awhile, the discus will recognize that it's feeding time. I also do the same for arowanas. Now they get excited when I shake the ziplock bag and they will start to circle around where i drop the pellets.
Yeah, at fist I was like I can do it, what's so difficult about starving a fish. But after about a week the anxiety started to kick in, started worrying if it not eating is a sign of sickness or something or if it would rather starve to death than eat pellets haha. And I think you're right, I need to be patient. Imagine if I bought a new silver arowana to help pellet train and I end up with 2 arowanas that doesn't want pellets haha that would be a headache.
Exactly.... I don't have experience putting 2 arowanas. But based on my very very short experience of putting 5 arowanas and learning from the farms..... better to have at least 3 or more arowanas and don't add in arowanas one by one. This will help reduce the possibility of fights. Also they do fight more often when they are juveniles.
Well bad news, after two weeks of starvation I gave in and fed it live mealworms which it devoured. A few days ago it jumped and hit a pipe sustaining a little scratch, that got me worried so I decided to take a break from the starvation and feed it mealworms. Now he's completely healed and I'm not sure how to proceed, should i continue like before or i read somewhere that i should stuff my arowana so his stomach and apatite grow then starve him so he's more desperate for food.
well... you have to ask yourself why did you want to pellet train your fish in the first place? For myself, I have fed my discus with beef heart with great success but it comes with a price - I have to change water twice a week. Which was a tiring thing to do. So I converted them to eating flakes and that allowed me to only change water once a week and allowed me to enjoy discus keeping abit more.
So when I started with arowanas, I am quite sure I didn't want to change water so often and neither did I want to give live food to reduce associated problems with giving live food. Hence I decided that I will pellet train right at the start.
If you are still determined, you can consider doing what is recommended by Yi Hu ( https://www.yihufish.com/products-2...-series/ar-g1-pro-arowana-carnivorous-pellet/ ). They have a conversion tab that explains how to convert an arowana to pellets. I am feeding my arowanas a mixture of Hikari and AR-G1 pellets.
same reason, my goal is only doing water change once a week. In addition keeping live food is a hassle, not to mention the smell (worms). Pellets are easy to store and readily available not to mention i feel thats its more reliable. No chance of getting a bad batch and infecting my arowana.
