Silver arowana advice needed

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freak78

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Jan 25, 2013
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Northwest, Indiana
Ok so a friend of mine is moving and he currently has a 6 inch silver arowana that he wants to give me. I have an established 55g tank I could put it in but for how long. I would love to put it in my 125 but I know that's temporary as well, and it will probably start eating my fish anyways out of the 125. Don't know if I should even try it.
 
Think i would have to pass, just not enof tank.
 
they are a cool fish, and they are worth more money the bigger they get, 6" isn't going to sell for much, so take it, grow it out in the 120. if you don't want to keep it, sell it. for people that keep arowana, if you lose a fish and or want another arowana they have to be close in size to keep together, even then its work to get them to adjust but supply and demand dictate that the larger arowana go for a good bit more money, least around here.

I really doubt it will eat any of your fish, less they have been raised on feeders, they prefer floating food and if you never feed live they shouldn't eat live. Bugs are preferred over fish, they are not that aggressive with other fish, least in my experience.

The only exception is top level fish. The only fish my arowana have ever eaten were other arowana. I've had 10 or so, and never had them eat any mid low level fish, and i feed floating pellets and frozen shrimp.

I have actually had one of my arowana fight a cichlid over a pellet that it could of easily swallowed, had no interest. Had another instance where a baby convict was dragging a shrimp into a hole and the arowana pulled the shrimp away from the convict and swam away. Idk your mileage may very. But only loss i've had to an arowana was when I put in a 4" with a 12", with in about 30 seconds the 12" swam to the button then shot up and ripped the 4" in half and he ate half and the half that sank was swallowed by a bichir.

Also on growth aggresstion, keeping your temperature on the lower end of the spectrum for the fish you keep will lower aggression and growth rate, raising has the opposite effect. I tend to keep everything at the highest temp that the fish in the tank can flourish. (83 in summer, 81 in winter have worked well for my stocking)

my main arowana was raised on feeders from previous owner, took a few weeks to get it on pellets, then shrimp and now i keep it with a few dozen fish it could swallow, has no interest.

My experience tells me Arowana only eat other fish when no other option is given.
 
Arowanas aren't great whites... I disagree with the above. And once it does out grow your tank it won't be easy to sell. If it was a rare fish maybe but it's common, and not many people have the ability to keep it. The aro will eat your fish if it is capable and wants to. It depends on the specimen really.
 
Arowanas aren't great whites... I disagree with the above. And once it does out grow your tank it won't be easy to sell. If it was a rare fish maybe but it's common, and not many people have the ability to keep it. The aro will eat your fish if it is capable and wants to. It depends on the specimen really.

True, could very well eat all your fish, but personally never had it happen with a silver arowana that wasn't raised on live food. Never had an issue selling one either. I have a hard time buying local when I want one over 12", just can't find them around here. Price and advertise it right and it'll move quick. Just don't expect someone to pay over $100 for a silver arowana, if you want to move it any time soon. So yes baby arowana are common, large arowana 12"+ for sale locally, not so common.

Rare or common, fish sell based on price and advertising, you can have a wild caught Panaque cochliodon eating prepared food but if you ask $6000 for it and don't offer to ship you are going to be waiting a long time to find a buyer. Same fish at $500 shipped internationally will sell same day.
 
Arowanas aren't great whites... I disagree with the above. And once it does out grow your tank it won't be easy to sell. If it was a rare fish maybe but it's common, and not many people have the ability to keep it. The aro will eat your fish if it is capable and wants to. It depends on the specimen really.
Way back when I had a silver that did the same thing to a black. The black wasn't ripped in half from the initial strike, but from the violent head thrashing afterwards. That same silver aro lived in a tank full of cichlids and other fish it could have easily eaten but never did.
 
Way back when I had a silver that did the same thing to a black. The black wasn't ripped in half from the initial strike, but from the violent head thrashing afterwards. That same silver aro lived in a tank full of cichlids and other fish it could have easily eaten but never did.
interesting, but I don't know if you were trying to denote what I said... I never said anything he claimed was impossible, I just didn't agree with it, majority over minority, and the majority of specimens aren't that aggro to where they rip another fish in half.. and I said that because he described the feeding behavior of a great white, aros form a s shape then strike much like snakes do. But as I always say, it really depends on the individual..
 
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