Small Black with Larger Silver, Attempt #1 failed

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S

slaran

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 16, 2007
12
0
0
los angeles
Hi guys, I have a 11 inch silver and a 6 inch black arowana (newly bought). I wanted a larger black but this was the biggest the seller had. Unfortunately, the black is less than half the mass of the silver so I knew there might be some problems.

I tried putting them together just today and the silver snapped at the black and I got the feeling it would kill him pretty easily. Well, they did swim together for awhile but then suddenly the snap attack.

I separated them and put the black into a smaller tank for now. I guess I could try to raise the black until he gets bigger at least and then try to reintroduce them.

Any recommendations?
 
Oh, and I have much smaller fish in the main tank with the silver and they all do fine. I have two small clown loaches (2 inches) and they have been all pals forever. I also added a snowball pleco today (2 inches) and they seem to all get along. The weird thing is that I tried to drop some cucumber twice into the tank for the pleco to eat and the silver arowana ate the cucumber pieces both times!

Are arowanas supposed to eat cucumber ??
 
if those r the only two, i recommend u make the community atleast three. the workers at my lfs i used to go to told me that they will fight if there is two, but will do better if 3 or more. i guess thats ur aro's personality.
 
I would put the black first then add the silver. Move some decor around. Good luck
 
i was told you can have one arowana or you can have 6 or more.. anything in between and you're asking for trouble. arowana are not schooling fish, they don't like the company of other arowana..
 
2 aro's together is almost impossible to maintain...add in a third, should do the trick, but follow closely
 
Before running out and buying 3 more aros, do you have or will you ever have a tank that will support 5 arowana?

As far`as waiting for the black to get bigger, you may have to wait awhile. Silver aros grow much quicker then black aros. In 6 months, most likely your silver will be in the 18 to 20" range and the black will be around 10 to 12". Not to mention the silver will carry much more mass then the black aro.

Even if you get two similar sized aros, there is only slime chance you'll get a pair to work. Nothing wrong with trying though, just be sure you have the adiquate size tanks for keeping the aros if they need be seperated.
 
if the blue is smaller then the the silver it will get a beatin.

I had to put 5 in my group all very close in size before it worked.
 
i had 2 together, for over a year. then they started fighting. i added in a 3rd and put them in a larger tank and 2 years later, they still bicker lol. but all over 26" the slight snapping does nothing. visually anyway. but let it be known, havaing 3 arowanas in 3 years you will have 3 full grown chihuahua girth sized fish swimming around. they do need some space.
 
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