Arowana loves flakes?

I just got a 5 inch silver arowana today and he is in my 85 gallon bowfront for now. he is very healthy but when I feed him hikarI pellets he spits them out. I put in some flakes for my huge angelfish and he ate tons of them. Is this healthy for him? Should I go buy and try to feed him hikarI sticks instead?

 

HI welcome to Fishlore

Besides the over-whelming consensus on fishlore that arowanas should be left in the wild (or at the very least a 200 gallon + tank)

Morals aside, the arowana is a carnivore - provide a varied diet with pellet food, frozen food and they will definitely accept live food. (https://www.fishlore.com/profiles_silver_arowana.htm)

It is normal for a fish not to take to flakes/pellets immediately. It can take time for them to realise that it is indeed food. Do you know what it was reared on?

 

I know I am currently saveing up for an 11 foot tank haha this is just for the next year-2 years and I saw him eat a mix of pellets crickets and sticks in the pet store (I was monetoring his healt in the pet store for about a month so I saw him eat alot.

I am just wondering if it is okay for him to ocasionally eat tropical fishflakes?

 

A fish knows what is food and what isn't.

If it'll eat flakes, that's ok. I don't think there's anything in a high quality flake that would hurt an arow

 

Thread moved to the Freshwater Fish Forums/Arowana forum.

Good luck with your new fish!

 

Welcome to fishlore. It is great to see new people here with differant types of fish.

check out this website. It gives some great guidlines on feeding and how large an aquarium you need to house them. It does say eventually you will probably have to put it into a large public aquarium of some sort.

 

If your arowana turns into an adult, it might not eat flakes anymore. :/